Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Eritrea - A Country Under the Sway of a Dictatorship

Description and Content of the Booklet

(05.07.2018) This booklet is based in large part on the contributions of the conference “Eritrea and the Ongoing Refugee Crisis”, which took place in Brussels on 19 October 2017.

Some of the speeches were written and edited by the editors. Other contributions were provided by the speakers themselves. The editors have supplemented this with up-to-date information and articles in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the situation in Eritrea, the situation of Eritrean refugees and initiatives and activities.

The conference was organized by the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights, Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA), PRO ASYL e.V., Connection e.V., War Resisters’ International and the Eritrean Law Society.

Download of the pdf-file here.

Eritrea: Rights Abuses Continue Unabated

(12.03.2018) Repeated Human Rights Council resolutions have condemned “in the strongest terms” the “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” by the Eritrean government.  The Council has condemned violations including arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, religious oppression, denials of the rights of free expression and peaceful assembly.  The Council has also expressed grave concern over the unlimited conscription of Eritrea’s citizens and the use of conscripts in forced labor. 

Eritrean women: “Take Human Rights Abusers to International Criminal Court!”

(09.03.2018) Eritrean women and friends and supporters of Eritrea marched from the centre of the Dutch capital, Den Hague to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to demand justice for on the International Women’s Day.

Turkish conscientious objector Osman Murat Ülke harassed again

(22.11.2017) Two decades after his imprisonment, Osman Murat Ülke was summoned to the police station again this week by the prosecutor in Bilecik, who has reopened his case, and ordered him to make a statement at the local police station. Ossi was the first conscientious objector arrested in Turkey, having burnt his military papers publicly at a press conference in Izmir on 1 September 1995. The following decade included repeated arrests and imprisonments, and his case was eventually taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favour.