• Human Rights in Eritrea

    Eritrea is one of the world’s most repressive and closed countries. The government of President Isaias Afewerki has effectively banned the independent press. Journalists languish in detention, as do officials who question Isaias’s leadership; many have died in jail. No civil society organizations are allowed to exist. Arbitrary arrest of citizens is rampant, and torture in detention is common.  Leading religious institutions – Orthodox Christian and Muslim – are run by government-appointees; adherents of other religions are jailed until they renounce their faiths.  Nearly all men and many women over 18 are conscripted into indefinite “national service,” which exploits them as forced labor at survival wages. 

  • World Report 2012: Eritrea
    Eritrea marked 20 years of independence in 2011, but its citizens remain victimized by one of the world’s most repressive governments. They suffer arbitrary and indefinite detention; torture; inhumane conditions of confinement; restrictions on freedom of speech, movement, and belief; and indefinite conscription and forced labor in national service.
More news »
Subscribe to content feed

Reports

  • Ten Long Years
    A Briefing on Eritrea’s Missing Political Prisoners
  • Service for Life
    State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea
  • Policy Paralysis
    A Call for Action on HIV/AIDS-Related Human Rights Abuses Against Women and Girls in Africa
More >>

Eritrea

  • UN Human Rights Council: Eritrea, Belarus Told to End Abuses
    Jul 5, 2012
    The United Nations Human Rights Council took bold action to address the chronically poor human rights situations in Belarus and Eritrea
  • UN Human Rights Council: Deterioration in Mali; Widespread and Systematic Violations in Eritrea
    Jun 17, 2012
  • Jordan: Don’t Deport Eritrean Refugees to Yemen
    May 15, 2012
    Jordanian authorities are about to deport nine detained Eritrean refugees, including a 7-year-old girl, to Yemen where they risk indefinite detention and possibly deportation to persecution in Eritrea. Jordan should allow the group to remain in Jordan and give the United Nations refugee agency access to the refugees.
  • Sudan: End Mass Summary Deportations of Eritreans
    Oct 25, 2011
    The Sudanese authorities are increasingly deporting Eritreans to their country without allowing them to claim asylum, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 17, 2011, Sudan handed over 300 Eritreans to the Eritrean military without screening them for refugee status, drawing public condemnation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
  • Eritrea: Free Political Prisoners 10 Years On
    Sep 22, 2011
    Ten years after President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea ordered the detention of 21 senior government members and journalists who criticized him, his government should release the detainees or reveal their fate, a Human Rights Watch briefing paper says. Eritrea should also open its jails to international monitors.
  • Egypt: End Traffickers’ Abuse of Migrants
    Dec 9, 2010
    Egyptian authorities should rescue migrants held for ransom and abused by human traffickers in the Sinai desert. The government has neither prosecuted the traffickers nor closed down their detention sites.
  • From the Horn of Africa, a Ray of Hope
    Jul 21, 2010
    Ask people what they know about Somalia and most will probably start talking about pirates, terrorists and Black Hawk Down. Not many would think to mention democracy or free elections as well, but they should. Last month, Somaliland--an impoverished sliver of territory that has maintained de facto independence from Somalia since 1991--held elections that put the democratic pretenses of its neighbors in the Horn of Africa to shame.
  • Italy: Offer to Shelter Eritreans Detained, Abused by Libya
    Jul 8, 2010
    The Italian government should immediately offer to take into Italy at least 11 Eritreans it had previously forced back to Libya and who are now detained there and threatened with deportation back to Eritrea.
  • Libya: Do Not Deport Eritreans
    Jul 2, 2010
    Libyan authorities should immediately stop apparent efforts to deport a group of 245 Eritreans, some of whom have been severely beaten by guards.
  • Statement to the US House of Representatives on the Horn of Africa
    Jun 17, 2010
    Leslie Lefkow, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, testifies before the US House of Representatives on human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa.
more documents on this topic »