Human Rights Council, 38th Session
26th June 2018
Agenda Item 4 – Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea
Speaker: Elizabeth Chyrum
Contacts: echyrum@aol.com (Speaker) derek.brett@ifor.org (Geneva office)
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation and Human Rights Concern –Eritrea thank the special rapporteur for her report.
She has been a vital in holding the Eritrean regime to account for its widespread violations. These include crimes against humanity. Despite 6 years of refusal of any access or co-operation, and endless denials of any wrong-doing, she has continued to present damning evidence of these abuses, and to amplify the voices of countless unheard victims crying out for justice.
In the face of sustained attacks on her mandate and even her person, with courage and determination she has continued to expose the catalogue of crimes, including deaths in custody, enforced disappearances, mass arrests and imprisonments, torture, indefinite national service, lack of freedom of expression and religion, shoot to kill at the borders, guilt by association and forced labour in mining corporations.
She has championed justice for victims, and compassion for refugees, stressing that impunity must not prevail.
As the Special Rapporteur has accurately contended, there is still no constitution in Eritrea, no parliament where laws can be debated and enacted, no independent judiciary system and no civil society.
When she asserts there have been no tangible human rights improvements over 6 years, given her unique vantage point there is no more credible voice. We at Human Rights Concern Eritrea can affirm without any reservations, “She speaks the truth for us all”.
Nothing has changed, the Eritrean people are still suffering, incommunicado detention persists and crimes against humanity continue. The mandate remains as important as ever and we strongly urge for it to be renewed under item 4.