PEN Eritrea Urges African Commission to Act on Detained Journalists

Awet Fissehaye, Executive Director of PEN Eritrea, addressed the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Dakar, Dakar. He called for action regarding 12 Eritrean journalists and writers detained without trial for 25 years since the crackdown on the independent press in September 2001. He emphasized that their detention qualifies as enforced disappearance under international law.

PEN International highlighted that Eritrea has consistently failed to comply with the commission's 2007 ruling, which called for the release of the detainees and an end to the ban on independent media. The organization is urging the African Commission to formally document this non-compliance, demand proof of life, and pressure the Eritrean government to allow independent observers, including the Red Cross, to visit the detainees.