Eritrea: Joint Oral Statement on the Situation of Freedom of Expression in Eritrea issued by PEN International and PEN Eritrea

Image courtesy of PEN Eritera

31 October: Joint Oral Statement on the Situation of Freedom of Expression in Eritrea issued by PEN International and PEN Eritrea at the 77th Ordinary Session of the African Commission held in Arusha, Tanzania  (20 October – 9 November 2023) 

Honourable Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), all honourable Commissioners, state and non-state delegates, civil society colleagues - all protocols observed. PEN International, the worldwide association of writers, jointly with PEN Eritrea in exile, make this statement to express our grave concerns on the continuing dire situation of freedom of expression in Eritrea.

We make this statement to redraw attention to the systemic impunity with which the authorities of Eritrea have acted towards their citizens, and to calls by local, regional, and international mandated bodies and human rights organizations for the Eritrean state to uphold its regional and international human rights obligations.

Specifically, we wish to bring back to the attention of the African Commission the case of journalists, media workers and writers who have been held in arbitrary, incommunicado detention since the September/October 2001 crackdown by Eritrean authorities on the free press and dissent. We echo the voices, cries, and hopes of their families, and we call them by their names because they are not forgotten: Said Abdelkader; Yusuf Mohamed Ali; Amanuel Asrat; Temesgen Ghebreyesus; Mathewos Habteab; Dawit Habtemichael; Medhanie Haile; Dawit Isaak; Fessehaye Yohannes; Seyoum Tsehaye; Idris Said; and Sahle Tsegazeab. For twenty-two years, they have all been kept away from their families and society, detained without trial. For more than two decades, the state of Eritrea has continued to refuse to account for their plight and whereabouts.

More journalists, writers, and artists were similarly arrested and detained after the 2001 crackdown. Since then, all media operating within Eritrea is state-owned and editorially directed by the Ministry of Information. There have been concerns that some of the detained individuals may have died in custody. Like it was when we last made a statement to the Commission in October 2018, it remains a challenge to verify such information as the Eritrean state continues to ignore requests to release details about those it unlawfully imprisons. Additionally, the Eritrean state has not replied to repeated enquiries made by the African Commission or the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.

Media freedom and freedom of expression in Eritrea continue to be under relentless attack with the latest World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders ranking Eritrea at 174 out of 180 assessed countries. Eritrea has been described as an autocratic state and among the most dangerous countries to be a journalist, a media worker and even to simply criticize government policies. The state of Eritrea highly restricts information flow through calculated internet and mobile network restrictions and disruptions to prevent citizens from accessing independent digital media platforms.

PEN International and PEN Eritrea are concerned that despite sustained calls by Eritrean citizens, the regional and global human rights community – including efforts by mechanisms of the African Commission; the UN Human Rights Council; literary organizations; human rights NGOs and media freedom organizations, the consistent response of the Eritrean authorities has been official denial, dismissal, gaslighting and impunity.

The African Commission has in the past found the State of Eritrea to be in violation of the African Charter and other relevant international human rights standards relating to the detention of individuals for their legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression and to disseminate opinions within the law.

On 26 July 2023 the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention published an opinion on the case of one of the detained writers and journalists, Dawit Isaak. The Working Group found his detention to be arbitrary, and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The opinion vindicated previous conclusions by PEN International and other human rights and media freedom organizations that the detained individuals have been held by the authorities in circumstances amounting to enforced disappearance and referred the case of Dawit Isaak and his colleagues to the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. PEN International and PEN Eritrea welcome this step.

Eritrea is party to the African Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These treaties oblige Eritrea to protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as well as other human rights. Yet, perennially, the state of Eritrea has acted in breach of its international and regional human rights obligations. As PEN International and other rights groups have so often highlighted, the Eritrean government openly violates them as state policy and with impunity.

We urge the African Commission to keep the situation of Eritrea on its agenda, to continue monitoring the human rights situation in the country and to spare no effort within its mandate to hold the state of Eritrea to account on all its human rights obligations.

 PEN International and PEN Eritrea therefore reiterate our calls upon the state of Eritrea to:

·        Reveal the whereabouts and fate of all detained writers, journalists, media workers, artists, and government critics;

·        Immediately and unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained and disappeared journalists, writers, artists, and government critics and provide all those still alive with independent medical assessments and access to adequate medical treatment;

·        Create and protect constitutional, legal, policy and civic conditions essential for the re-establishment of an independent Eritrean media and civil society as essential pillars of a democratic society, and as a first step, for the authorities to pave the way for the Constitution of Eritrea that was ratified by a Constituent Assembly on 23 May 1997 to enter into force;

·        Comply with its regional and international human rights obligations relating to freedom of expression; the rights to life and liberty and security of person; the right to a fair trial; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment - including by unconditionally releasing all political prisoners, including writers, journalists, artists, and civil society activists.

For more information, please contact Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region for PEN International at nduko.omatigere@pen-international.org  and Tel: +44 204 506 1087 ext. 217.