The coastal Danakali region, predominantly inhabited by Afar communities\u2014cross-border pastoralists\u2014was especially\u00a0affected<\/a>\u00a0by border closures. Media reported that the government intercepted\u00a0camel convoys<\/a>\u00a0bringing foodstuffs from Djibouti and Ethiopia, a key food supply for local Afar communities. The government has also\u00a0confiscated<\/a>\u00a0Afari fishing boats, thereby preventing access to food and income.<\/p>\n In September<\/a>, the government ignored its own restrictions on movement, its ban on public transport<\/a>, and its school closures, by channeling thousands of school students to the infamous Sawa military camp where all secondary school students must complete their schooling and simultaneously undergo military training.<\/p>\n Positively, Eritrea took part in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) review. Although a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), it refused to cooperate with or grant access to the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea and publicly attacked her mandate.<\/p>\n Mass roundups and prolonged arbitrary arrests and detentions without trial or appeal remain common.<\/p>\n Many detainees, including\u00a0government officials and journalists<\/a>\u00a0arrested in 2001 after they questioned Isaias\u2019s leadership, are held incommunicado. In June, a daughter of journalist Dawit Isaak told media he was alive, but\u00a0without substantiating<\/a>\u00a0the assertion.\u00a0Ciham Ali Abdu<\/a>, daughter of a former information minister, has been held for seven years since her arrest age 15. Former finance minister and critic of the president, Berhane Abrehe,\u00a0remains<\/a>\u00a0in incommunicado detention since September 2018.<\/p>\n Prisoners often do not know why they are being detained. Relatives are seldom informed of prisoners\u2019 whereabouts, sometimes learning of their fate only when a body is returned.<\/p>\n Authorities hold detainees in inhumane conditions. Facilities are overcrowded and unsanitary,\u00a0made worse by Covid-19 restrictions<\/a>\u00a0that denied many detainees vital food parcels and sanitary products their families would have provided. For months, the government ignored\u00a0calls<\/a>\u00a0by international rights actors to release those unlawfully detained to decongest detention facilities in response to Covid-19.<\/p>\n Eritrea has long criminalized consensual homosexual conduct; the 2015 penal code mandates imprisonment for five to seven years.<\/p>\n The government took no steps to reform the country\u2019s national service system. It continued to conscript Eritreans, most men and unmarried women, indefinitely into military or civil service for low pay and with no say in their profession or work location. Conscripts are often subjected to inhuman and degrading punishment, including torture, without recourse. Conscientious objection is not recognized;\u00a0it is punished<\/a>. Discharge from national service is arbitrary and procedures\u00a0opaque<\/a>.<\/p>\n For secondary students, some under 18, conscription begins at Sawa. Students are under military command, are subjected to harsh military punishments and discipline, and female students have reported sexual harassment and exploitation. Dormitories are crowded and health facilities very limited.<\/p>\n The government continued to conscript youth, some perceived as seeking to evade conscription during mass round-ups.<\/p>\n No conscripts, including students, were released from Sawa during 2020, despite the risk of exposure to Covid-19. And, despite calls for reforms, including the separation of schooling from compulsory military training, in September the government again bused students to Sawa, forcibly channeling thousands of young people into national service.<\/p>\n The government assigns conscripts to military duties but many\u00a0are assigned<\/a>\u00a0to civil service jobs or work on agricultural or construction projects.\u00a0In February<\/a>, the\u00a0 Supreme Court of Canada\u00a0held<\/a>\u00a0that the Canadian mining company, Nevsun, accused of using conscript forced labor at its Bisha mine could be sued in Canada for human rights abuses in Eritrea. In October, the parties announced they had\u00a0agreed to a settlement in the case<\/a>\u00a0but the terms remained confidential.<\/p>\n The government continued to rely on poorly trained national service teachers, which affects quality of primary and secondary education, and teacher retention.\u00a0Conscripted teachers<\/a>\u00a0have no say about where they will be assigned, the subjects they will teach, or the length of their assignment.<\/p>\n Some conscript pay was increased but it remains inadequate to support a family.<\/p>\n The government \u201crecognized\u201d\u00a0only four religious denominations<\/a>: Sunni Islam, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholicism, and Evangelical (Lutheran) churches.