SWA recieves reports of Torture in Eritrea

March 4, 2010 - PRLog -- 02/29/10


New York (SWA) Student World Assembly calls on the Eritrean government to respect the inherent human rights of its citizens it swore to uphold by signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. SWA has received reports from SWA members in Eritrea of torture and arbitrary detention.  The Eritrean government should immediately release all political prisoners, allow freedom of expression and worship, and end all wanton violence against it populace.

An overlooked country in the media and international discussions, A report from the Oslo Center on systematic oppression in Eritrea describes Eritreans as a “forgotten people”. Despite egregious human rights violations, including the systematic use of imprisonment, torture, and executions without judgment, the Eritrean government receives very little international condemnation.

According to Kjell Magne Bondevik, President of the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, human rights violations in Eritrea have frequently been overlooked in favor of stability and security, particularly within the context of combating terrorism.

An ongoing border dispute with Ethopia has allowed the government of Eritrea to use external threats as a pretext for brutal repression and human rights violations. Eritrea's civil society was completely quelled by 2001, many dissenters sent to secret prisons without trial, where they remain subject to the harshest living conditions, torture and indefinite detainment. According to the report, all sect of the population are vulnerable to imprisonment, including persons over the age of 80 and children as young as eight or nine, detained for any or no reason at all.

To learn more please read the Oslo Report: http://www.oslocenter.no/index.php?option=com_content&tas...

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