PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION IN GENEVA

16/11/2012

 

 

 

Pro-democracy Eritrean civil society and political organizations worldwide

 

·         To condemn human rights violations in Eritrea

·         To bring to the attention of the international community the plight of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, Sinai Desert in Egypt, Djibouti and Israel

 

 

Friday, 16 November 2012, 13h – 18h at Palais des Nations - Geneva

 

Pro-democracy Eritrean civil society and political organisations in Switzerland, Italy, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, the US and other countries stage a demonstration in Geneva in front of the UN headquarters, Palais des Nations. They comprise Eritrean human rights defenders, political parties, youth associations and movements, refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and friends of Eritrea in the above countries.

 

The purpose of this event is to denounce the ever-worsening violations of human rights in Eritrea and to bring to the attention of the international community the plight of Eritrean refugees in the Sudan, Sinai Desert in Egypt, Djibouti and Israel. Eritrean victims of human trafficking in the Sinai Desert and the Sudan and the inhuman treatment that they went through in the merciless hands of traffickers include, among others, beating, electrocution, water-drowning, burning, hanging, hanging by hair and organ robbery. They are tortured for ransoms 10000-50000 USD. Subjected to cruel rape or gang rape, women are at the receiving end of the torture. The graphic description of the suffering of the victims is available at Internet sources at Assenna Foundation and New Generation Foundation.

 

Human Rights Concern Eritrea witnesses, mostly deserters from the enforced military conscription in Eritrea, some 300 indefinite drafting resisters at the Nagad detention centre in Djibouti are treated as a military risk. Fifty-eight of these detainees are extremely ill. A separate refugee camp houses another 67 non-military refugees, and 19 POWs. In Israel, the Army has since mid-2012 prevented dozens of asylum seekers, most of them Eritreans, from crossing the country’s borders with Egypt. It has unlawfully deported dozens more back to Egypt, according to Human Rights Watch, the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights.

 

The recent refusal of the Eritrean regime to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea is indicative of its inherent behaviour. The Eritrean regime is breaking new records, not in its Human Development Index (HDI) but in suppressing the human rights of its citizens. According to the Worst of the Worst 2012 report of the Freedom House, Eritrea has once again proved to be Africa's North Korea with respect to human rights abuse. In sum, the violations include:

 

·         Arbitrary arrest and Detention without trial

·         Enforced disappearance of thousands of people

·         Arrest of 11 former ministers, an MP, journalists and religious leaders

·         Indefinite military service (now over 18 years) and forced labour

·         Muzzling of the press and severe restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression

 

Meetings will be held with officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and United Nations Human Rights Council. Letters will be delivered to these two institutions, the diplomatic community and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

Demonstration organizing Committee Tel. 079 777 34 23, 076 513 98 17, 079 440 03 49