In a statement addressed to the recent Gender Equality Conference of the Progressive Alliance (PA) held in Switzerland, EPDP Women urged the PA Gender Equality Working Group to help empower Eritrean diaspora women’s groups.
The same statement also asked all sister parties in the global PA family to kindly extend helping hand in empowering and unifying the fragmented Eritrean opposition in exile as a way towards ending the prolonged suffering of people in that new Horn of Africa country.
The Eritrean delegation headed by Ms Asghedet Mehreteab, Chairperson of the EPDP Women’s League, was one of the delegations representing 48 countries globally, seven of them African. In group and bilateral discussions with high-ranking women delegates at the conference, the EPDP delegation made efforts to explain the situation in Eritrea and the cause of Eritrean justice seekers to many conference participants.
Majority of conference participants women holding high posts in their respective countries and parties.
Printed below is the full text of the statement addressed to the PA Conference held in Luzern, Switzerland between 24 and 26 October 2025.
Distinguished Delegates at this PA Gender
Equality Meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland
Please receive the best wishes for success of this PA Gender Equality conference from us the delegation of the Women’s League of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in exile. We are honored to once again have our delegation amongst you to take part in gender focused issues and related deliberations in promoting the progressive PA agenda we all share.
Understandably, our delegation is very much interested to share with you now and in our continued networking the miserable situation of the Eritrean people in general and women in particular. In a way of quick introduction, our Women’s League is an affiliate of the EPDP, an opposition party struggling for change and democratization in Eritrea as a gateway to all liberties, including gender equality. Our mother party, the EPDP, was one of the signatory members of the PA Declaration at the founding meeting in Leipzig in May 2013. We were pleased to have attended a good number of the conferences of this worthy body of progressive parties and organizations that, inter alia, strive to promote gender equality, including the role of women in leadership positions.
Dear Conference Participants,
As you know, Eritrea has not been in good shape ever since its hard-won independence in the early 1990s. Today, the one-man dictatorship of Isaias Afeworki is widely characterized as one of the topmost repressive regimes in Africa. For several years in the past three decades, Eritrea held top record of being the most censored country in the world. It is Africa’s topmost jailer of politicians and journalists as well as a big refugee producer. Eritrean refugees also constitute a very high percentage of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea and as victims of human trafficking everywhere. Eritrean women topped in this continued suffering of an entire nation.
Dear PA Gender Equality Working Group Leadership,
The Eritrean people and women in particular, are in urgent need of support from progressive forces like this PA family. Therefore,
We feel it is time for the PA Gender Equality Working Group to engage in empowering the Eritrean women’s groups in diaspora, which are many. The first step can be helping them create one platform, which has not been easy to achieve. This work can be facilitated by using the EPDP Women’s League as your channel to achieve this worthy start to help a people in dire need of support from friendly forces.
Needless to say, leaderships of member parties of the Progressive Alliance would do a great service by extending similar support to this PA-member EPDP and other pro-democracy groups to create working umbrella that would lead a future democratic State of Eritrea.
Again, my delegation wishes big success to this PA Gender Equality Working Group meeting in Switzerland and pledge and commit ourselves to be active in future networking will all of you.
Gherezghiher Tewelde, Chairman of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), called on the Swiss Socialist Party and other members of the global Progressive Alliance (PA) to kindly give appropriate attention to the ongoing dire situation in Eritrea through empowering Eritrean opposition forces in forced exile.
Logs of the Swiss Socialist Party, the EPDP and the PA, a 12-year old Political International
with about 140 progressive and democratic parties and organizations from all continents.
In hand-delivered copies of the solidarity message to the congress of the Swiss Socialist Party (SP) held on 25 October in Luzern, the EPDP Chairman stated: “We in EPDP and other Eritrean pro-democracy forces are in urgent need of attention and support from you and other sister parties and associations in the Progressive Alliance (PA) to help in ending the prolonged oppression and suffering in Eritrea, a third of whose population is already living in forced exile and displacement.” The EPDP Chairman’s message, which did not only speak for his party, also called for forging “close relation with us, Eritrean pro-democracy forces, so that we can unify our fragmented forces for change.”
Below is the full text of the solidarity message that was handed to SP’s co-chairpersons, Ms Meyer and Mr.Wermuth, as well as to Party leaders through SP Foreign Relations Secretary, Sandro Liniger.’ (The SP, also called the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, was founded in October 1888, and is the second largest of the four major coalitions in the Swiss Parliament).
Full Text of the EPDP Chair Message
Honourable Swiss SP Leadership and
Distinguished Congress Participants,
I, the undersigned chairman of the EPDP, am very much pleased to send this solidarity message to your congress with our party’s delegation attending the Progressive Alliance’s Gender Equality Working Group Conference in Luzern, Switzerland, and wish you a resounding success in the deliberations and outcome of this SP congress.
