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The Swiss Federal Council, which is a seven-person cabinet elected for seven years, on 25 February responded to parliamentary questions affirming that it attaches great importance to the “extremely disquieting human rights situation in Eritrea”.

The Federal Council was responding to eight questions on Eritrea addressed to it from the Swiss Parliament. The initiator of the questions on behalf of the Swiss Social Democratic Party was the Hon. Ms Fehr Jacqueline who deposed the questions to the Cabinet through the Parliament on 12 December 2014 following meetings with the Swiss party and government on 19 November 2014 of the a delegation of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP).

The Honourable MP Fehr Jacqueline, and Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga

In its introduction of answering the eight questions, the Swiss Federal Council, currently presided by the incumbent President of the Confederation, Ms Simonetta Sommaruga of the Social Democratic Party, stated as follows:

“The Federal Council attaches great importance to the question of respecting of human rights in Eritrea. The extremely disquieting human rights situation in Eritrea is the root cause of the large exodus of people in and from the Horn of Africa. In the face of the gravity of this situation and in light of the big number of Eritrean refugees in Switzerland, our country is called to make efforts towards identifying the sources of problems and towards resolving them in collaboration with the international community”.

The questions wanted the Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) to say its position on what is going on in Eritrea as related to the forced labour, the refusal of the Eritrean regime visitations by the Geneva-based International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC); what Swiss government does to help Eritrean refugees in the country and those in the Horn of Africa region; how the Federal Council views the reports of the UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Eritrea and the formation of the Commission of Inquiry by the powerful UN Human Rights Council, and others.

The document has been released in German, French and Italian languages. WWW.Harnnet.org

will make efforts to present full translations of the questions and answers in Arabic and Tigrinia languages.

Meanwhile, an EPDP delegation and a representative of a newly formed coordinating committee of Eritreans in Switzerland are invited to address a meeting in Bern on 2 March of the Swiss Social Democratic Party’s Commission on Foreign Policy Affairs.