Contribution to the 18th session of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review Submission on Eritrea

PEN International welcomes the opportunity provided by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights to comment on the state of human rights in Eritrea. PEN has serious concerns about the lack of freedom of opinion and expression and the continuing practice of incommunicado detention without trial of writers and journalists in Eritrea, as outlined in its report for the first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Eritrea in 2009. This report focuses on progress made – or rather the lack thereof – since the 2009 UPR.