Mr. President,
Excellencies,
I would like to update the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Eritrea, since the enhanced interactive dialogue in 2024.
According to the Government, steps have been taken towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely in the areas of education and health.
In 2024, the Government, in partnership with the UN system, reportedly provided essential health services to more than 1 million newborns, children, and women. Eritrea reports 95 per cent immunisation coverage among children.
The authorities also report that there were 2,351 schools in 2023, up from 1,930 in 2015. Enrolments at the primary, middle, and secondary levels have also reportedly increased. Gender parity is reported to have been attained at primary level, and efforts are being made to increase girls’ participation at higher levels.
Eritrea further reported that it had conducted a mapping study of girls who had undergone female genital mutilation, FGM, in 2024 on 1,086 villages, which revealed that only 2.3 % under the age of 5 and 4.4% of girls under 15 had undergone FGM. Currently, 12 of Eritrea’s 67 sub-zones are FGM free, according to the government.
Eritrea also ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in December 2024.
I recognize the good work being accomplished by the UN Country Team in support of the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals for all Eritreans.
Our teams in Nairobi and Addis-Ababa are ready to support Eritrea to implement the commitments undertaken last year during its Universal Periodic Review, including those on peace, justice and on supporting stronger institutions.
Despite these reported improvements, serious concerns remain.
Eritrea continues to subject its citizens to indefinite military service, contrary to international human rights norms and to calls from this Council and other human rights mechanisms. Within the context of the system of indefinite forced conscription other grave human rights violations are also of concern, including torture, sexual and gender-based violence and abusive labour practices. The system further compels many young people to flee the country on perilous journeys, exposing them to high risks of sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of human rights violations.
Eritrea has so far not heeded this Council’s call to limit the national service to the statutory period of 18 months. In addition, no steps have been taken to stop the inhumane practice of punishing family members for the actions of draft deserters.
More broadly, our Office continues to receive credible reports of torture; arbitrary detention; inhumane detention conditions; enforced disappearances; and restrictions on the rights to freedoms of expression, of association, and of peaceful assembly.
Many politicians, journalists, religious believers and draft deserters are held in incommunicado detention. Detention without trial remains the norm in Eritrea.
Mr. President,
Eritrea has so far not undertaken any credible steps to reform its legal and justice systems in line with international standards.
Neither have we seen any evidence of political will to tackle impunity for past human rights violations, including those documented by the Commission of Inquiry in 2014 and in 2016) nor the more recent ones by the Joint OHCHR-Ethiopia Human Rights Commission Investigation Team in 2023 for serious human rights violations committed by Eritrean Defence Forces in the context of the Tigray conflict. This impunity continues to embolden perpetrators of human rights violations.
In the current context, there is no likely prospect that the domestic judicial system will hold perpetrators accountable for the violations committed in the context of the Tigray conflict and in other cases.
Moreover, the Eritrean Defence Forces are in violation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed in November 2022 that called for the withdrawal of international forces from Ethiopian territory. Our Office has credible information that Eritrean Defence Forces remain in Tigray and are committing violations, including abductions, rape, property looting, and arbitrary arrests. I call for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean Defence Forces from Tigray.
Excellencies,
Against this backdrop, Eritrea’s engagement with human rights mechanisms is all the more important.
Eritrea was reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child earlier this year, which noted some progress as well as challenges in several areas, including freedom of expression, religion and corporal punishment.
Our Office calls on Eritrea to extend full cooperation to international human rights mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, and the relevant thematic Special Procedures mandate holders, namely those who have requested a visit, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.
Our Office also calls on Eritrea to submit overdue reports to the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Committee Against Torture.
We stand ready to work with Eritrea to implement, in good faith, its commitment to strengthen our engagement. This includes work on the five areas identified jointly following our last technical visit in May 2022, namely (1) enhancing rights as part of a transformative justice system; (2) the harmonisation of “indigenous or traditional laws” in line with international and regional human rights norms; (3) support to a regional conference on traditional justice; (4) enhancing the rights and protection of persons with disabilities; and (5) capacity building on effective engagement with UN human rights mechanisms.
The Office urges Member States to continue encouraging and facilitating Eritrea’s engagement with the Office, the Human Rights Council, and its mechanisms.
Thank you.
