Human Rights Concern - Eritrea (HRCE) is an independent non profit making, human rights organization based in UK. The organization is dedicated to the promotion and protection of the human rights of Eritreans at home and all over the world. HRCE believes that all human beings are equal regardless of race, religion, gender and political affiliation and strives for a peaceful Eritrea where fundamental human rights are respected.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE KNESSET COMMITTEE IN ISRAEL WHO HAVE ENDORSED THE ANTI-INFILTRATION BILL
The text of the bill contains the following provisions: Automatic Criminalization of any person’s entry into Israel without a permit – with no discernment or consideration of the circumstances of his or her entry.
The Security Council,Recalling its previous resolutions and statements of its President concerning the situation in Somalia and the border dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea, in particular its resolutions 751 (1992), 1844 (2008), 1862 (2009), 1907 (2009), 1916 (2009), 1998 (2011), and 2002 (2011), and its statement s of 18 May 2009 (S/PRST/2009/15), 9 July 2009 (S/PRST/2009/19), 12 June 2008 (S/PRST/2008/20),
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Elsa Chyrum’s speech during a side-meeting at the HRC’s 18th Session, Room XXIII – Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland on 20 September 2011
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Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE), Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) today called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to conduct a thorough investigation into the wide-ranging human rights violations committed in Eritrea.
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There has recently been a concerted campaign to rally Erirteans in diaspora in protest against the Security Council sanction imposed on Eritrea.
This has involved thousands of emails, faxes, phone calls and signatures on petition brought about by the usual regime cadres, supporters and in the embassies exercising their authority on diaspora Eritreans.
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A protest vigil was held outside the Eritrean Embassy on Thursday 26th May 2011 to remember those who have been imprisoned for religious reasons over the past nine years . In 2002, Minority Christian Churches in Eritrea began to be closed down and worshippers to be persecuted. This persecution extended itself over the years to Orthodox Church leaders and worshippers. Patriarch Antonius has been under house arrest since 2006, with no access to medical care despite his bad health. At least three other leaders are also imprisoned. »
Four Eritrean refugees were burnt to death, and one was critically injured, after their tents were deliberately set on fire at a Tunisian refugee camp close to the Libyan border in the early hours of Sunday 22 May. »
As an activist for Human Rights Concern – Eritrea, I believe that we have to fight against the tyranny of Isaias Afewerki’s regime in any way possible – but, I don’t believe in demonstrating just for show. »
Eritrea is a one-party state that became independent in 1993 after its citizens voted for independence from Ethiopia, following 30 years of civil war. The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), previously known as the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, is the sole political party and has controlled the country since 1991. The country’s president, Isaias Afwerki, who heads the PFDJ and the armed forces, dominated the country. The government continued to postpone general elections which have not taken place since independence in 1993. The government continued to use border disputes with Ethiopia and Djibouti as a pretext for curbing human right and civil liberties. Although civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, consistent and systemic gross human rights violations persisted unabated at the government’s behest. »
Still Waiting for Sanctions on Eritrea for Human Rights Abuses
As we celebrate International Human Rights Day, we welcome the Security Council Sanctions on Eritrea as a means of bringing to light some of the human rights abuses being perpetrated every day on Eritreans in Eritrea and in some of the countries they flee to, but we would welcome a more human-rights based approach focussing on the internal terrorism inflicted on the Eritrean people.
Notorious Human Smuggler Shot Dead; 611 Eritreans Released
Posted on November 17, 2011 by Gedab News
Suleiman Abdellah Necklawi, aka “The Sultan”, a notorious Egyptian human smuggler, was killed in a shoot-out by Bedouins of another tribe. Consequently, according to the UNHCR and EveryOne Group, 611 Eritrean refugees who had been held hostage in Egypt’s Sinai have crossed safely to Israel.
What you are about to read is a transcript of an interview given to Human Rights Concern – Eritrea by Mr Eyob Bahta who was a prison guard from September 2001 until his escape from Eritrea in 2010.
A few months ago, a number of workers from Bisha-Nevsun Project (owned by the Eritrean government and Canada’s Nevsun Resources Ltd.) have managed to escape to Ethiopia, and they are now living in one of the refugee camps located in Tigray. Two of them, Abadi Ghebremeskel and Legesse Berhe, have been extensively interviewed so far. HRCE (Human Rights Concern Eritrea) has kindly provided us with the audio version of those interviews. In due time, we will provide the video version of the interview. Since the interviews are about three hours long and conducted in Tigrigna language, below we are summarizing them in English in a categorical manner, supplemented with our interpretation of what is going on the ground based on the data extracted from the interviews. The content of this summary depends on the interviews in the audios and follow-ups.
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“They threatened to kill me and my husband if we did not pay,” she said. “They did not beat me, but other people were told to take off their clothes and were beaten. At the end, they separated the women from the men; they came in the night and took two girls. When the girls came back they were crying. The others did not ask what happened to them because they knew they had been raped.”
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The Eritrean government in its usual high-handed way has fallen foul of the British authorities in an attempt to treat British citizens with the same inhuman and illegal disdain that it extends to its own populace. For more than five months, four Britons have been detained incommunicado without access to any consular services or legal help. »
I am alarmed that unsubstantiated reports originating with the Everyone Group in Rome have been irresponsibly published on the internet and dispersed elsewhere: (article can be found here) »
The United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office released its “Human Rights And Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report in March 2011. The reports includes a detailed analysis of the status of human rights and democracy in 26 “countries of concern” which, of course, includes Eritrea. Also included in the 26 countries of concern are Libya, Syria and Yemen–countries whose regimes are being rocked by their long-suffering citizens. You can find the entire report at here The report on Eritrea begins on page 194, which we have extracted below. »
Head of state and government
Isaias Afewerki
Death penalty
abolitionist in practice
Population
5.1 million
Life expectancy
59.2 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f)
78/71 per 1,000
Adult literacy
64.2 per cent
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YOU ARE NEXT, ISAIAS!
Now that the eyes of the world are on those who wish, as we Eritreans do, to depose the dictator, there has never been a better moment to demonstrate and protest publicly. With this in mind, and ignoring freezing weather, a 20-strong group of mainly Eritrean protesters gathered outside the Eritrean Embassy in Islington yesterday, the 28th February. Unfortunately, this will not go down as a historic day in Eritrea, but it is a new beginning at a time when we should really seize the moment that the spirit of the times seems to be offering us. Isaias Afewerki is a dictator every bit as bad as Mubarak and Gaddaffi, the main difference being that he has a much lower media profile and this is our opportunity to raise that profile by protesting in public and letting the world know at this time when it seems to be watching that we have the worst tyrant in Africa and he must go, and he must go NOW!
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea
London, U.K
1 March 2011