{"id":30588,"date":"2020-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/reports\/hrc44-oral-statement-during-id-with-special-rapporteur-on-eritrea-4703\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:34:24","slug":"hrc44-oral-statement-during-id-with-special-rapporteur-on-eritrea-4703","status":"publish","type":"reports","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/reports\/hrc44-oral-statement-during-id-with-special-rapporteur-on-eritrea-4703\/","title":{"rendered":"HRC44: Oral statement during ID with Special Rapporteur on Eritrea"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6c2a8345666c276e2165261350916f92.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Agenda Item 2:<\/b> Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Organisation:<\/b>Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Speaker:<\/b> Claire Denman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you Madame President,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW thanks the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Eritrea for her important work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eritrea is entering its second year as a member of the Council; however its human rights crisis remains acute and requires continued scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thousands of individuals remain detained on account of their religion or belief, including Christians, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conditions of detention are inhumane and life-threatening, and many of those detained have experienced torture or other forms of ill-treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among those currently imprisoned is Abune Antonios, the legitimate patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nonagenarian Patriarch has been under house arrest since January 2007, after being removed from office in 2006 in violation of canon law, and effectively excommunicated in a process which lacked legitimacy. He is severely diabetic and suffers from high blood pressure worsened by privations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Concern for the wellbeing of detainees is increased by the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Eritrea earlier claimed to have defeated the virus; however, new cases have been confirmed, and the earlier closure of Catholic health facilities has deprived the poorest of basic care. The pandemic poses a serious risk to life to those detained in unsatisfactory and inhumane conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW calls on Eritrea to release all prisoners of conscience, including those detained on account of their religion or belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also urge the Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given the lack of progress towards meeting the five human rights benchmarks articulated in the Special Rapporteur\u2019s 2019 report, the mandate remains essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eritrea is entering its second year as a member of the Council; however its human rights crisis remains acute and requires continued scrutiny.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44583,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[154,152],"class_list":["post-30588","reports","type-reports","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-eritrea","regions-sub-saharan-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reports\/30588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reports"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reports"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reports\/30588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36182,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reports\/30588\/revisions\/36182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30588"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=30588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}