The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs has declared that the EU remains deeply concerned that the Government of Eritrea continues to violate the human rights obligations it has under both domestic and international law.

In a statement, Lady Ashton, the EU High Representative, refers to the continued detention without charge or trial since 18 September 2001 of the group of eleven prominent members of Eritrea’s National Assembly and of the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, and also of ten independent journalists detained a few days later. Despite repeated appeals by the international community, including the UN Human Rights Council and the European Union, these people have been held for eleven years, without charge or trial, totally incommunicado, with all rights suspended.

There have been reports that other journalists have been arrested and detained without a trial. The declaration says the EU is particularly concerned about the reported deaths of some of the political prisoners and the severe deterioration in the medical situation of others. The continued lack of information on their whereabouts and their access to health care is a clear violation of the human rights obligations enshrined in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which has been ratified by Eritrea.

The EU urged the Government of Eritrea to release these prisoners unconditionally, along with other persons detained for their political views. It requests the government to make public all information on the whereabouts of the prisoners and to allow them access to their families and to lawyers, not least on humanitarian grounds.

Source: A Week in the Horn – Sept. 21, 2012