The Indigenous World 2025: Eritrea

Written on 25 April 2025. Posted in Eritrea

Eritrea borders the southern Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. It emerged as an Italian colonial construct in the late 19^th century, superimposed over Indigenous populations. Eritrea’s current population is between 3.7 and 5.9 million inhabitants.^[1]

There are at least four Indigenous Peoples: the Afar (between 4 and 12% of total population), Kunama (2%), Saho (4%) and Nara (>1%).^[2] These groups have inhabited their traditional territories for some 2,000 years. They are distinct from the two dominant ethnic groups by language (four different languages), religion (Islam), economy (agro and nomadic pastoral), law (customary), culture and way of life. All four Indigenous groups are marginalized and persecuted.^[3]

Following a United Nations Resolution in 1950 calling for the federation of Ethiopia with the Eritrean colony that Britain had captured from the Italians, a federation was established in 1952. Tensions arose immediately when Ethiopia interfered with the Eritrean courts and executive branch. An armed national liberation struggle broke out in 1961 when Ethiopia abolished Eritrea’s official languages, imposed Ethiopia’s national language, Amharic, dissolved the federation and annexed Eritrea. The ensuing 30-year struggle succeeded in 1991 when the current regime marched into the capital and took power. Following a referendum in 1993, Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia to form a new state.

Eritrean nationalism emanates from the two large ethnic groups (80% of total population combined) that control power and resources. This nationalism is based on suppressing sub-state identities, which the elites see as threatening to the nation-building process. In particular, the Indigenous Peoples have been under pressure from the government’s policy of eradicating identification along regional and religious lines. The regime expropriates Indigenous lands without compensation and has partially cleansed Indigenous Peoples from their traditional territories by violence.

The existence of Indigenous Peoples as intact communities is under threat from government policies aimed at destroying Indigenous cultures, economies, landholdings and, for some, their nomadic and pastoral lifestyles.

Eritrea is a party to the  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (but not its optional protocols), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (but not its optional protocol), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) (but not its optional protocol), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (but not its optional protocol), Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) (but not its optional protocol), and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (but not its optional protocol). Eritrea has not ratified ILO Convention 169, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families I(CMW/ICRM), or Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (or its optional protocol). Eritrea’s failure to ratify the optional protocols means that its citizens do not have access to the international human rights machinery to vindicate violations of their human rights.

Eritrea is the subject of complaints to the UN Human Rights Council, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea (all of which sustained the allegations) and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The complaints allege crimes against humanity including persecution, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their traditional territories and intentional destruction of the Indigenous economy.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

A country over the brink

On 8 June 2016, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights in Eritrea reported that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Eritrean officials had committed crimes against humanity in a widespread and systematic manner over the past 27 years. The COI provided detailed evidence relating to specific crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, reprisals and other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder.^[4]

Notably, the COI found that these crimes had been perpetrated against two of Eritrea’s four Indigenous Peoples, the Afar and the Kunama. Eritrea had persecuted these groups, the COI concluded;^[5] accordingly, the COI recommended that the UN and other entities initiate protective actions to safeguard these two Indigenous groups.^[6] The recommended measures included that Eritrea’s crimes and human rights violations be brought to the attention of the relevant special procedures,^[7] that the UN Security Council determine that the Eritrean situation poses a threat to international peace and security^[8] and, accordingly, that the Security Council refer the situation in Eritrea to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.^[9]

The situation continues

On 28 February 2024, Ms Ilze Brands Kehris, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, reported to the UN Human Rights Council that the state of human rights in Eritrea “continues to be dire”.^[10] Her assessment was shared by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, in his 7 May 2024 Report,^[11] and also by most democracies that commented on Eritrea’s progress during the fourth Universal Periodic Review proceedings on 23 February 2024.^[12] Typifying comments made by democracies, Germany noted “the lack of improvement in the human rights situation, especially in relation to civil and political freedoms, national service and detention.”^[13]

