CASE No - Inter-Parliamentary Union

CL/183/SR.1
ANNEX XX
ERITREA
CASE No. ERI/01 - OGBE ABRAHA
CASE No. ERI/02 - ASTER FISSEHATSION
CASE No. ERI/03 - BERHANE GEBREGZIABEHER
CASE No. ERI/04 - BERAKI GEBRESELASSIE
CASE No. ERI/05 - HAMAD HAMID HAMAD
CASE No. ERI/06 - SALEH KEKIYA
CASE No. ERI/07 - GERMANO NATI
CASE No. ERI/08 - ESTIFANOS SEYOUM
CASE No. ERI/09 - MAHMOUD AHMED SHERIFFO
CASE No. ERI/10 - PETROS SOLOMON
CASE No. ERI/11 - HAILE WOLDETENSAE
Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 183 rd session
(Geneva, 15 October 2008)
The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Referring to the cases of the parliamentarians listed above, former members of the
Parliament of Eritrea who have been held incommunicado since 18 September 2001, as outlined in the
report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/183/12(b)-R.1), and to the
resolution adopted at its 182 nd session (April 2008),
Recalling the following:
- the parliamentarians concerned were arrested on 18 September 2001 after publishing an
open letter criticizing President Issayas Afwerki's policies and have been held
incommunicado ever since, accused of conspiracy and attempting to overthrow the legal
government without ever being formally charged or tried;
- in November 2003, upon examination of a complaint concerning their situation, the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found that the State of Eritrea had
violated Articles 2, 6, 7(1) and 9(2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,
which address the right to liberty and security of person, the right to a fair trial and the right
to freedom of expression, and urged the State of Eritrea to order the immediate release of
the former parliamentarians and to compensate them,
Recalling that since September 2004, when the Ambassador of Eritrea to the European
Union, Belgium, Luxemburg, Portugal and Spain reported that he did not know whether "anyone from
outside or a member of their family has recently visited them and observed their conditions of
detention", no further reply to any request for information has been received from the Eritrean
authorities, and that no other source has been able to provide any information on the current situation
of the former parliamentarians,
1. Is appalled by the continued silence of the Eritrean authorities to its persistent pleas to end
the prolonged incommunicado detention of the former parliamentarians in flagrant breach
of their fundamental rights under the Constitution of Eritrea and under the African Charter
on Human and Peoples' Rights;
2. Urges them once again to put an end to this shocking situation, which flies in the face of all
respect for human dignity, by releasing the former parliamentarians forthwith;
3. Considers that, in the 60 th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the international community, in particular the global parliamentary community, cannot
remain silent in the face of such a violation, and requests the Secretary General to make
every effort to draw international attention to this case; invites in particular those
parliaments in the region that have strong ties with Eritrea to intervene with a view to
securing the release of the persons concerned;