Eritrea: UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights gets another year

The UN Human Rights Council has called for the re-appointment of the Special Rapporteur, as well as welcoming her report and conclusions.

This was part of what she had to say: “Two years on from the peace deal between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the dividends of peace have yet to materialize for the Eritrean people. While Eritrea is engaging more actively in the international and regional scenes, the Eritrean authorities have yet to implement much-needed human rights reforms and open civic space in the country. The changes in regional dynamics have failed to translate into concrete and sustainable progress in human rights in Eritrea.”

Source: United Nations

	United Nations	A/HRC/44/L.8
	General Assembly		Distr.: Limited 13 July 2020   Original: English

Human Rights Council

Forty-fourth session

30 June–17 July 2020

Agenda item 2

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the
High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

                   Australia, Austria, Belgium,* Bulgaria, Canada,* Croatia,* Cyprus,* Czechia, Denmark, Estonia,* Finland,* France,* Germany, Greece,* Iceland,* Ireland,* Italy, Latvia,* Liechtenstein,* Lithuania,* Luxembourg,* Malta,* Monaco,* Montenegro,* Netherlands, North Macedonia,* Norway,* Poland, Romania,* Slovakia, Slovenia,* Spain, Sweden* and Switzerland*: draft resolution

44/…   Situation of human rights in Eritrea

The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other relevant international human rights instruments,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1 and 5/2, both of 18 June 2007, resolution 91 and decisions 250/2002, 275/2003 and 428/12 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and all previous Council resolutions on the situation of human rights in Eritrea,

Recalling also the important regional developments in recent years and the potential they bear for the development of human rights in Eritrea,

Welcoming the commitment of the Government of Eritrea to the Sustainable Development Goals, and its participation in the third cycle of the universal periodic review on 28 January 2019[1] and in the human rights dialogue with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on 14 February 2020,[2]

Welcoming also the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea[3] and her conclusions,

1. Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council at its forty-sixth session on progress made in the cooperation between Eritrea and the Office of the High Commissioner, and its impact on the situation of human rights in Eritrea;
2. Decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea for a further period of one year, and to continue to assess and report on the situation of human rights in follow-up to the report of the Special Rapporteur, and requests the Special Rapporteur to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council at its forty-sixth session during an interactive dialogue, and to present during an interactive dialogue a report on the implementation of the mandate to the Council at its forty-seventh session and to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;
3. Calls upon the Government of Eritrea to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur, including by granting access to the country and committing to making progress on the proposed benchmarks;[4]
4. Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the information and resources necessary to fulfil the mandate;
5. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

                                        

                        *   State not a member of the Human Rights Council.

                        [1]   A/HRC/41/14.

                        [2]   See CEDAW/C/ERI/CO/6.

                        [3]   A/HRC/44/23.

                        [4]   A/HRC/41/53, paras. 75–81.

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To their shame, a number of African nations abstained or voted against the UN Special Rapporteur being re-appointed.

Of course Eritrea was among them, but they include Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Cameroon, which voted no. Do the Sudanese and Somalis not care about the plight of their brothers and sisters in Eritrea?

Angola, Burkina Faso, the DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Senegal and Nigeria abstained.