A/HRC/RES/32/24
Deeply concerned that the situation of human rights in Eritrea is a primary factor in
the increasing number of Eritreans leaving their country, often facing risks of abduction,
abhorrent physical and mental abuse and other ill-treatment on their migration path,
including abuses by smugglers and human traffickers, while welcoming the participation of
the Government of Eritrea in multilateral forums to discuss trafficking,
Noting with deep concern the commission’s findings regarding persecution on both
religious and ethnic grounds, including its assessment that there are reasonable grounds to
believe that Eritrean officials have intentionally and severely deprived Eritrean Kunama
and Afar persons of the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms and
that, at a minimum, the persecution of members of non-authorized religious denominations
persists,
1.
Welcomes with appreciation the work of the commission of inquiry on
human rights in Eritrea,1 stresses the importance of the information it has collected in
support of future accountability, and urges the Government of Eritrea to take immediate
and concrete steps to implement its recommendations;
2.
Welcomes the oral update of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in Eritrea to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-first session on the issue
of unaccompanied Eritrean children, and recognizes the special protection needs of
unaccompanied children fleeing Eritrea and who are subjected to violations and abuses of
human rights such as, inter alia, trafficking, abduction for ransom, sexual violence and
torture;
3.
Condemns in the strongest terms the reported systematic, widespread and
gross human rights violations that have been and are being committed by the Government
of Eritrea in a climate of generalized impunity;
4.
Condemns in particular the arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances,
enslavement, torture, killing, sexual violence, discrimination on the basis of religion and
ethnicity and reprisals for the alleged conduct of family members, and the human rights
violations in the context of indefinite national service, including those involving forced
labour, the forced military conscription of children and sexual violence;
5.
Expresses its deep concern at the severe restrictions on the rights to freedom
to hold opinions and expression, freedom to seek, receive and impart information, liberty of
movement, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and freedom of peaceful assembly
and association, and at the detention of journalists, human rights defenders, political actors,
religious leaders and practitioners in Eritrea;
6.
Reiterates its numerous calls upon the Government of Eritrea, without delay:
(a)
To end its use of arbitrary detention of persons in Eritrea, and to end the use
of torture or other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment;
(b)
To account for and release all political prisoners, including the members of
the G-15 reform group and journalists;
(c)
To account for those detained in the aftermath of the takeover on 21 January
2013 of the building housing the Ministry of Information, and either to release them or to
ensure that they are given a fair and transparent trial without undue delay and with full
respect for minimum fair-trial guarantees;
(d)
To ensure free, fair and equal access to an independent and impartial court to
challenge the lawfulness of any detention, and to improve prison conditions, including by
prohibiting the use of underground cells and shipping containers to hold prisoners, ending
the use of secret detention centres and the practice of incommunicado detention, allowing
3
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents