{"id":7673,"date":"2016-10-05T05:29:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T05:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=7673"},"modified":"2016-10-05T05:29:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T05:29:37","slug":"oct-4-2016-press-releases-hrf-eritrea-disclose-whereabouts-journalists-detained-secret-prisons-since-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2016\/10\/05\/oct-4-2016-press-releases-hrf-eritrea-disclose-whereabouts-journalists-detained-secret-prisons-since-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct. 4, 2016 | Press Releases HRF to Eritrea: Disclose the Whereabouts of Journalists Detained in Secret Prisons Since 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (October 4, 2016)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Last month marked 15 years since the Eritrean government arbitrarily detained a group of 11 independent journalists in secret prisons, effectively bringing about the end of independent press in the country. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) joins the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20515&amp;LangID=E\" target=\"_blank\">calling<\/a> on the Eritrean government to urgently provide information on the whereabouts of the detainees and to release them immediately. The journalists were arrested in September 2001 following the publication of an open letter denouncing President Isais Afeworki\u2019s dictatorial rule.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/humanrightsfoundation.org\/uploads\/articles\/Eritrea_protesters._Source%3A_ibtimes.jpg\" alt=\"HRF to Eritrea: Disclose the Whereabouts of Journalists Detained in Secret Prisons Since 2001\" width=\"472\" height=\"263\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritreans have been ruled by fear. Afwerki\u2019s dictatorial state \u2014 whose cruelty has often been compared to that of Kim Jong-un\u2019s regime in North Korea \u2014 has made systematic repression, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and rape common practices, turning Eritrea into one of the most repressive countries in the world,\u201d said HRF president Thor Halvorssen. \u201cIt is time that the Eritrean despot be brought to justice like his fellow dictators, Hissene Habre of Chad and Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. Impunity must end and innocent detainees should be released immediately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The journalists have remained incommunicado since they were first arrested in 2001 without charge or trial. The government has justified their detention by claiming that they posed a threat to national security. A 2012 <a href=\"https:\/\/rsf.org\/en\/news\/three-journalists-held-2001-die-eiraeiro-prison-camp\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> by Reporters Without Borders claims that seven members of the group have died while in detention, but the government has refused to disclose any information about their whereabouts or the reported deaths. In June 2016, the Eritrean foreign minister <a href=\"http:\/\/en.rfi.fr\/africa\/20160621-eritrea-foreign-minister-denies-human-rights-abuses-clashes-ethiopia-disappeared-act\" target=\"_blank\">stated<\/a> that all political prisoners are alive and will be tried \u201cwhen the government decides.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ruthless imprisonment of these journalists by the Eritrean government, followed by the regime\u2019s refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of the detainees for 15 years, qualify as the crime of enforced disappearance according the 2006 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance,\u201d said Celine Assaf Boustani, international legal associate at HRF. \u201cAlthough Eritrea is not a state party to this convention, the definitions in the convention codify general international law, so the convention\u2019s content is binding upon Eritrea,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Eritrea <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/HRBodies\/HRC\/CoIEritrea\/Pages\/ReportCoIEritrea.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">concluded<\/a> in its report that \u201cthere are reasonable grounds to believe that Eritrean officials have committed the crime of enforced disappearance, a crime against humanity, in a persistent, widespread, and systematic manner since May 1991.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (October 4, 2016)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Last month marked 15 years since the Eritrean government arbitrarily detained a group of 11 independent journalists in secret prisons, effectively bringing about the end of independent press in the country. Human Rights Foundation (HRF) joins the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea in calling on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oct. 4, 2016 | Press Releases HRF to Eritrea: Disclose the Whereabouts of Journalists Detained in Secret Prisons Since 2001 - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oct. 4, 2016 | Press Releases HRF to Eritrea: Disclose the Whereabouts of Journalists Detained in Secret Prisons Since 2001 - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NEW YORK (October 4, 2016)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Last month marked 15 years since the Eritrean government arbitrarily detained a group of 11 independent journalists in secret prisons, effectively bringing about the end of independent press in the country. 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