A/HRC/32/47 44. The commission also received disturbing reports about discrimination against the minority Afar and Kunama ethnic groups. These reports require further investigation. 7. Sexual and gender-based violence 45. The commission found that sexual and gender-based violence persists in Eritrea. It heard evidence that some cases of rape committed by men against women in local communities had been adjudicated by courts, and the perpetrators had been sentenced to imprisonment. However, rape and domestic servitude in military training centres and in the army, and rape in detention, go unpunished. Women and girls who try to flee the country are at greater risk of sexual and gender-based violence. The commission documented recent cases of women and girls, arrested by soldiers guarding the border, who were forced to strip naked and subjected to acts of sexual violence. 46. Rapes often resulted in physical and/or mental suffering and pain and, in some instances, to unwanted pregnancies or sexually-transmitted diseases, such as HIV, consequences that in turn gave rise to further human rights violations and discrimination. 47. Detention continues to have a discriminatory effect on women, given that the special needs of pregnant and nursing mothers and women with children in detention continue to be neglected. In some recent instances, this has resulted in miscarriage or infant illness. 48. Harmful practices, such as the forced marriage of underage girls, including as a result of poverty, persist in Eritrea, even though the legal minimum age for marriage is 18 years. Discrimination against women intersects with other human rights violations. Girls continue to be removed from school and/or forced into marriages arranged by their families in order for them to avoid the harsh conditions and the possibility of sexual abuse in national service training centres. Female and child relatives of men who have been subjected to an enforced disappearance are often victims of various forms of discrimination. 49. Sexual violence against men continues in detention. Men’s sexual organs are often targeted for beating or electric shock, in some instances with the intent of ensuring that the victim will no longer be able to reproduce. 8. Right to life 50. The commission found that, in Eritrea, the Government violates the right to life in two ways: (a) by committing extrajudicial killings; and (b) by subjecting Eritrean citizens to abysmal conditions of detention and national service, in which death is a foreseeable consequence. 51. The commission obtained reliable evidence that the shoot-to-kill policy at Eritrean borders targeting Eritreans attempting to flee the country is still in force, even though it is not implemented as rigorously as in the past. Other types of extrajudicial killings have also been confirmed; for example, on 3 April 2016, as military/national service conscripts were being transported through the centre of Asmara, several conscripts jumped from the trucks on which they were travelling. Soldiers fired into the crowd, killing and injuring an unconfirmed number of conscripts and bystanders. 52. The commission also received recent information about deaths in detention and in the course of military service owing to the State’s callous disrespect for human life. 9. Freedom of expression, assembly and association 53. In its first report, the commission reported extensively on violations of freedom of expression, assembly and association. It heard evidence that suggested that there has been no material improvement in the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. 9

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