EMDHR Meets UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Eritrea

The Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) participated in a training workshop on conflict management, mediation, and capacity building organized by the Southern Africa Development Community Council of Non Governmental Organizations (SADC-CNGO) from 12-14 November 2013. The training was conducted in Gaborone, Batswana where the SADC–CNGO is based.

For this purpose the SR visited refugee camps in Ethiopia, and talked with refugees in countries such as Djibouti. According to Ms Keetharuth, the Eritrean government’s response to her report was denial and provided unacceptable justifications for not allowing its own citizens to exercise their human, civil, and political rights. The EMDHR had submitted to the SR a human rights report which includes specific cases of abuses suffered by several Eritreans and agreed to expand on that for her next report to the Council. The EMDHR expressed its gratitude for the work the Special Rapporteur is doing and encouraged her to continue her efforts to expose the gross violations of human rights in Eritrea, and bring such abuses to the attention of the international community. At the same time, the EMDHR is pleased to hear that the UN Human Rights Council has renewed her mandate until June 2014 and we encourage the Council to further renew her mandate until such time that there is genuine and verifiable change on the human rights situation in Eritrea. Finally, we urge all Eritrean victims of the regime, experts, activists, and organizations to support the work of the SR and provide her with the essential information that helps to expose the abuses and bring democratic change in our country.

The EMDHR thanks Ms. Sheila Keetharuth for making time to meet its representatives.

Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR)

08 November 2013