Source: The National

Letter sent to top UN body stresses Cairo’s willingness to come to arrangement with Addis Ababa

Egypt has written to the UN Security Council about Ethiopia’s failure to reach an agreement over the operation of Addis Ababa’s nearly-completed dam that Cairo fears will significantly reduce its share of the Nile’ waters.

News of the letter broke late on Wednesday night in an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement about a phone call between Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Urmas Reinsalu, his counterpart from Estonia, which currently chairs the 15-member council.

The ministry did not release the full text of the letter, saying only that it was sent recently.

The letter appears to be part of Egypt’s drive to take its dispute with Ethiopia over the dam on the Blue Nile to the international community after years of inconclusive negotiations involving Sudan, another Nile basin country. Egypt has publicly accused Ethiopia of time-buying tactics and of intransigence after its refusal to sign an agreement brokered by the United States. The dispute has entered a potentially explosive phase with Ethiopia’s recent announcement that it intended to start filling the hydroelectric dam’s massive reservoir this summer.

Egypt wants the reservoir to be filled over six to seven years to reduce the impact downstream. It also wants Ethiopia to release 40 billion cubic metres of water annually and show flexibility during sustained droughts. Ethiopia has baulked at these demands and the two countries have been engaged in a bitter war of words for months.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said the letter to the Security Council pointed out Egypt’s flexibility in the deadlocked negotiations while conforming with the rules of international law. It expressed the wish to see Ethiopia “seriously engaged” in negotiations to reach a fair and balanced settlement for all three nations. Such an outcome, it added, would guarantee peace and security in the region.

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation with 100 million people, depends on the Nile for more than 90 per cent of its water needs. It has maintained that a significant reduction in its share of Nile water would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and affect its food security. It has said it appreciates Ethiopia’s development needs and that its goal is to reach an agreement that would reduce the impact of the dam to manageable levels.

Ethiopia denies that the dam would harm Egypt, which it accuses of an unwarranted sense of entitlement to the river’s water.

Sudan, Egypt’s neighbour to the south, is unlikely to be affected by the dam the same way as Egypt since it has an alternative source of water in rainfall and the White Nile, which runs through the entire length of the vast Afro-Arab country.

The White Nile originates in central Africa and merges with the Blue Nile, whose source is on the Ethiopian highlands, in Khartoum to become the river Nile that flows across the deserts of northern Sudan and across Egypt to the Mediterranean. The Blue Nile contributes about 65 per cent of the water reaching Egypt.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has described Egypt’s water security as an existential issue and vowed that Cairo would never accept a de facto situation imposed on it. Some pro-government media voices have suggested military action to stop the Ethiopians from harming Egypt’s vital water interests. Mr El Sisi, a former military chief, has stated his preference for a negotiated settlement.

May 7, 2020 Martin Plaut News, Uncategorized

To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council

HRC44-Civil-society-letter-regarding-ERITREA

5 May 2020

Extend the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea

Excellencies,

At the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council (24 June-12 July 2019), the Council extended a hand to the Eritrean Government. While renewing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the country, it signalled its willingness to offer Eritrea a constructive way forward, in particular by shifting the resolution from agenda item 4 to item 2.

While welcoming the adoption of Council resolution 41/1, and in particular the renewal of the mandate, many non-governmental organisations cautioned that any shifts in the Council’s approach should reflect corresponding changes in the human rights situation on the ground.

Regrettably, one year later, we, the undersigned non-governmental organisations, recall that the concerns expressed in a joint letter1 published last year remain valid, for the reasons set out below. Ahead of the 44th session of the Council (currently scheduled to begin in June 20202), we urge you to support the adoption of a resolution extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea.

As Eritrea has entered the second year of its Council membership term, its domestic human rights situation remains dire. A free and independent press continues to be absent from the country and 16 journalists remain in detention without trial, many since 2001.3 Impunity for past and ongoing human rights violations is widespread. Violations continue unabated, including arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detention,4 violations of the rights to a fair trial, access to justice and due process, enforced disappearances, lack of information on the fate or whereabouts of disappeared persons, violations of women’s and girls’ rights, and severe restrictions on the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion or belief. Secondary school students, some still children, continue to be conscripted in their thousands each year into the country’s abusive national service system.5 Indefinite national service, involving torture, sexual violence and forced labour continues; thousands remain in open-ended conscription, sometimes for as long as ten years or more, despite the 2018 peace accord with Ethiopia.6

In resolution 38/15 (6 July 2018), the Council invited the Special Rapporteur to “assess and report on the situation of human rights and the engagement and cooperation of the Government of Eritrea with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, as well as with the Office of the High Commissioner [OHCHR], and, where feasible, to develop benchmarks for progress in improving the situation of human rights and a time-bound plan of action for their implementation.” The Council should ensure adequate follow-up by allowing the Special Rapporteur to pursue her work and OHCHR to deepen its engagement with the Eritrean Government.

