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An Eritrean delegation to UN human rights meetings in Geneva this week was once more a source of shock, disgust and intense frustration to UN experts and the participant audiences. The first meeting was the interactive dialogue with the UN Human  Rights Council on 11 March when the delegation claimed that nothing went wrong in Eritrea in the past two decades. The second two-day meeting at which the delegation was grilled on 12 and 13 March was held with the 18-person UN committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Eritrea signed the ICCPR convention in 2002 by promising to respect and promote the fundamental human and political rights of its people. But since then, Eritrea refused to respond to any queries coming to it from the ICCPR Committee in charge of follow up of implementation by signatories of that international covenant. Eritrea this year agreed to meet the Committee at its 125th Session. Yet, the Eritrean delegation failed to submit the required written report.

Mr. Tesfamichael Gerhatu, the head of the Eritrean delegation,  and his colleague, Mr. Adem Osman, spent long hours with the ICCRP Committee evading its questions and shamelessly listing none existent "facts". The distinguished international experts of the ICCPR Committee at times begged the Eritrean envoys to be kind enough to known facts about Eritrea and stop "blanket denials." The Eritrean regime delegates were not willing to bend.

Below are a few samples of the Eritrean delegation's responses to questions of the international experts on human and political rights elected by all UN signatories of the ICCPR convention, including Eritrea, and approved by the UN General Assembly. Mr. Tesfamichael Gerhatu and his colleague said as follows:

1. Eritrea has only 11 detention centers and the entire country;
2. There are no political prisoners in Eritrea but a few detainees who committed "crimes against the state".
3. It was not the Government but the Eritrean Orthodox Church itself that condemned to house arrest His Grace Abune Antonios, the Patriarch of the Eritrean church;
4. No arbitrary arrests are made in Eritrea;
5. The arrest and detention of the eleven members of G-15 in 2001 was ordered by the Eritrean National Assembly itself, not by the executive branch;
6. No person has been condemned to death in Eritrea since 1991 and that allegations of extra-judicially executions have no basis whatsoever;
7. The government fully respects the dignity of the human person and no torture is practiced against prisoners;
8. Prison conditions are quite good with health and recreation facilities, and access to the media;
9. Press censorship does not exist in Eritrea; no Eritrean is detained for expressing his political views;
10. In spite of wrong reports by enemies, Eritrea is not emptied of its people; our cities are thriving with huge numbers of our young population;
11. There is no state of fear or population control in Eritrea. No control, no surveillance of any sort. Eritrea has no sophisticated security apparatus but a police force doing normal duties;
12. The judiciary system is independent in Eritrea and justice is well served;
13. There exist 190 trade unions as an example of the freedom of association in the country;
14. There is no constitutional vacuum in the country; we have a charter of the front and laws based on it; a new constitution is now in its drafting process;
15. No abuses were committed by government officials in Eritrea since independence and no one will be submitted to accountability of none existent past crimes.....

Simply put, it was difficult to listen to the wild babble of the Eritrean delegates who ignored pertinent  queries of the ICCPR Committee and talked presented their alternative facts. No responses were given to several burning questions of the Committee members whose names are given in the table below.  

The 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, currently holding chain of meetings in Geneva, has once more witnessed that Eritrea is not showing any signs of change in its bad human rights record. 

Speaking at the interactive dialogue on Eritrea on 11 March 2019, senior UN human rights officials and vast majority of country delegates reprimanded the Eritrean regime of its continued failure to implement hundreds of recommendations urging it to improve the human rights and political situation in the country. 

Deputy UN Human Rights Commissioner Kate Gilmore made yet another desperate yet strong appeal to the Eritrean regime to listen to international calls to be kind to its own people by correcting its past. She hoped that the Eritrean authorities  will consider  "shifting from security to development" of their nation.

The newly appointed Eritrea Human Rights Rapporteur, Daniela Kravez, also presented her first ever oral report to the  Human Rights Council and asked Eritrean authorities to take the new opportunities opened with the peace accord with Ethiopia. She regretted the absence of basic human and political rights in Eritrea for such a long time and the only prospect for change depends on starting to introduce the rule of law in the country. The Eritrean delegate, the same Tesfamichael Gerhatu, denied all charges and repeated cried out that "there is no human rights crisis" in the country.   (For full story, see link: http://www.harnnet.org/index.php/articles-corner/english-articles/item/5426-human-rights-council-holds-enhanced-interactive-dialogue-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-eritrea).

On the other hand, an event on Eritrea was organized at the UN Geneva offices on 12 March coordinated by Dr. Daniel Mekonnen, Director  the Eritrean Law Society. Panelists were Mr. Habteab Y. Ogubazghi, former judge of the Last  Court of Appeal in Eritrea, and  Ms Jelena Aparac,  a member of UN Working Group on mercenaries. The former spoke on the situation of the existing judiciary system in Eritrea and the latter updated the audience on the ongoing legal case of Eritrean victims against the Canadian Nevsun company. 

Meanwhile, another important two-day meeting on Eritrea is underway at the Wilson Palace, headquarters of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). A committee of experts is grilling  the Eritrean delegation with very difficult questions  on human, political and civil rights on Eritrea. (Full report on those critical meetings will follow soon).