BY SOPHIA TESFAMARIAM | SHABAIT
When President Isaias Afwerki said it was #GameOver for the TPLF regime last year, his prescient analysis had both literal and figurative dimensions. Indeed, the “Black Swan” event in the Horn of Africa sent shock waves that brought with it far reaching consequences. Continue reading Eritrea: Tail Wagging at the UN
Eritrea is pleased and highly honored to be elected to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC). The HRC is the UN’s inter-governmental body that deliberates on issues pertaining to the development, promotion, protection, and fulfillment of international human rights law, norms, and standards. Continue reading EDITORIAL// Eritrea’s Election to the United Nations Human Rights Council
H.E. Mr. Vojislav SUC,
President of the Human Rights Council, Twelfth Cycle (2018)
I have the honor to write you in relation to the “enhanced interactive dialogue” on Eritrea scheduled for 12 March 2018. For over a month, the Eritrean delegation has engaged with Your Excellency, in your capacity as the President of the Human Rights Council, and the Secretariat – OHCHR, seeking clarification on the nature of the interactive dialogue and the composition of the panelists. Continue reading Eritrea Snub UNHRC Enhanced Interactive Dialogue
Mr. Chairman
Distinguished delegates
This is the fifth time the Special Rapporteur is appearing before the Third Committee in an informal setting whose bias work against Eritrea has been clear. Her mandate was tabled and spearheaded by countries with known hostile stance against Eritrea with the aim of demonizing and isolating Eritrea under the guise of human rights concerns. Continue reading Eritrean Delegation Statement at the UN Interactive Dialogue on Human Rights
In May last month, the Eritrean people celebrated their 26th Independence Anniversary. The celebrations were held throughout the breadth and length of the country, as well as in the Diaspora, with spectacular public events amid undiminished enthusiasm that has few parallels elsewhere. Asmara’s Liberation and Martyr’s Avenues were thronged with tens of thousands of residents during the Carnival Show on May 22nd and the overnight street party on the eve of Independence Day. This was invariably the case in all the cities, towns and villages all over the country. For a country that had to wage Africa’s longest and most difficult armed struggle for liberation, the honeymoon of independence could not but be still vibrant, still mesmerizing 26 years on.
To read, against this backdrop, Sheila’s surreal report to this august body on a country she avidly hates but knows little to nothing about, can only evoke indignation and outrage. Continue reading Eritrea’s Statement at the 35th Session of the Human Rights Council
Eritrea has come full circle, and the events during the 32nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) brought a lot of issues to a head. As I watched the proceedings, it dawned on me that words like “impartiality”, “politically motivated” and “bias” were meaningless, as each game (against the member state) had its own rules.
It was normal to be impartial in one game and ruthlessly partial in another; it was normal to decry political bias in one case, and ensure it in another; it was normal to cry foul about faulty methodology by some states in one case, but employ it to make a case against another. Truth was in the hands of the beholder, double standards and hypocrisy ruled… Continue reading UN Sclerosis and Role of NGOs at the Human Rights Council
