A/HRC/29/42 25. In the present report, the commission shows how the initial promises of democracy and rule of law, incarnated in the never-implemented Constitution of 1997, were progressively suppressed then extinguished by the Government on the pretext of threats to its existence. It details how the Government has created and sustained repressive systems to control, silence and isolate individuals in the country, depriving them of their fundamental freedoms. It shows how information collected on people’s activities, their supposed intentions and even conjectured thoughts is used to rule through fear in a country where individuals are routinely arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured, disappeared or extrajudicially executed. The commission also describes how, under the pretext of defending the integrity of the State and ensuring its self-sufficiency, Eritreans are subject to systems of national service and forced labour that effectively abuse, exploit and enslave them for indefinite periods of time. 26. Faced with a seemingly hopeless situation they feel powerless to change, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans are fleeing their country. In desperation, they resort to deadly escape routes through deserts and neighbouring war-torn countries and across dangerous seas in search of safety. They risk capture, torture and death at the hands of ruthless human traffickers. To ascribe their decision to leave solely to economic reasons is to ignore the dire situation of human rights in Eritrea and the very real suffering of its people. Eritreans are fleeing severe human rights violations in their country and are in need of international protection. A. 1. Controlled, silenced and isolated Surveillance of the population in violation of the right to privacy 27. Through its extensive spying and surveillance system targeting individuals within the country and in the diaspora, the Government engages in the systematic violation of the right to privacy. It employs all means, including harassment, intimidation and the abusive use of a coupon system originally created to allow access to subsidized goods in government shops, to collect information about Eritreans. Pervasive spying and surveillance in Eritrea go beyond the needs of national security or crime prevention and are arbitrary. 28. As a result of this mass surveillance, Eritreans live in constant fear that their conduct is or may be monitored by security agents, and that information gathered may be used against them leading to arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, disappearance or death. They therefore engage in self-censorship with regard to most aspects of their lives. They do so because it is impossible for an individual to know what activities may be considered “deviant” and sanctionable at a specific moment in time and what the consequences for such activities might then be. The existence of such a pervasive control system generates a general climate of fear and mistrust in communities and even within families. In the words of one witness, “When I am in Eritrea, I feel that I cannot even think because I am afraid that people can read my thoughts and I am scared.” The end result is a severe curtailment of the exercise of all other rights and freedoms. 2. Freedom of movement 29. The Government strives to control strictly any human movement both internally and for those who wish to leave the country, in particular to ensure that individuals fulfil their national service obligations. To do so, it has established an intricate system of travel permits and identity cards, which must be produced during identity checks to verify an individual’s status with regard to compulsory national service and that person’s authorization to travel. The Government controls who may leave Eritrea legally through the 6