<\/p>\n Eritreans affiliated with \u201cunrecognized\u201d faiths have faced imprisonment and have often been forced to renounce their religion, including by being tortured. In September and October, two nongovernmental organizations\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0the release of\u00a0as many as 69<\/a>\u00a0\u201cnon-recognized\u201d Christians, some detained for over a decade\u2014possibly due to fears of Covid-19 infection\u2014on condition they signed property deeds to hold them liable for future behavior. But the government still arrested people because of religious practices, including during\u00a0wedding celebrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n None of the 52 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses long incarcerated in Mai Serwa\u00a0have been released<\/a>, including three jailed since 1994 because of their conscientious objections to military service.<\/p>\n Even \u201crecognized\u201d religions faced restrictions. A Catholic Church delegation led by the archbishop of Addis Ababa was refused entry at the Asmara airport and\u00a0deported.\u00a0<\/a>The Orthodox patriarch deposed by the government in 2007 and\u00a0expelled<\/a>\u00a0from the church in 2019 because of \u201cheresy\u201d remained under house arrest.<\/p>\n In November 2019, 21 Muslims were\u00a0reportedly arrested<\/a>\u00a0in Mendafera and Adi Quala, including a local imam; the whereabouts of many remains unknown. Media reported that\u00a0peaceful demonstrators<\/a>\u00a0arrested in 2017 and early 2018 for protesting the government takeover of Al Diaa Islamic school were released in August; officials of the school remain incarcerated.<\/p>\n In January, Finn Church Aid, one of the very few nongovernmental organizations based in Eritrea, ended its activities after the government suddenly stopped\u00a0its teacher training project<\/a>, which aimed to recruit teachers outside the national service system.<\/p>\n Eritrea\u2019s ongoing rights crisis continues to drive thousands of Eritreans into exile, with many children and youth escaping conscription.<\/p>\n In the first three months of 2020,\u00a09,436 Eritreans fled to Ethiopia alone<\/a>, a third of whom were children. In January, the Ethiopian government unofficially changed its asylum policy, which for years granted all Eritrean asylum seekers refugee status as a group, only registering some categories of new arrivals at the Eritrea border, excluding others, notably\u00a0unaccompanied children<\/a>.<\/p>\n Among those fleeing Eritrea were\u00a0four football players<\/a>\u00a0participating in a tournament in Uganda in November 2019. Some footballers defected at tournaments in 2015 and 2009.<\/p>\n Israeli authorities continued to systematically deny the asylum claims of the roughly 32,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in the country. However, in April, Israel\u2019s Supreme Court struck down a law that permitted the confiscation of a portion of their salaries.<\/p>\n More than two years after the Eritrea and Ethiopia declared peace, their border remains demarcated and Ethiopia\u00a0has not withdrawn from Badme<\/a>, the Eritrean village that triggered the 1998 war. In 2019, Eritrea unilaterally closed the border. In March 2020, Ethiopia\u00a0shut<\/a>\u00a0the border because of pandemic-related fears.<\/p>\n After having been\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0by a European human rights organization and\u00a0criticized<\/a>\u00a0by the European Parliament for\u00a0funding the procurement<\/a>\u00a0of material for the construction of a road in Eritrea that employs conscript forced labor, the European Union announced it would fund \u201cno more roads.\u201d It also announced it would be conducting a review of its\u00a0\u201cdual-track\u201d approach i<\/a>n Eritrea, which de-linked political and development policy with its development arm focused on job creation activities, and its political arm reportedly raising human rights issues. In contrast, a subsidiary of a state-owned Chinese company remains involved in building a 134-kilometer road.<\/p>\n In 2013, Human Rights Watch\u00a0documented<\/a>\u00a0how a state-owned construction company, which regularly used forced conscript workers built part of the Bisha mine\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/a>Two mining companies that provide 20 percent of the country\u2019s\u00a0income<\/a>\u00a0are 60 percent \u00a0owned by Chinese firms, and 40 percent by the government.<\/p>\n The development of a massive 50 percent Australian company-owned potash development project, the Colluli potash project\u00a0 in the Danakali region,\u00a0moved ahead<\/a>. In May, the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0allegations that the military had been clearing local Afar communities off their land around Colluli since 2017.<\/p>\n The Global Partnership for Education, a global education donor,\u00a0awarded<\/a>\u00a0a US$17.2 million grant to Eritrea, despite ongoing human rights abuses in the country\u2019s education sector.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: Human Rights Watch<\/a><\/p>\nUnlawful, Abusive Detentions<\/h2>\n
Indefinite Military Conscription and Forced Labor<\/h2>\n
Freedom of Religion<\/h2>\n
Refugees<\/h2>\n
Key International Actors<\/h2>\n
![\"HRW](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/649542896782282752\/uXV4m4xx_400x400.png\")
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