Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea

MEDIA ADVISORY – TO ALL CORRESPONDENTS AND EDITORS

Tigrinya

Geneva (1 June 2016) – The Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Eritrea will hold a press conference on Wednesday 8 June 2016. Mike Smith, chair of the Commission will present the report’s findings to the media.

Where: Palais des Nations Salle III, Geneva

When: Wednesday 8 June 2016

Time: 11:30 (Central European Time)

Webcast: For journalists unable to attend, the press conference will be streamed live at: http://webtv.un.org [Note: this recording is not broadcast quality]

The Commission of Inquiry was established by the Human Rights Council through resolution 26/24 of 27 June 2014 to investigate all alleged violations of human rights in Eritrea, as outlined in the reports of the special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea.

The Commission consists of three independent experts, chaired by Mr. Mike Smith (Australia), Mr. Victor Dankwa (Ghana) and Ms. Sheila B. Keetharuth (Mauritius), who is also the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.

The Commission of Inquiry’s first report was published on 8 June 2015 and documented a series of grave human rights violations in Eritrea’s military/national service programmes, including their prolonged and indefinite duration, abusive conditions and the use of conscripts as forced labour. The Commission presented its first report to the Human Rights Council on 23 June 2015.

The Human Rights Council extended the Commission's mandate, through resolution 29/18 of 2 July 2015, for one year and mandated it to investigate systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in Eritrea with a view to ensuring full accountability, including where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.

The Commission will formally present its findings to the Human Rights Council on 21 June 2016, followed by an oral update on its work to the General Assembly in October 2016.

ENDS

For more information, please contact: Dan McNorton on +41 79 618 3474 or dmcnorton@ohchr.org

Website: http://www.ohchr.org/CoIEritrea/

Media accreditation for the Palais des Nations:  http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument