There is growing concern that the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea (COIE) may not be able to present the findings of its final report at the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA’s) seventy-first session in New York.

The COIE has been omitted from a provisional agenda of UN human rights experts and officials scheduled to give oral updates to the General Assembly’s Third Committee on 27 October. Confidential sources allege that the Commission’s inclusion is being primarily obstructed by a New York-based North African diplomat, ostensibly on the basis that the COIE’s mandate ended once its second report was submitted. The Chair of the Third Committee has submitted the matter to the legal affairs department of the UN, which will decide whether or not the COIE can present its Oral Update.

In a report issued on 8 June 2016, the three-person Commission concluded there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that crimes against humanity, “namely enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder” have been committed in a “widespread and systematic manner” in Eritrea since 1991, and continue to occur.  Over 833 individuals in over 13 countries provided statements and information during its compilation. On 23 June, members of the Eritrean diaspora held a 12,000-strong rally in Geneva in support of the report’s findings and to encourage its adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).  The diaspora is planning a similar demonstration outside the UN building in New York on 27 October, the day originally slated for the COIE’s oral update.

In a September 2016 letter to UN officials, CSW and Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRCE) stressed the importance of the COIE report, which “shines a light on severe violations that have continued in relative impunity because perpetrators felt they would never be exposed,” and has raised hope amongst victims that their plight was finally being recognised and addressed “at the highest international level.”

The COIE’s omission from the schedule is puzzling given that the 2015 budget covering its activities made provision for a five-day assignment for “three Commissioners and the Coordinator to New York in October 2016” for the purposes of “an oral update to the General Assembly at its seventy-first session.”

In addition, the June 2016 UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution adopting the findings of the COIE’s report not only requested that the report and oral updates were submitted to all relevant UN bodies “for consideration and appropriate action,” but also directed the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea to follow up on implementation of its recommendations and “address and engage in an interactive dialogue with the General Assembly at its seventy-first session.”

Elsa Chyrum Director of HRCE said: “We call on the General Assembly’s Third Committee to allow the COIE to give an oral update during its seventy first sessions. Not only will its exclusion be a betrayal of trust and deprive Eritreans of hope; it will also encourage a repressive regime that has brutalised its own people for 25 years. The international community must begin prioritising the lives of Eritrean citizens by bringing human rights violators to account. Ensuring that the COIE presents its report is a vital first step in this process.”

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “The COIE’s exclusion from the Third Committee’s agenda is hard to comprehend. Eritrea has the dubious distinction of being one of only two nations whose leadership has been deemed by an HRC Commission of Inquiry to be guilty of crimes against humanity. However, while the General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea’s conclusions and calling for action by the Security Council to ensure accountability, consideration of the COIE’s report is being obstructed on highly questionable grounds. If this exclusion is allowed to stand, it will send a deeply unfortunate message regarding the international community’s willingness to address crimes against humanity, leaving the impression that Eritrean citizens are of lesser importance, and effectively encouraging the continuation impunity. We therefore urge the Third Committee to include the COIE in its agenda, in the interests of justice and equity and in line with the international responsibility to protect.”

Notes to Editors:  

      1. “The special procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.”  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Welcomepage.aspx

2.  The omission of the COIE comes as the Eritreans commemorate two harrowing events. 19 September marked 15 years since a group of 35 individuals, consisting of senior government officials and Eritrea’s independent journalists were subjected to enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention. On 3 October, Eritreans also remembered the 2013 Lampedusa tragedy, in which almost 400 refugees and asylum seekers drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Most were Eritreans.