AHRC2942.doc

A/HRC/29/42 Advance Edited Version Distr.: General 4 June 2015 Original: English Human Rights CouncilTwenty-ninth sessionAgenda item 4 Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention Report of the commission of inquiry onhuman rights in Eritrea* ** *** Summary The commission of inquiry undertook its investigation in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 26/24. Although the commission was unable to visit Eritrea, it obtained first-hand testimony by conducting 550 confidential interviews with witnesses residing in third countries. It also received 160 written submissions. On the basis of this body of evidence, the commission found that systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed in Eritrea under the authority of the Government. Some of these violations may constitute crimes against humanity. In the present report, the commission shows how the initial promises of democracy and rule of law, incarnated in the never-implemented Constitution of 1997, were progressively suppressed and then extinguished by the Government. It details how the Government has created and sustained repressive systems to control, silence and isolate individuals in the country, depriving them of their fundamental freedoms. Information collected on people’s activities, their supposed intentions and even conjectured thoughts are used to rule through fear in a country where individuals are routinely arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured, disappeared or extrajudicially executed. The commission also describes how, on the pretext of defending the integrity of the State and ensuring its self-sufficiency, Eritreans are subject to systems of national service and forced labour that effectively abuse, exploit and enslave them for indefinite periods of time. Contents Paragraphs Page I. Introduction 1 – 3 3 II. Mandate and methodology 4 – 22 3 A. Non-cooperation by Eritrea 9 – 11 3 B. Methods of work 12 – 19