{"id":280555,"date":"2019-07-02T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?guid=32e4d0dc3d454e5911f02b836e53d263"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:34:29","slug":"un-rights-expert-finds-no-improvement-in-eritrea-a-year-after-peace-with-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/280555","title":{"rendered":"UN rights expert finds no improvement in Eritrea a year after peace with Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The human rights situation in Eritrea had shown no sign of improvement since the country made peace with Ethiopia in July 2018, the United Nations special rapporteur on Eritrea, Daniela Kravetz, said on 2 July 2019, Al Jazeera reported. \u201cThe dividends of peace are not yet benefiting ordinary Eritreans, nor are there any signs to suggest they will,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-837273\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/asmara-harnet-avenue-2015.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Buildings on Harnet Avenue in Asmara on 24 November 2015\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Buildings on Harnet Avenue in Asmara on 24 November 2015 (Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0) [file photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEritrean authorities remain unwilling to tolerate any expression of dissent,\u201d Kravetz said, adding that \u201chundreds continue to flee the country every month.\u201d Eritrea\u2019s representative at the United Nations called her report \u201cunacceptable\u201d and said \u201cthe overriding objective of [her] mandate was to vilify, isolate and destabilise\u201d his country.<\/p>\n<p>Kravetz said she had received \u201ctroubling\u201d reports of Christians, including women and children, being arrested at prayer gatherings in and around Asmara, and of five Orthodox priests detained at the Debre Bizen monastery. In mid-June, she said, the authorities \u201cseized all health facilities managed by the Catholic Church in the country,\u201d 21 clinics and health centers that served rural communities, citing a 1995 rule that bars religious bodies from development work. The move came weeks after the Catholic Church called for dialogue and reforms to stop people leaving.<\/p>\n<p>Muslims were also imprisoned, she said, citing the case of Said Mohammed, a man in his 30s who died on 13 June from \u201cmistreatment in prison and lack of proper medical attention.\u201d She said open-ended military service \u201cremains one of the main drivers of migration from Eritrea\u201d and urged the government to limit it to 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>President Isaias Afwerki has ruled Eritrea since 1993. Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have fled in recent years, many crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/7\/2\/un-expert-no-rights-improvements-in-eritrea-after-peace-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Al Jazeera<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UN expert: No rights improvements in Eritrea after peace deal&nbsp;&nbsp;Aljazeera.comDeal between Asmara and Addis Ababa has failed to &#8216;pay dividends&#8217; for ordinary Eritreans, UN envoy says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/asmara-harnet-avenue-2015.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1aZ5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837288,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280555\/revisions\/837288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}