PRESS RELEASE : UN Human Rights Council 55 – UK Statement on Eritrea [February 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 29 February 2024.

The UK’s Statement for Enhanced ID on Human Rights in Eritrea, delivered at the UN Human Rights Council.

Thank you Mr Vice-President,

The UK thanks the speakers for their interventions, and we share their concerns, including on Eritrea’s continued policy of indefinite national service, which affects the lives of thousands, and is the reason many young Eritreans give for leaving their country. Eritrea should take steps to regularise the duration for national service and increase the exemptions to it.

Mr Vice-President,

We call again on the Government to fully respect the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, of religion or belief, and of peaceful assembly and association.  All those arbitrarily detained or held incommunicado in Eritrea must be released, including those detained solely based on their religion or belief.

We regret that the human rights situation in Eritrea is not improving.  We again call on Eritrea to re-engage with the international community, work with this Council and its mandate holders, implement fully its accepted UPR recommendations, and open itself to support and assistance, so progress toward full respect for human rights can start to be made.

A free and open society is the bedrock of stability and prosperity. The UK again restates our offer to engage with the government of Eritrea, in the hope that a better human rights situation can in turn deliver better economic opportunities for the people of Eritrea, particularly younger people.

Finally, Mr Vice-President,

We would like to ask the panellists for their assessment of whether any progress has been made or could possibly be made to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account.

Thank you.