PFDJ Delegation at UN Geneva Starts Lobbying with Failed Side-Event

2016-06-17 07:29:14 Written by  EPDP Information Office Published in EPDP News Read 2347 times

The panicked Eritrean delegation at the 32nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council, on Thursday, 16 June, held a failed side-event inside the UN Geneva Headquarters  parading presentations of Nevsun and other mining companies in Eritrea whose senior managers tried to give a face-lift to the Asmara regime and, in doing so, hoped to justify their respective company's "innocent" presence in the country.

 

There were as many presenters as the audience itself - and about half of the audience consisted of members of the Eritrean consulate in Geneva. Human rights activists and delegations of UN Human Rights Council member countries showed little interest to attend the event. Even an active lobbying in the UN corridors and tea rooms by presidential advisor Yemane Ghebreab did not help.

 

When the Eritrean embassy organizers had to open the event with the available participants, Mr. Tesfamichael Gerhatu, who for this time round seemed to be the deputy head of the Eritrean delegation, started by explaining the wonderful "nation-building" processes going on in Eritrea and then stated the objective of the side-event to be demonstrating that "responsible and sustainable" mining activities are going in Eritrea by Nevsun, Zara, and Danakali mining companies whose senior managerial staff were at hand to explain. Their presentations, which took 90% of the time, consisted mainly of old video shows of their field infrastructure and how well their Eritrean workers are taken care.

 

Question time took less than 20 minutes, which is unusual for such side-events at the UN halls. After the first four questions - the fourth being from an Eritrean consulate official, there was no one interested to ask. In fact, only two of the questions drew the interest of the presenters to say a few sentences as responses.

Eritrean Delegation Holds Failed Side Event at UN Geneva 2 1The first question was posed by someone from the Horn of Africa who appeared to be sympathetic to the regime. He asked how the mining companies in Eritrea would be affected if (giving much emphasis to the 'if') the conclusions of the UN Commission of Inquiry are adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on 21 June.

The second question was raised by an Eritrean who identified himself to be opposed to the regime in Asmara. The questioner said he was familiar with "the awkward partnership between greedy businessmen and a repressive regime like that of Saddam Hussein's Republic of Fear and that he could understand well the unenviable position of the mining companies in today's Eritrea. He then asked how the mining companies will address the recommendations of the UN Commission of Inquiry to avoid conscript labour and the "difficulties relating to freedom of association and expression in Eritrea and absence of financial transparency".

The responses from the presenters could be summarized as follows: "the UN COI conclusions, if adopted, will affect our activities in Eritrea. On the other hand, we are not using conscript labour, as alleged, and we understand the Eritrean government is directing the revenues from mining in development efforts for the benefit of the Eritrean people."

Last modified on Friday, 17 June 2016 09:39