Eritrea: Oral Statement by PEN International at the 89th ACHPR Session
Video Credit: Ibrahima Khalil
21 October 2026 - During the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights currently underway in Dakar, Senegal, PEN International delivered an oral statement urging decisive action on the State of Eritrea for serial non-compliance with decisions of the African Commission in the case of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance in custody of 12 Eritrean writers and journalists since September 2001. The statement was delivered in Dakar on 14 October 2026 by Awet Fissehaye, Executive Director of PEN Eritrea in Exile.
Full text below:
ORAL STATEMENT
89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
12 – 21 October 2026 - Dakar, Senegal
Agenda Item 4: Human Rights Situation in Africa
Subject: Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary Detention, and Non-Compliance by the State of Eritrea
Honourable Chairperson, Distinguished Commissioners, State Delegates, Representatives of Intergovernmental organisations, National Human Rights Institutions, and fellow Civil Society Colleagues:
I address this Commission on behalf of PEN International, the global voluntary literary and human rights association of writers. We wish to draw your urgent attention to the devastating, ongoing human rights crisis in the State of Eritrea.
September 2001 marked 25 years of the beginning of a brutal, systematic crackdown on peaceful dissent by the Eritrean authorities that effectively silenced all independent media and critical voices within the territory of Eritrea. In the crackdown, security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained independent journalists, writers, poets, and political dissidents simply because they exercised their fundamental right to freedom of expression to call for peaceful reforms and democratic accountability.
Among the detainees are 12 writers that PEN International and other human rights organisations have relentlessly campaigned on behalf of since their unlawful arrests and detention: Amanuel Asrat; Dawit Habtemichael; Dawit Isaak; Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ Yohannes; Matheos Habteab; Medhanie Haile; Sahle ‘Wedi-ltay’ Tsegazeab; Said Abdelkadir; Said Idris ‘Abu Are’; Seyoum Tsehaye; Temesgen Ghebreyesus; and Yousif Mohammed Ali.
For a quarter of a century, these individuals have been held incommunicado, without charge or trial, and denied access to legal representation, medical care, their loved ones, or the International Committee of the Red Cross. They are among the world’s longest-detained writers. Their only apparent crime was being independent voices and speaking of the Eritrea they dreamed of for the future. They should not have been detained in the first place.
The families of these writers, the Eritrean people, and the global literary and press freedom communities have been met with a painful and unlawful silence whenever they inquired about these individuals. To withhold all information regarding their health, location, and survival is a violation of international law and an act of cruelty.
This is not just prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention; it is a continuous crime of enforced and involuntary disappearance. This Commission has repeatedly fulfilled its mandate under the African Charter to protect these individuals. In its landmark 2007 decision (Communication 275/03: Article 19 v. Eritrea), the Commission found Eritrea in flagrant violation of Articles 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 18. The Commission ordered the immediate release or fair trial of the journalists and writers, a lift on the ban of the independent press, and appropriate compensation to the individuals. In subsequent decisions, including the review of Communication 428/12, the Commission strongly reaffirmed these findings and explicitly urged compliance.
Yet, Eritrea has treated these binding obligations with complete contempt and impunity. When appearing before this Commission, state delegations have banked on empty rhetoric, distraction, denialism, and gaslighting to evade accountability. Twenty-five years of impunity must no longer be tolerated. Time does not erase state human rights obligations; nor does it extinguish the rights of the violated and disappeared.
PEN International urgently calls upon the African Commission to take the following decisive actions:
Document and Publicly Condemn Non-Compliance: Formally document Eritrea’s continuous refusal to implement the Commission's decisions and escalate this persistent non-compliance to the highest levels of the African Union policy organs.
Demand Immediate Proof of Life: Pressure the Eritrean authorities to disclose the exact whereabouts of all writers and journalists detained since 2001 and provide verifiable proof of life.
Insist on Independent Access: Demand that Eritrea immediately grant independent international monitors—including the ACHPR Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information and the International Committee of the Red Cross—unhindered access to its detention facilities.
Advance AU Accountability Mechanisms: Recommend that the African Union establish a dedicated accountability framework or refer the human rights situation in Eritrea to the appropriate regional legal bodies to challenge this culture of complete impunity.
The credibility of our African regional human rights system depends entirely on its power to enforce its rulings. We must not allow Eritrea to continue its policy of contempt to the decisions of the Commission.
Thank you, Chairperson, for the attention given to our statement.
Submitted by: Awet Fissehaye, Executive Director of PEN Eritrea in Exile
Affiliation: International PEN
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Observer Status No.: 84
Date: 14 October 2026
Note to Editors:
For more information, please contact: Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region of PEN International, email: [email protected]
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