Eritrea: Support appeal to AU to confront Eritrea on human rights violations

On 9 December, the day before International Human Rights Day, CIVICUS and the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights issued a letter of appeal, signed by 21 other civil society organisations, urging the member states of the African Union to acknowledge and take action on the Government of Eritrea’s ongoing human rights violations. Since 2001, the Eritrean government has systematically clamped down on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, and denied prisoners of conscience the rights to fair trial and due process of law. There are currently no independent political parties, media, human rights or other critical civil society organisations operating in Eritrea.