A/HRC/38/50 E. Cooperation and engagement with the international community 25. There has been some encouraging progress concerning the external relations of Eritrea. Envoys, diplomats and parliamentarians from different countries, and high-level United Nations officials have visited Asmara. Several Governments have held bilateral dialogues on human rights with the Government of Eritrea. A number of journalists have also been allowed into the country. The Special Rapporteur welcomes these developments, which suggest that Eritrea is disposed to normalize relations with the international community. 26. In particular, the Government of Eritrea invited OHCHR to visit and to organize a workshop on human rights and the administration of justice. While the Special Rapporteur welcomes these positive steps, she stresses that for such steps to be meaningful and substantive, palpable progress in the selected areas would need to be measured and communicated regularly. A critical criterion for measuring such progress is the tangible impact on the daily enjoyment of human rights by Eritreans attributable to such cooperation. II. Updates on the human rights situation 27. The current situation in Eritrea perpetuates the patterns of human rights violations identified by both the Special Rapporteur and the commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea, namely arbitrary arrests and detentions; overcrowding in congested places of detention; deaths in custody; violations of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly; and religious persecution. Human rights violations in the context of the military/national service persist, as do restrictions on freedom of movement, with adverse impacts on fundamental rights, including violations of the rights to adequate and affordable housing and property, and the destruction of livelihoods. 28. The Special Rapporteur has noted few material changes with the potential to positively impact the situation of human rights in Eritrea and regrets to inform the Human Rights Council that there is still no constitution and no parliament where laws could be discussed and enacted and questions of national importance debated. The rule of law is not supreme; the Government and its agents are not subject to the law, thus perpetuating long-entrenched impunity for widespread human rights violations. 29. No independent human rights organizations are allowed to operate in the country. International non-governmental organizations in the country are limited only to those that the Government invites to provide services according to strict agreements. 30. It has been the Special Rapporteur’s considered opinion since 2012 that widespread violations of human rights, some of which amount to crimes against humanity, including those experienced in the context of forced conscription, remain the primary cause of peoples’ fateful decisions to cross international borders and become refugees. They brave the ominous dangers along escape routes because they can no longer tolerate the human rights violations they face if they remain. The clear majority leave in response to severe breaches of their human rights. 31. As recent events depict, the population continues to live in fear of arbitrary arrests and detention and the Government still controls the daily lives of its citizens, making the enjoyment of all human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural — a daily struggle for all Eritreans. A. 1. Civil and political rights Arbitrary arrests and detentions and overincarceration 32. The Special Rapporteur examined at length human rights violations owing to overincarceration in her second report (A/HRC/26/45).. She highlighted deplorable detention conditions, which negatively impacted on the inherent dignity of detainees, the fact that it was impossible to obtain any statistics pertaining to the prison population and the accurate number of detention facilities, both official and unofficial, commenting that such failures spoke volumes about the respect for transparency that should be integral in any system of 6