UN Human Rights Council Hotly Debates UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Eritrea
2016-06-22 08:12:16 Written by EPDP Information Office Published in EPDP News Read 2266 times-
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In the afternoon hours of Tuesday, 21 June, the 32nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council passionately debated the report submitted for its consideration by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea. At opening the debate on the report, Mr. Mike Smith, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, reminded delegations that crimes against humanity were being continually committed in Eritrea for the past 25 years and that a decision on accountability for those crimes in Eritrea will be a lesson for all "perpetrators of such crimes" all over the globe.
Delegations of the 47 members of the UN HR Council were allowed 3 minutes to make comments and questions, if they so wished, and other UN member countries (not members of the Council) and NGO representatives had 2 minutes for their interventions. Delegates of 26 countries made comments/questions, only 6 of them talking strongly on the side of the tyranny in Eritrea. These were delegates from Belarus, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan and Venezuela.
Eight civil society organizations, including the Human Rights Watch, also presented statements which strongly denounced what is going in Eritrea and appealed to all the 47 delegations of the UN Human Rights Council to fully adopted the conclusions and recommendations of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea and extend the mandate of the UN Human Rights Rapporteur for Eritrea.
During their interventions, the delegates of Djibouti and Somalia announced that they have a draft resolution for consideration and adoption by the UN Human Rights Council on 1 July 2016.
Meanwhile, supporters of the Eritrean regime were holding a demonstration outside the UN offices with numbers much reduced from their similar event of last year.
Meanwhile, Geneva is expecting a massive demonstration on Thursday, 23 June, by Eritreans voicing their support to the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry that recommends accountability for crimes against humanity perpetrated by Eritrean authorities in the past quarter of a century. nal Court in the Haque all the regime opposed to tyranny at home.
