A/HRC/26/45 ERN. Families survive through remittances from abroad, however, for those who do not get supplementary funds, it is a daily struggle to make ends meet. 68. Impact on families and communities: Conscripts are posted far from their families and homes, which makes it difficult to maintain personal contacts; for example, a teacher may be posted to a remote and distant location. Compulsory national service takes away sons who should be tending family farms, which causes financial crises in farming communities. By depriving families of labour and income, everyone is put in a situation of struggling to survive and to meet basic daily needs. Conscripts and soldiers are granted leave on a discretionary basis, which may be arbitrary, so that they often work longer than 12 months without being granted leave to visit their families; and they can be denied leave arbitrarily. If they overstay their leave, even for one day, or go on leave without permission, they are usually arrested and detained. C. National service constituting forced labour 69. A number of human rights instruments contain standards and principles relating to forced labour. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that no one shall be held in slavery and servitude (art. 4) and further states that everyone has the right to free choice of employment (art. 23, para. 1). Those rights are further developed in other United Nations instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 8) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art.6, para. 1), as well as in regional instruments, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (art. 5). Forced labour is also prohibited by the ILO Forced Labour Convention (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention 1957 (No. 105), both of which Eritrea has ratified. 70. Under international human rights law, conscription, per se, is not covered by the prohibition of forced labour. Indeed, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that “no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour” (art. 8, para. 3 (a), and for the purposes of that paragraph, the term “forced or compulsory labour” shall not include “any service of a military character” (art. 8, para. 3 (c) (ii)). 71. However, national service in Eritrea does not constitute service of a purely military character. Furthermore, conscription for military service is normally for a reasonable period of time, from one to three years, and not of an indefinite character. Since the length of national service in Eritrea is of an indefinite nature, it effectively constitutes forced labour as provided for in article 8, paragraph 3 (a) of the Covenant. 72. The ILO Committee of Experts has, on several occasions, discussed whether national service in Eritrea constitutes forced labour. Article 2 of ILO Convention No. 29 defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”. 73. National service in Eritrea is involuntary in nature, as explicitly stated in the National Service Proclamation: “any Eritrean citizen from 18 to 50 years of age has the obligation of carrying out national service” (art. 6). There are very few exemptions to this requirement (art. 12) and conscripts are recruited without their consent to perform military service. The compulsory nature of national service in Eritrea is further highlighted by the giffas, which are aimed at rounding up those who try to avoid conscription. Furthermore, the lack of conscientious objection demonstrates the absence of any element of voluntariness. 74. As of the age of 18 years, Eritreans are obliged to carry out national service, under threat of a penalty. Draft evaders and deserters are punished by harsh and arbitrary penalties, including detention, physical violence, sometimes amounting to torture, and the 14