The hopes quickly faded. Isaias Afwerki, who led the fight for independence, became president \u2013 and he is still there, ruling by decree. Despite ratification of a new Constitution in 1997, it was never applied. After locking up critical politicians and journalists<\/a> in 2001, international media were banned too. The country\u2019s only university was shut down in 2001. The tiny Horn of Africa state still has no parliament, no free elections, no independent justice system, no free press or civil society space, no religious freedom, no freedom of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe country\u2019s human rights situation remains severe, marked by widespread and systemic violations,\u201d states Sudanese UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker in his most recent report<\/a> to the UN Human Rights Council. \u201cThis is evident in the lack of democratic governance and rule of law, severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms, indefinite national service, arbitrary and prolonged detention, and enforced disappearances. These patterns sustain a system of institutionalized repression, fuelled by impunity and lack of accountability.\u201d Babiker says there are reasonable grounds to believe \u201ccrimes against humanity are ongoing in Eritrea\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe people do not have any sustainable future,\u201d says Tadese Teklebrhan, Eritrean chairman and co-founder of the NGO Eritrean Human Rights Defenders<\/a> in The Netherlands. \u201cEverything is controlled by the government. There is no developing infrastructure in the country. There is no transportation, even from the big cities. Economically, it is destroyed. Every young person, they round up and take to prison. Every part of the country has a military prison. The government needs everyone to join military service, which is indefinite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says he fled Eritrea at age 31, after 10 years of military service, because he felt he had no future. He fled through Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya and across the Mediterranean. Such journeys, undertaken by many Eritreans, are difficult, dangerous and sometimes deadly. They may also involve paying large sums of money to human traffickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndefinite national service is central to the system because it deprives generations of Eritreans of control over their education, employment, family life and future,\u201d says Elizabeth Chyrum, director of the UK-based NGO Human Rights Concern Eritrea<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his qualification of crimes against humanity, Babiker refers particularly to enforced disappearances. \u201cFor three decades, and even before independence in 1991, there is a constant pattern of enforced disappearance across the society, including Muslim and Christian clerics, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, politicians and journalists,\u201d he told Justice Info. \u201cSo this is systematic and widespread. The Eritrean government continues to arrest people, detain them incommunicado and even deny it, so this is concealment. They conceal even their whereabouts and refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty. This is at the heart of the definition of enforced disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Babiker has never been allowed to visit Eritrea, although he has asked many times. Since his mandate started in 2020, he says he has invested a lot of time developing a network, mostly remotely, among families of people detained, refugees, and those arriving recently elsewhere from Eritrea. Their testimonies are harrowing, says Babiker, and require strict confidentiality, because there is always the fear of reprisals by the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou meet people like, for example, a family where the father has been in detention for 25 or 30 years,\u201d he told Justice Info. \u201cAnd when you ask the children, they say we never saw our father. Some people, they don\u2019t even have information about whether their loved one is alive or dead. And I am not talking about one family, I am talking about a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No-one knows how many people have been forcibly disappeared, but it is likely to total many thousands, according to Human Rights Concern Eritrea<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Babiker also points to transnational repression, \u201cillustrating how Eritrea extends coercive measures across borders to control and silence its citizens abroad\u201d. \u201cThe ongoing use of coercive administrative and financial methods, especially through Eritrean embassies and consulates, remains concerning,\u201d says the UN Special Rapporteur in his report. Eritrea is one of the largest generators of refugees<\/a> in proportion to its population of around 3.7 million. According to the UNHCR, more than 679,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers were recorded globally as of December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his report, Babiker says that \u201cthe majority of Eritreans who engaged with the Special Rapporteur reported that Eritreans abroad continued to be subject to a 2 per cent \u2018Recovery and Rehabilitation Tax\u2019, often referred to as the diaspora tax, and to be required to sign a letter of regret [for abandoning the country]\u00a0to access essential consular services to obtain, among other things, passports and civil documents including birth and marriage certificates and academic records, and sometimes, to arrange the burial of deceased Eritreans abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t Chyrum says many Eritreans remain afraid even after reaching safety. \u201cThey may censor themselves, avoid demonstrations, withdraw from community life or refrain from speaking to journalists and human-rights organizations,\u201d she continues. \u201cSome fear that relatives in Eritrea will be punished for their activities abroad. Others experience financial pressure, reputational attacks, online harassment and exclusion from community or religious networks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teklebrhan says the Eritrean regime has trained agents abroad who try to control and coerce diaspora communities, notably through cultural festivals. \u201cI say the festivals are not cultural festivals, they are really propaganda festivals,\u201d he told Justice Info. \u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t participate in the festival or in the collection of money that the regime needs, they isolate that person from the community. The regime has its long arm in every part of the diaspora community.