NEW YORK
The Eritrean government has committed systematic and gross human rights violations in “a scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere”, a year-long UN inquiry found Monday.
The UN commission of inquiry on the human rights situation in Eritrea said these violations have forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the country and subjected a large proportion of the population to forced labor and imprisonment.
The 500-page report also said that some of the abuses may constitute crimes against humanity.
“Faced with a seemingly hopeless situation they feel powerless to change, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans are fleeing their country,” the report said. “It is not law that rules Eritreans – but fear”.
The UN placed the number of Eritreans under its concern outside the country at more than 357,400 in mid-2014.
“In desperation, they resort to deadly escape routes through deserts and neighboring war-torn countries and across dangerous seas in search of safety,” the report said, urging international protection for Eritrean refugees fleeing human rights violations.
The commission, established last June to investigate alleged rights violations in the country, is scheduled to present the report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 23.
“With the end of the commission’s investigations and the publication of this report detailing our findings on human rights violations in Eritrea, I look forward to a renewed commitment by the international community to address the justice deficit and to support our call for a restoration of the rule of law,” said UN rapporteur Sheila Keetharuth.
“Rule by fear – fear of indefinite conscription, of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, of torture and other human rights violations – must end,” she added.
