A/HRC/38/50 Eritrean economy slowed more sharply than expected due to dwindling economic activities and poor weather conditions that adversely affected agricultural productivity. 81. During the reporting period, limitations regarding the amount people were allowed to withdraw from their bank accounts on a monthly basis remained in place, restricted to 5,000 nakfa. These limitations were first introduced in the context of the nakfa currency exchange programme in November 2015, when the Government decided to exchange old nakfa currency notes for new ones. The restrictions continued to hinder economic activity and further contributed to a negative business environment. The World Bank 2018 Doing Business report highlights the country’s unattractive business environment, ranking Eritrea at 189 out of 190 economies assessed.11 82. The Special Rapporteur received information that numerous small businesses were shut down during the reporting period, essentially depriving all those concerned of their livelihoods, namely the owners of coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, pharmacies, photography studios, workshops and clothing stores, their employees and their families. Reportedly, in Asmara and other cities, such as Keren, some 300 businesses have been shut down since November 2017. Many of the affected business owners were not formally informed of the reasons for the closures: they found that their small enterprises were sealed off overnight with a so-called “taashigu”, a note from the Ministry of Local Government, pasted on the door. 1. Access to affordable and adequate housing 83. During an interview with Eritrea Television (ERi-TV) on 10 May 2018, the Minister of Land, Water and Environment, Tesfay Ghebresellasie, provided details regarding the number of houses demolished by the Eritrean authorities, arguing they had been built “illegally” or were “sold illegally”.12 In total, 2,398 houses were pulled down in four regions: Maekel (1,490); Debub (444); Gash-Barka (403); and Anseba (61). Both the Special Rapporteur and the commission of inquiry documented demolitions that had taken place in different cities in 2015 and 2016. It is unclear whether the Government intends to continue with demolitions. 84. Assuming that each house was inhabited on average by six persons, the total number of people made homeless by the demolitions would be 14,388, a figure that would include children, women and the elderly. Those affected by the demolitions are exposed to an array of additional violations of their fundamental economic, social and cultural rights, including with regard to education, health services, water and sanitation. 85. The human cost of these demolitions has been immense, compounding an already acute shortage of adequate housing in urban areas, especially in Asmara. This cost includes the disruption of family life; the temporary, and in certain circumstances permanent, interruption of children’s education; further impoverishment and the devastation of individuals’ entire lifetime investments; and displacement. 86. The Special Rapporteur has information about housing projects in Halibet and Sembel, where the prices of apartments range from roughly $20,000 to $75,000 and houses from $80,000 to $130,000, which is beyond the means of the majority of Eritreans. Reportedly, the entry level salary of a military/national service conscript is 450 nakfa per month, or approximately $30. There is no information about projects to provide affordable housing for the majority of Eritreans. 87. People whose houses were destroyed have no opportunity to challenge these demolitions in courts of law and no recourse to any other complaint mechanism. According to the Minister, they had access to a task force, but as he noted himself “the task force decided to take the only measures [the people] can understand, and those were demolitions”.13 88. According to international law, demolitions should be carried out only after adequate safeguards are provided and alternatives explored following genuine consultations. Those 11 12 13 Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs – Economy Profile Eritrea. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-8PaQNcLW4 (in Tigrigna; translation provided by the Special Rapporteur). Ibid. 13