The EPDP leadership with party’s rank and file feel honoured to have joined your SP and other fraternal parties as a founding signatory of the Progressive Alliance 12 years ago in Leipzig, Germany. I also feel pride to mention here that our party kept in touch with the SP Foreign Office for a long time and always encouraged its branch members and other Eritreans in Switzerland to continuously vote for SP candidates at your federal and local elections.
Dear SP Co-Chairpersons: M.Meyer and C.Wermuth,
Since the dire situation in Eritrea is very well known to you and your party, allow me to say that we at EPDP and other Eritrean pro-democracy forces are in urgent need of attention and support from you and other sister parties and association in the PA to help in ending the prolonged oppression and suffering in Eritrea, a third of whose population is already living in forced exile and displacement. The basic demands we can list include your kind follow up of the hardships faced by Eritrean refugees, including those in Switzerland, and the forging of effective close relation with us, Eritrean pro-democracy forces, so that we can unify our fragmented forces for change. We trust your party’s close and effective involvement to prepare Eritrean opposition forces for a smooth transition in post-dictatorship Eritrea will prove to be a worthwhile task in building peace and democracy in the troubled Red Sea and Horn of Africa region.
I again wish this Congress a resounding success, and express my party's strong interest to keep in touch with your party and civic associations affiliated with it.
A three-person delegation of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), headed by Ms Asghedet Mehreteab, Chairperson of the EPDP Women’s League, took active part at the Gender Equality Conference of the global Progressive Alliance (PA) held in Luzern, Switzerland, between 24-26 October, 2025. The same delegation also seized the opportunity of taking part in the afternoon of 25 October at a lively and well attended congress of the Swiss Socialist Party held in a township near Luzern.
EPDP delegates ar PA Luzern conference
It is to be noted that, as founding-member in Leipzig, Germany, 12 years ago, EPDP high-level delegations have been attending and representing Eritrea at several Progressive Alliance conferences that were held in Tunis, Brussels, Rotterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and at several other PA-member party congresses in Scandinavian and other Western European metropolis.
The current PA Gender Equality Conference, hosted by the Swiss Socialist Party (SP), was addressed and attended by nearly 100 women leaders representing parties from 48 countries. Africa was represented by seven PA member parties from Cameroon, Eritrea/EPDP, Ghana, Nigeria, Eswatini (former Swaziland), Morocco and Western Sahara. The main theme of the conference was ‘advancing feminist political leadership, security and peace.’
Following welcoming remarks by top officials of the host party, Ms Machris Cabreros of the Philippines, who is the current Coordinator of the Progressive Alliance, opened the conference by calling for re-energizing the feminist struggle in every country. She also commended the host party for becoming a good example for all PA parties by having co-chairpersons, a man and a woman, leading their SP. Also making opening speeches were the two co-chairpersons of the PA Gender Equality Working Group who stressed the need of promoting the idea of bringing women to equal decision-making processes.
The PA Coordinator then invited to the podium the keynote speaker, Ms Simonetta Sommaruga, SP member and former President of Switzerland. In a rousing speech that urged all women to stand up for their rights and real freedom, Ms Sommaruga described her own country as one of the “least family friendly” countries in the world and denounced almost all world countries for still embracing “the scandal of pay inequality” for women.
Ms Marianne Mikko, Vice-chair of the UN CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women), said any mediation or other action for prevention of global conflicts requires 50% participation of women starting NOW.
On her part, Brazil’s minister for women affairs said “no peace without social justice” and that there cannot be “true democracy without the voice of women.”
The conference had three panel discussion sessions with about 20 presenters who were later welcomed questions and comments from conference participants. The panel discussion themes were on 1) enabling feminist leadership in uncertain times like today’s world; 2) lessons on countering online gender-based violence; and 3) shaping women, peace, and security agenda.
Practically every speaker had come up with rich experiences and novel ideas that would boost the global struggle for promoting gender equality. Equally educational and inspiring to conference participants was the exchange of ideas in group chats and the sharing of addresses for continued networking. As such, the EPDP Women’s League will as of now be connected to all exchange of views with PA women.
The Eritrean delegation led Ms Asghedet, a strong Eritrean fighter for women rights, made good use of the event by holding bilateral talks with several key participants including the keynote speaker Sommaruga, the UN CEDAW vice-chairperson, the PA Coordinator, Ms Cabreros, and several others.
Attending Swiss Party Congress
The other important event of the past weekend was the attendance of the PA delegations at the regular congress of the Swiss Socialist Party held in a township outside Luzern. On arrival at the congress venue, welcoming remarks were made by the SP co-chairpersons and a PA Board member from the Swiss party, expressing warm solidarity with all progressive and democratic sister parties in the Progressive Alliance. Ms Cabrero, the PA Coordinator, also expressed gratitude of the alliance to the SP both for hosting the PA conference and for inviting its delegations to their party congress.During the three hours that PA delegations stayed at the SP congress, the deliberations continued without any drawback in spite of the debates that raged in all the four Swiss languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh, a language spoken only by 1% of the Swiss population. (More details will follow in Tigrinya versions of the report).
Logs of the Swiss Socialist Party, the EPDP and the PA, a 12-year old Political International 
