Amnesty A to Z: E For Eritrea
Oven building in an Eritrean camp for internally displaced persons, Red Cross
Government intolerance towards any forms of independent press, religious organizations, and the majority of civil society activity has created an environment of aggressive legal policies that deny prisoners any form of representation in a court of law
Eritrea, located in north-eastern Africa, has long been a nation plagued with political unrest resulting in public health and human rights violations. Of Eritrea’s population of approximately 5 million individuals, almost half of this population is reliant on international food aid support and nearly 85,000 children were identified as suffering from the long term health affects of malnourishment.
Recently, political and military unrest such as armed conflict between Eritrean and Djibouti forces has exacerbated turbulence in the region. Furthermore, Eritrea’s role as host to the Asmara wing of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and position as subsequent transit point providing weapons and ammunition to Somalia has created a militarily volatile region.
In addition to this, one of the greatest issues facing Eritrea’s human rights policies is the transparency of legal proceedings and grounds for arrest. Government intolerance towards any forms of independent press, religious organizations, and the majority of civil society activity has created an environment of aggressive legal policies that deny prisoners any form of representation in a court of law.
Religious freedom has remained a major source of concern and contention in the small nation state of Eritrea. Since 2002, more than 2,000 individuals belonging to unregistered minority religions such as Pentecostal and evangelical denominations, and other members of registered religious groups such as Islam and the Eritrean Orthodox Church, have been detained without any promise of trial or formal charges.
As of 2001, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, many of whom are charged with affiliation with and support of opposition groups such as the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) or have returned to the country as failed asylum seekers have been held without any formal charges.
Asylum seekers often fall victim to Eritrea’s uncompromising approach to dissidents of the state. From 2007 onwards, nations such as Egypt were purportedly returned over a thousand Eritrean asylum seekers into the hands of Eritrean authorities. While some pregnant women and children were released, the majority of detainees were held for the remainder of the year in the remote Wia military prison where they remained in danger of torture, violence, and poor living conditions. Furthermore, over 700 Eritrean men, women, and children extradited from Libya were held in detention facilities within Libya under threat of forcible return Eritrea. In addition to political and religious dissidents and asylum seekers, many journalists have been held incommunicado without charge. Concordantly, there has been no functioning private press in the country since 2001.
Within detention centres and prisons, treatment of prisoners has been documented as inhumane, often employing methods of torture and physical abuse as forms of punishment. Reports of such poor treatment include forms of punishment implemented in secret prisons such as Karachele and Asmara which include poor sanitation and living conditions, exposure to intense sunlight and heat, and lack of any forms of medical attention. Recent reported deaths include that of member of the evangelical Full Gospel Church, Teklesenbet Gebreab Kiflom, who was denied medical treatment of malaria while housed at Wia military prison and succumbed to the disease as a result.
Generally, Eritrea’s treatment of prisoners, whether political/religious dissidents or asylum seekers and journalists, has fallen short of the international community’s standard for the humane treatment of those individuals held in detention. Transparency and accountability of legal proceedings in addition to freedom of public expression are all areas in which Eritrea continues to come into conflict with international human rights standards.