As a Council member, Eritrea has an obligation to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.” However, during the Council’s 43rd session, in February 2020, both the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Daniela Kravetz, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, reported that no concrete evidence of progress in Eritrea’s human rights situation, including against the benchmarks, could be reported.7 By streamlining its approach and adopting resolution 41/1 under its item 2, the Council offered a way forward for human rights reform in Eritrea. In March 2019, Eritrea took an initial step by meeting with the Special Rapporteur in Geneva. More recently, in February 2020, a human rights dialogue took place between the Government and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in a more constructive spirit than during Eritrea’s 2019 review by the Human Rights Committee. Unfortunately, despite the window of opportunity provided by Eritrea’s CEDAW review and the Eritrean Ambassador indicating, at the Council’s 43rd session, that his country was committed to confidence-building measures and technical cooperation, Eritrea refuses to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur, and recently launched yet another unwarranted attack on her and her mandate.8 The Government continues to reject findings of ongoing grave violations, as well as calls for reform, and human rights-based recommendations, including in relation to the Covid-19 crisis.9

The Council should urge Eritrea to make progress towards meeting its membership obligations and to engage with the UN human rights system constructively. It should not reward non-cooperation by, but rather maintain scrutiny of, one of its members. We believe that a technical rollover of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate, under the same item, would contribute to this aim.

At its upcoming 44th session, the Council should adopt a resolution: (a) Extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for a further year; (b) Urging Eritrea to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur by granting her access to the country, in accordance with its obligations as a Council member; (c) Calling on Eritrea to develop an implementation plan to meet the progress benchmarks, in consultation with the Special Rapporteur and OHCHR; (d) Requesting OHCHR to present an oral update on Eritrea at the Council’s 46th session; and (e) Requesting the Special Rapporteur to present an oral update at the Council’s 46th session in an interactive dialogue, and to present a report on the implementation of the mandate at the Council’s 47th session and to the General Assembly at its 76th session.

We thank you for your attention to these pressing issues and stand ready to provide your delegation with further information as needed.

Sincerely,

1. African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies

2. AfricanDefenders (the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network)

3. Amnesty International

4. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

5. Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)

6. CIVICUS

7. Civil Rights Defenders

8. Committee to Protect Journalists

9. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)

10. DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)

11. Eritrean Law Society (ELS)

12. Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR)

13. Geneva for Human Rights / Genève pour les Droits de l’Homme

14. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

15. Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)

16. Human Rights Watch

17. International Service for Human Rights

18. Network of Eritrean Women (NEW)

19. Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa / Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits

Humains en Afrique Centrale (REDHAC)

20. One Day Seyoum

21. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

22. Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN)

23. West African Human Rights Defenders Network / Réseau Ouest Africain des Défenseurs des

Droits Humains (ROADDH/WAHRDN)

24. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

1 DefendDefenders et al., “Eritrea: the UN should ensure continued scrutiny of the human rights situation,” 11 June 2019, https://defenddefenders.org/eritrea-the-un-should-ensure-continued-scrutiny-of-the-human-rights-situation/ (accessed on 16 April 2020).

2 The exact dates of the session are likely to be affected by the Covid-19 situation, which led the Council to suspend its 43rd session on 13 March 2020.

3 Committee to Protect Journalists, “2019 prison census: 16 Journalists Imprisoned in Eritrea,” https://cpj.org/data/reports.php?status=Imprisoned&cc_fips%5B%5D=ER&start_year=2019&end_year=2019&group_by=lo

cation (accessed on 30 April 2020). Eritrea remains at the top of the CPJ’s most-censored countries, as per a 2019 report, “10 Most Censored Countries,” available at: https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistanjournalist. php (accessed on 30 April 2020).

4 Amnesty International, “Human rights in Africa, Review of 2019,” 8 April 2020, Index: AFR 01/1352/2020, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr01/1352/2020/en/ (accessed on 16 April 2020), p. 39.

5 Human Rights Watch, “‘They Are Making Us into Slaves Not Educating us.’ How Indefinite Conscription Restricts Young People’s Rights, Access to Education in Eritrea,” 8 August 2019, https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/08/08/they-are-makingus-slaves-not-educating-us/how-indefinite-conscription-restricts; Human Rights Watch, “Statement to the European

Parliament’s Committee on Development on the Human Rights Situation in Eritrea,” 18 February 2020, available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/19/statement-european-parliaments-committee-development-human-rights-situationeritrea (accessed on 24 April 2020).

6 Amnesty International, “Human rights in Africa, Review of 2019,” op. cit., p. 38. 2

7 Interactive dialogue with the SR on Human Rights in Eritrea – 9th Meeting, 43rd Regular Session, Human Rights Council (webcast archive), 26 February 2020, http://webtv.un.org/search/id-sr-on-human-rights-in-eritrea-9th-meeting-43rd-regularsession-human-rights-council/6136241213001/?term=kravetz&sort=date; Presentation of High Commissioner/Secretary- General country reports & Item 2 General Debate – 10th Meeting, 43rd Regular Session, Human Rights Council (webcast archive), 27 February 2020, http://webtv.un.org/search/hcsg-country-reports-item2-general-debate-10th-meeting-43rdregular-session-human-rights-council-/6136487778001/?term=eritrea&sort=date&page=2#player (accessed on 9 April 2020).

8 Permanent Mission of the State of Eritrea to the United Nations, Geneva, “Harassment of Eritrea is Unconscionable,” 6 April 2020, http://www.shabait.com/news/local-news/30430-press-release (accessed on 23 April 2020).

9 Amnesty International, “Eritrea: Show humanity and release prisoners of conscience amid COVID-19,” 3 April 2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/eritrea-show-humanity-and-release-prisoners-of-conscience-amidcovid19/; Human Rights Watch, “With COVID-19 Threat, Eritrea Should Release Political Detainees,” 2 April 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/02/covid-19-threat-eritrea-should-release-political-detainees# (accessed on 24 April 2020). 3