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shifting regional dynamics no doubt plays a part in Eritrea\u2019s maintenance of an open-ended, forced military service because, as Babiker says, it perceives its neighbours as an \u201cexistential threat\u201d. This is particularly the case with Ethiopia, which is now sabre-rattling again<\/a> over access to the Red Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eritrea has also had clashes with Sudan and Djibouti. It took 19 Djiboutian soldiers in a border skirmish in 2008, 13 of whose fate is still unknown. Djibouti keeps asking about these POWs, but Eritrea provides no information, says Babiker. Relations between the two are not good. With Sudan, however, relations have improved, because the Sudanese government \u2013 fighting a civil war \u2013 needs an ally to the east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other African states, with some exceptions, tend to back Eritrea within the UN Human Rights Council or abstain on votes condemning its appalling human rights record, Babiker told Justice Info.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly, there will be no independent justice in Eritrea at the moment for the regime\u2019s many victims. Back in 2015, Mike Smith of Australia, at the time chairman of a UN human rights inquiry on Eritrea, told Justice Info<\/a> that \u201cthe issue can be taken up by the Security Council, because the Security Council could then refer cases to the International Criminal Court<\/a>, and then you would have prosecutors from the ICC who would review the evidence and decide if they were going to try and charge individuals\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has never happened. Why? \u201cI think there are some difficulties with the route of referral. In particular, if the case were referred, it could be vetoed by some Security Council members,\u201d Babiker told Justice Info. Does he mean China and Russia, and perhaps the US? \u201cAbsolutely, the United States as well,\u201d he replies, \u201cbecause also of the new political dynamics in the region, the Red Sea access, the conflict with Ethiopia and now the conflict in the Middle East.\u201d \u201cAlso now, the ICC is already dealing with other cases of referrals, like Sudan and Libya,\u201d he continues, \u201cand they are struggling with these cases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his report, Babiker recommends that UN member states \u201cexercise universal jurisdiction<\/a> over alleged crimes against humanity [in Eritrea] and initiate legal proceedings against individuals responsible for committing international crimes and violating international human rights law and international humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUniversal jurisdiction could be one of the routes for supra-national prosecution of crimes,\u201d he told Justice Info. \u201cBut also, this requires collection of concrete evidence against people who allegedly committed crimes, and willingness of states to pursue these cases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He knows of only one attempt to date to bring a universal jurisdiction case. That was in Sweden, in the case of Dawit Isaak, Swedish Eritrean co-owner of the newspaper Setit<\/em>, who was arrested on September 23, 2001. Like most of those arrested in September and October 2001, Dawit\u2019s whereabouts, health, and legal status remain unknown. \u201cBut for strategic reasons, I guess, the case did not move forward,\u201d Babiker continues. \u201cI think it requires the consent of the prosecution office in Sweden, and also these cases are politically sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there has been little accountability so far, there have been cases against Eritrean human traffickers<\/a> in the Netherlands. This is not enough, but Teklebrhan says it represents some kind of justice for victims. And, he says, some of the traffickers are linked to the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Babiker describes the human rights situation in Eritrea as \u201cdire\u201d and getting worse. He says he has seen no improvement during his six-year mandate as Special Rapporteur, and increased tension with Ethiopia may mean more forced recruitment of young people into open-ended military service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked how the situation compares with that in his native country Sudan \u2013 engaged in a brutal civil war \u2013 he thinks there is more hope for Sudan<\/a>. \u201cIn Sudan the situation is getting worse since the war, since April 2023,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore that, Sudan had a great December revolution in 2018, created by strong civil society, some political parties, strong youth groups and strong academia. Still people have their own civic space to resist. The problem with Eritrea is that no civic space exists. No-one has Internet, and life is completely controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nInstitutionalized repression<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Decades of enforced disappearances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Not safe, even in exile<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Regional and international dynamics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why no justice so far?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Universal jurisdiction?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A \u201cdire\u201d situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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