That the human rights situation in Eritrea in 2024 has not changed from that consistently reported from 2016-2023 illuminates the cataclysmic situation of Eritrea’s Indigenous Peoples in 2024. The COI, as well as Dr. Babiker and his predecessors as SR-Eritrea, consistently reported on the “widespread persecution”^[14] to which Eritrea’s Kunama and Afar people were subjected over the 2016-2024 period. Dr. Babiker detailed how

they [the Afar Indigenous people] have been subjected to discrimination, harassment, arbitrary arrests, disappearance, violence [which] “interfered with their traditional means of livelihood, eroded their culture, caused displacement and threatened their way of life.”^[15]

Persecution on a widespread basis is a crime against humanity,^[16] which makes the responsible Eritrean officials liable to arrest and prosecution under international criminal law. All the UN mandate holders have called for the international criminal authorities to pursue this course of action.

How does Eritrea respond to these findings? Its officials refuse to allow any of the UN mandate holders access to the country. Eritrea complains that the findings of the UN mandate holders are “baseless” and “politically motivated”. Eritrea stated that the mandate holders “placed disproportionate emphasis on civil and political rights” and that the “mandates contributed to the politicization of human rights”.^[17] Eritrea received support from some authoritarian countries, including Cuba, Iran, and China.^[18] Certain authoritarian countries where Eritrean refugees are numerous refused to allow the UN mandate holders permission to enter their countries to collect information necessary to carry out their mandates.^[19]

Transnational repression

Eritrea’s repression has increasingly taken on a transnational character in keeping with worrying global trends. There are two aspects to this. First, Eritrean troops continue to occupy parts of Ethiopia where they menace Eritrean refugees, including large numbers of Afar and Kunama Indigenous People. The troops disappear individuals and their family members, abduct and/or forcibly conscript refugees into the Eritrean army and loot and destroy refugee property. ^[20]

Secondly, Eritrean agents have inserted themselves into diaspora politics, using violent methods against pro-democracy activists, journalists, political opponents and human rights defenders. The Special Rapporteur’s 2024 Report indicates the wide criminal sweep of Eritrea’s activities, which include:

kidnappings and enforced disappearances, unlawful removals, surveillance, violence, intimidation, harassment, smear campaigns, social isolation and the refusal of consular services. Human rights defenders and community organizers seen or perceived as speaking out against the Government have reported receiving threats from agents of the Government or government supporters against themselves and their families in Eritrea.^[21]

The government’s attempted repression of the diaspora produced violent pushback. Eritrea’s “cultural” festivals in large cities around the globe resulted in violent clashes with regime detractors. There have been hundreds of injuries and many arrests. Regime opponents continued to attack the festivals in 2024, which they perceived as little more than regime propaganda.^[22]

Impact on Indigenous youth

Eritrea’s violent repression has been particularly harsh on young Indigenous Eritreans. Because of the violence, young Indigenous Eritreans living in Dankalia, the homeland of the Afar people, and those living in the Kunama homelands in Western Eritrea, endure constant fear of giffa or mass roundups of youth for forcible conscription into the armed services.^[23] Those who try to evade or desert military service are punished severely, including prolonged detention and torture. The army stormed towns in 2024 searching for draft evaders. They threatened the families of suspected draft evaders in order to force the youth to report for duty. They punished some families with imprisonment, home demolitions and destruction of their cattle. These tactics have also been used outside of Eritrea, in neighbouring countries harbouring young Eritrean refugees. The result has been widespread detention and torture of Eritrean Afar and Kunama youth, their deportation/refoulement back to Eritrea and conscription into the army.^[24]

For the future

The situation of Indigenous Peoples inside Eritrea is grim. The country has never held free national elections; it lacks a functioning legislature; the country is controlled by a small group of men connected to the President; only government media operate; there is no freedom of speech or political space; individuals are routinely arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured, disappeared or extrajudicially executed.^[25] There are no guarantees for, and no institutional structures to protect, Indigenous rights or Indigenous Peoples – quite the opposite. Indigenous Peoples are persecuted by the regime to such an extent that United Nations agencies have consistently called for the perpetrators to answer for crimes against humanity.

There is no panacea for this grim situation. It remains important to document what is happening inside this repressive regime as much as possible. It would be truly helpful if  democracies could model, in their behaviour, what just relations between Indigenous Peoples and their surrounding societies can look like so that they will have the standing to be firm with Eritrea when the day of reckoning arrives and with it, hopefully, relief for the persecuted Indigenous Peoples of Eritrea.

