A/HRC/29/42 of health and access to health care, in particular when they are required to perform dangerous work. 64. Many Eritreans, including under-age students, are also subject to forced labour outside national service. Elderly Eritreans are subject to forced labour in the context of their forced recruitment in the militia. The commission finds that the labour exacted from persons deprived of liberty by the Government also constitutes a form of forced labour prohibited under international human rights law. 65. Conscripts, students, elderly persons and prisoners are all forced to work under the threat of penalty or punishment. In the repressive context of Eritrea, refusal to perform such work is therefore not a possibility they would consider. The commission concludes that forced labour in this context is a practice similar to slavery in its effects and, as such, is prohibited under international human rights law. IV. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions 66. The commission finds that systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Government of Eritrea and that there is no accountability for them. The enjoyment of rights and freedoms are severely curtailed in an overall context of a total lack of rule of law. The commission also finds that the violations in the areas of extrajudicial executions, torture (including sexual torture), national service and forced labour may constitute crimes against humanity. The commission emphasizes that its present findings should not be interpreted as a conclusion that international crimes have not been committed in other areas. 67. Following up on practices developed during the liberation struggle, the PFDJ, the ruling and only party in Eritrea, has held on to power by progressively dismantling or refraining from implementing reforms aimed at establishing democracy and rule of law in the country. Through the establishment of control systems and the application of harsh repression, the PFDJ has eroded public freedoms and established a rule of fear that tolerates no opposition. It has blurred the lines between the three sources of constitutional authority by concentrating all power in the executive, and in particular in the figure of the President – who is also the head of the party, at the cost of the legislature and the judiciary. National elections have never been held. 68. The PFDJ has established a system by which an extraordinary number of individuals have the power to spy on Eritreans and conduct investigations and arrests often without observing the law. The proliferation of national security offices and of officers assigned to administrative offices but with an intelligence mandate – and their overlap with the party’s own intelligence and with military intelligence – is a major concern. 69. What was meant to be the supreme law of the country, the Constitution of 1997, has never been implemented. The National Assembly stopped convening in 2002. Even while it was sitting, laws were passed by government decree (“Proclamation”); since 2002, it has been the exclusive way to promulgate legislation. It is of particular concern that some important policies adopted by the Government, including those severely affecting individual rights and freedoms, are not embodied in law; they are simply “announced” by government media or in messages passed on by local administrations and implemented in practice, with all the ambiguities of such a procedure. This modus operandi has undermined the legitimate expectations of 14