An Eritrean delegation to UN human rights meetings in Geneva this week was once more a source of shock, disgust and intense frustration to UN experts and the participant audiences. The first meeting was the interactive dialogue with the UN Human Rights Council on 11 March when the delegation claimed that nothing went wrong in Eritrea in the past two decades. The second two-day meeting at which the delegation was grilled on 12 and 13 March was held with the 18-person UN committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Eritrea signed the ICCPR convention in 2002 by promising to respect and promote the fundamental human and political rights of its people. But since then, Eritrea refused to respond to any queries coming to it from the ICCPR Committee in charge of follow up of implementation by signatories of that international covenant. Eritrea this year agreed to meet the Committee at its 125th Session. Yet, the Eritrean delegation failed to submit the required written report.
Mr. Tesfamichael Gerhatu, the head of the Eritrean delegation, and his colleague, Mr. Adem Osman, spent long hours with the ICCRP Committee evading its questions and shamelessly listing none existent "facts". The distinguished international experts of the ICCPR Committee at times begged the Eritrean envoys to be kind enough to known facts about Eritrea and stop "blanket denials." The Eritrean regime delegates were not willing to bend.
Below are a few samples of the Eritrean delegation's responses to questions of the international experts on human and political rights elected by all UN signatories of the ICCPR convention, including Eritrea, and approved by the UN General Assembly. Mr. Tesfamichael Gerhatu and his colleague said as follows:
Simply put, it was difficult to listen to the wild babble of the Eritrean delegates who ignored pertinent queries of the ICCPR Committee and talked presented their alternative facts. No responses were given to several burning questions of the Committee members whose names are given in the table below.
Name of Member |
Nationality |
Term expires on 31 December |
Ms. Tania María |
Paraguay |
2020 |
Tunisia |
2022 |
|
Ms. Ilze BRANDS KEHRIS Rapporteur |
Latvia |
2020 |
Guyana |
2022 |
|
Mr. Ahmed Amin FATHALLA, Chair |
Egypt |
2020 |
Japan |
2022 |
|
South Africa |
2020 |
|
Mauritania |
2020 |
|
Canada |
2020 |
|
Uganda |
2022 |
|
Ms. Photini PAZARTZIS Vice-Chair |
Greece |
2022 |
Chile |
2022 |
|
Slovenia |
2022 |
|
Portugal |
2020 |
|
Mr. Yuval SHANY, Vice-Chair |
Israel |
2020 |
France |
2022 |
|
Germany |
2020 |
|
Albania |
2022 |