IFOR speaks on the tragedy of the Eritrean refugees in the Tigray region and to the Eritrean indefinite National Service; 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

International Fellowship of Reconciliation - IFOR is participating in the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council which started on February 22nd.

Today, February 24th, IFOR Main representative to the UN in Geneva delivered a statement in the plenary of the Council, during the interactive dialogue with the new Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, who has been appointed in September 2020.

Dr. Mohammed Abdelsalam Babiker, originally from Sudan, is an Associate Professor of International Law, Dean of the School of Law at the University of Khartoum, and founding Director of its Human Rights Centre. He teaches human rights law, refugee law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law among others. Dr. Babiker is also a practicing lawyer and conducted international investigations in many countries in the Horn of Africa in the areas of human rights and international humanitarian law.

In addition to Dr. Babiker’s academic qualifications, he has extensive experience working with international human rights organizations and institutions, including the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU).

In December 2017, he was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as Humanitarian Expert with the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group. In December 2018, he was also appointed as the Humanitarian Expert with the Panel of Experts on Somalia. Dr. Babiker also worked as a Legal Advisor and a Human Rights Officer with UN and AU peacekeeping operations, as well as a number of UN agencies.

-Information available at the OHCHR website

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The Special Rapporteur presented to the Council his oral update on the situation of human rights in Eritrea which focused on the human rights of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in the context of the ongoing Tigray crisis in Ethiopia and the progress made in relation to the benchmarks set out in the reports of his predecessor. You can find the complete text of the oral update here.

IFOR took the floor after the States statements and referred to the humanitarian tragedy of the Eritrean refugees in the Tigray area and to the issue of the indefinite National Service.

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"Madam President,

 The International Fellowship of Reconciliation thanks the Special Rapporteur for his oral update.

The current situation in the region is dramatic, as reported also from our local partner organizations.

Refugee camps under international protection in the Tigray region, including schools, clinics and residential areas, have been systematically targeted and destroyed with the purpose of hindering their future usage[1]. In particular, the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps, which hosted refugees coming from Eritrea, have been under attack. The UNHCR acknowledges that 20,000 refugees are unaccounted for. Only around 3,000 refugees from Shimelba and Hitsats camps found their way to the other two refugee camps in the South of Tigray, Mai-Aini, and Adi-Harush, with an estimated 10.000 refouled to Eritrea. UNHCR warns that thousands of Eritrean refugees are still in need of urgent assistance[2]. 

We restate the concern regarding Eritrean migrants and refugees who often flee from the system of an indefinite National Service which presents practices that in many cases amount to forced labour.

We call on the international community to protect refugees and to withdraw from practices which reinforce such a system.

Thank you."

[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/93wmbz/refugee-camps-in-ethiopia-appear-to-have-been-systematically-destroyed

[2] https://www.voanews.com/africa/un-eritrean-refugees-tigray-face-humanitarian-crisis
Statement attributable to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on the situation of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2021/1/600052064/statement-attributable-un-highcommissioner-refugees-filippo-grandi-situation.html"

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The statement can be downloaded here.

You can watch the Interactive Dialogue here.

The UN briefing on the Interactive Dialogue referred to in this article is available here.

IFOR Submits Report on Eritrea to Human Rights Committee

IFOR's Main Representative to the UN in Geneva, Derek Brett, submitted a report on Eritrea to the 119th Session of the Human Rights Committee. The report specifically focused on matters of military service, conscientious objection and related human rights concerns in Eritrea. 

From the Report: 

Of all the world's states, Eritrea is the only one in which military service issues are widely considered to be one of the major human rights concerns.   Both men and women are subject to conscription; since 2002, under a situation of general mobilization, the period of service has been prolonged indefinitely.   Forced recruitment and abusive treatment within the military are widespread.  The right of conscientious objection is not recognized; the only way to escape enlistment is to leave the country.  Travel restrictions however mean that few citizens are able to do this legally, and it is believed that a “shoot to kill” policy is in place to prevent persons crossing the border clandestinely.  Nevertheless, almost throughout its independent existence Eritrea has, proportionate to population, suffered one of the largest refugee outflows in the world. 

To read the full report click here.