Joseph Eliot Magnet, FRSC, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Notes and references

[1] 3.7 million is stated by the SR-Eritrea in his 2024 Report, citing the UN Population Fund, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, UN Doc. A/HRC/56/24, 7 May 2024, para. 71. Online: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/073/00/pdf/g240730; 4.39 million is an estimate by the World Bank, see World Bank Country Profile: Eritrea, http://databank.worldbank.org/data/Views/Reports/ReportWidgetCustom.aspx?Report_Name=CountryProfile&Id=b450fd57&tbar=y&dd=y&inf=n&zm=n&country=ERI; 5.9 million is an estimate by the CIA, see CIA, World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/er.html

^[2] The numbers are disputed. There are no reliable figures to resolve the dispute as there is no count and no census that has been conducted by Eritrea or others. The CIA World Factbook reports the Afar at 2% but this is very unlikely given that there are 20,000 UN-documented Afar refugees in two refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia and many more undocumented asylum seekers inside Ethiopia – this alone would likely account for 2% of the Eritrean population. The figure for the Saho is reported by Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad, The Saho of Eritrea: Ethnic Identity and National Consciousness (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2013).

^[3] Eritrea: Constitutional, Legislative and Administrative Provisions Concerning Indigenous Peoples (a joint publication of the International Labour Organization, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, 2009, pp. 5-7. http://www.chr.up.ac.za/chr_old/indigenous/country_reports/Country_reports_Eritrea.pdf

^[4] Second Report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, A/HRC/32/47, 8 June 2016, para. 60, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIEritrea/A_HRC_32_CRP.1_read-only.pdf

^[5] Paras 87-88, 124, 129(b)

^[6] Para 124 (the COI referred to the Afar and Kunama as “ethnic groups”.)

^[7] Para 129(b)

^[8] Para 132(a)

^[9] Para 132(b)

^[10] Ilze Brands-Kehris, Statement to the Human Rights Council. Online: https://x.com/UN_HRC/status/1762887182719578407?prefetchTimestamp=1734484320403.

^[11] SR-Eritrea, Report 2024, para 2. See also the Special Rapporteur’s 2023 Report, which stated that the situation of human rights in Eritrea shows “no signs of improvement”. On the contrary, Dr. Babiker observed, there was “a deterioration in a number of areas”. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, UN Doc. A/HRC/53/20 (May 9, 2023), para 2 [SR Report 2023]. Online: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G23/092/08/PDF/G2309208.pdf?OpenElement. This was also the conclusion of Dr. Babiker’s predecessors as Special Rapporteur (SR). SR Sheila Keetharuth confirmed in a 24 October 2018 Press Release, as did SR Daniela Kravetz in a 21 June 2019 Press Release, that “the human rights situation in Eritrea remains unchanged.” See https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24721&LangID=E.

^[12] The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a Human Rights Council procedure that requires each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years.

^[13] UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Eritrea, 19 June 2024, UN Doc A/HRC/57/14, para 115. Online: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/090/70/pdf/g2409070.pdf.

^[14] Id., paras 58 and 78.

^[15] SR Report 2023, para 58.

^[16] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 7(1)(h) and 7(2)(g). See generally, F. Pocar, Persecution as a Crime Under International Criminal Law, [2008] 2 Journal of National Security Law and Policy 355.

^[17] UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Eritrea, June 19, 2024, UN Doc A/HRC/57/14, paras. 58, 60. Online: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g24/090/70/pdf/g2409070.pdf.

^[18] Id, paras. 101, 120, 97.

^[19] SR Report 2024, para. 12.

^[20] Id, para 26.

^[21] Id, para 61.

^[22] Id, paras 66-68.

^[23] Id, para 29.

^[24] Id, paras 29-33.

^[25] Report of the detailed findings of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, A/HRC/29/CRP.1, 5 June 2015, p. 1, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIEritrea/Pages/ReportCoIEritrea.aspx.

Tags: Youth, Human rights, Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders