Africa’s Silence is Prolonging Eritrean Suffering — Time to Stand for Justice, Not Impunity
Your Excellencies,
The people of Eritrea continue to suffer in silence, enduring severe and systematic human rights violations at the hands of their own government. What intensifies this pain is the silence of their African brothers and sisters. The African Group at the Human Rights Council, by choosing political solidarity and non-interference over justice and human dignity, has abandoned the very people it is morally and regionally bound to protect.
This is not a matter of political opinion; it is about real people. Behind every report, every resolution, and every legal decision, there are human beings, Eritreans, with names, families, and dreams. People who have been tortured, disappeared, silenced, and buried in secret prisons for nothing more than speaking the truth or calling for reform. The African Group’s lack of empathy and solidarity with the victims, and alignment with their oppressors, is being witnessed and remembered by the Eritrean people. This silence is not neutral, it is a statement, and that statement is one of abandonment.
1. Eritrea has ignored three binding African Commission decisions
- Communication 250/2002 – Liesbeth Zegveld & Others v. Eritrea (2003): Concerned 11 former senior government officials (the “G-15”) detained in 2001 for peacefully calling for the implementation of the 1997 Constitution and democratic reforms. The African Commission found their incommunicado detention a clear violation and called for their immediate release and compensation.
- Communication 275/2003 – Article 19 v. Eritrea (2007):Addressed the incommunicado detention of 18 independent journalists, including dual Swedish citizen Dawit Isaak, who were simply fulfilling their professional duty to report the news. The Commission ordered their release, legal access, and compensation.
- Communication 428/2012 – Dawit Isaak v Eritrea (2018): Reaffirmed the earlier ruling and repeated its call for his immediate release, fair trial, and redress.
To this day, Eritrea ignores all three decisions. The victims remain disappeared or imprisoned incommunicado without trial, and their families are left without answers.
2. UN mechanisms were initiated by African leadership—now abandoned
It was African states—Somalia and Djibouti—who led the way in creating the international response to Eritrea’s abuses:
- In 2012, they initiated the creation of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.
- In 2014, they again took leadership in establishing the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Eritrea.
- In 2016, the COI concluded that Eritrean authorities had committed crimes against humanity, including enslavement, torture, enforced disappearance, persecution, and sexual violence.
Yet today, the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is sponsored not by African states, but by the European Union. Somalia and Djibouti have withdrawn, not because of any improvements in Eritrea, but due to shifting regional politics. African leadership has been replaced by European concern, while Eritrea defies all cooperation and accountability.
Eritrea has refused to cooperate with both mandates, barred access to independent investigators, and dismissed the findings of successive rapporteurs and the COI. Today, it actively campaigns to terminate the mandate of the Special Rapporteur altogether, despite making no meaningful human rights improvements, while continuing to reject cooperation and accountability.
This mandate has been one of the only consistent mechanisms monitoring the grave and systematic violations and abuses in Eritrea. It has helped preserve the truth, amplify the voices of victims, and ensure that the situation in Eritrea remains on the international agenda. For Eritrean victims and survivors, the mandate is not merely symbolic—it is essential.
The mandate must be renewed. Failing to do so would abandon Eritrean victims and send a dangerous message: that the world is willing to ignore entrenched crimes against humanity.
3. Eritrea’s UPR participation is a performance, not reform
Eritrea has engaged in four Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycles and has accepted dozens of recommendations. Yet it has failed to implement even the ones it accepted, including:
- Ending indefinite national service,
- Cooperating with UN human rights mechanisms.
- Ensuring basic civil liberties.
Eritrea treats participation in the UPR as a shield against scrutiny, not a genuine pathway to reform.
4. No local remedy, no rule of law, no hope of justice
Eritrea has no independent judiciary. Victims cannot file a case in court. Families cannot even ask about the whereabouts of their loved ones without risking persecution. The Eritrean people are denied all legal avenues—national, regional, and international.
5. The African Group must choose: complicity or courage
As signatories to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African states have a responsibility not to shield violators, and to protect victims. By remaining silent:
- You undermine the African Commission’s authority;
- You reward Eritrea’s obstructionism.
- You betray the ideals of the African Union and the Charter you helped create.
6. We respectfully urge the African Group to:
- Support the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea;
- Acknowledge and call for the implementation of ACHPR decisions 250/2002, 275/2003, and 428/2012.
- Affirm that real African solidarity means standing with victims, not protecting abusers.
The world is watching. And so are the Eritrean people.
Your silence is seen as abandonment. Your courage, if shown, will be remembered as justice.
Respectfully,
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
