Civilians in Eritrea face ongoing systematic and widespread violations of human rights that may amount to crimes against humanity. Eritrean armed forces have also been accused of potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in neighboring Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND:

The government of Eritrea has long been responsible for systematic and widespread human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity.  A June 2016 report of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC)-mandated Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Eritrea found that the government and ruling party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), have perpetrated the crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, persecution and murder.

A decade since the landmark CoI report, subsequent reporting by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea has consistently found that violations remain ongoing and systematic, with no meaningful accountability or reform. Arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and inhuman treatment remain widespread and systematic. Political prisoners, journalists and members of the G-15 – a group of 15 former government ministers who criticized President Isaias Afwerki in 2001 – continue to be held incommunicado.

The government has also utilized collective punishment to consolidate control and impose its rule, including through the detention, harassment and economic penalization of family members of perceived government critics, deserters or asylum seekers. According to the UN, Eritrea’s system of compulsory and indefinite national service continues to function as a state policy of enslavement, enforced through coercion, collective punishment and violence. Conscripts, including children, are subjected to forced labor in military, agricultural and commercial projects while facing severe restrictions on freedom of movement and family life. Punishment for draft evasion or desertion frequently includes torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and reprisals against family members, reinforcing a nationwide climate of fear. The CoI previously concluded that these crimes amount to sexual slavery and torture.

Regional dynamics have also contributed to patterns of abuse. For more than two decades, border disputes with Ethiopia and Djibouti resulted in gross human rights violations by the PFDJ. Eritrea gained de facto independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1991, ending a 30-year liberation war, and formally became an independent state following a UN-supervised referendum in 1993. However, no elections have been held since. Civil society organizations are banned in Eritrea and independent media does not exist.

Border disputes subsequently sparked the Ethiopian-Eritrean War from 1998-2000, which caused over 100,000 deaths. Although the UN-associated Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission was established in 2002, disputes over territory – particularly the town of Badme – persisted until a 2018 peace deal between President Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Eritrean armed forces have also been implicated in serious violations of international law during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which began in November 2020 between the Ethiopian federal government and regional forces. Eritrean armed forces, allied with Ethiopia’s federal government, have allegedly massacred civilians and perpetrated widespread rape and sexual violence, as well as looting and razing of humanitarian and civilian infrastructure. Eritrean troops have also reportedly participated in the forced return of Eritrean refugees. Although a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) was signed in November 2022, Eritrea was not party to the negotiations.  Eritrean forces have since remained in border areas of Ethiopia and continue to perpetrate abuses, including killings, sexual and gender-based violence and arbitrary arrests, among other abuses.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Over the past year Ethiopian authorities have increasingly articulated their interest in securing access to the Red Sea, citing the country’s landlocked status since Eritrea’s independence in 1993 and framing maritime access as a “strategic national interest.” These statements have contributed to renewed diplomatic tensions. In June 2025 Eritrea formally rejected Ethiopian calls for sea access in a letter to the UN, reaffirming its sovereignty over its coastline and ports. In October 2025 the Ethiopian government sent its own written submission outlining its ambitions as compatible with peace and cooperation, while accusing Eritrea of hostile actions in the context of their bilateral tensions.

These tensions remain closely linked to the situation in Ethiopia following the fracturing of the main political party in Tigray, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and a signatory to the CoHA. Eritrea is widely perceived to support one faction within the movement and has reportedly backed ethnic armed groups elsewhere in Ethiopia, further complicating the fragile post-conflict environment.

ANALYSIS:

The formal resolution of the decades-long border dispute with Ethiopia in 2018 – long cited by the Eritrean government as justification for its coercive system of indefinite military conscription – did not result in significant change in Eritrea’s human rights situation. Core policies underpinning mass violations, including indefinite national service, arbitrary detention and collective punishment, remain firmly in place. Eritrean asylum seekers consistently cite these repressive policies as a principal driver of mass displacement, with Eritreans continuing to constitute one of the largest refugee populations relative to national population size. Hostile rhetoric from Ethiopia and Eritrea surrounding Ethiopia’s aspirations of sea access have further entrenched these abuses and exacerbated risks.

The Eritrean government has consistently rejected the findings of the CoI and subsequent reporting by the UN Special Rapporteur, maintaining a system of total impunity that reflects a profound disregard for its obligations under International Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The absence of independent institutions, democratic processes such as elections or accountability mechanisms further entrench the risk of ongoing and future mass atrocity crimes.

Eritrea’s military intervention in the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has extended this pattern of abuse beyond its borders, posing a direct and ongoing threat to Tigrayan civilians, as well as Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. Eritrean forces have been implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including killings, sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, pillage and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Their continued presence in border areas following the CoHA further highlights the ongoing risks faced by populations in areas under Eritrean control.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

• • • Authoritarian government and the absence of effective checks on the power of the PFDJ.
    • Persistent impunity for past and ongoing atrocity crimes committed by the PFDJ.
    • State policies and practices of impunity that tolerate or enable serious violations of IHL and IHRL, atrocity crimes or their incitement.
    • Systematic repression of civil and religious freedoms, including the use of collective punishment against perceived critics or their families.
    • Ongoing regional tensions that threaten to destabilize the fragile peace process in neighboring Tigray.

NECESSARY ACTION:

All reports of possible atrocity crimes in Eritrea and by Eritrean forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region should be independently investigated and the perpetrators held accountable through credible judicial processes, regardless of rank or affiliation. In the absence of genuine domestic accountability processes, international, regional and universal jurisdiction mechanisms should be pursued to ensure justice for victims.

The government of Eritrea must immediately end its system of compulsory and indefinite national service, release all individuals arbitrarily detained and cease practices of collective punishment and persecution. Eritrea should cooperate fully with UN human rights mechanisms, including by granting access to the UN Special Rapporteur and implementing the recommendations of the CoI.

Eritrea should also immediately withdraw all remaining forces from Ethiopian territory and cease any involvement in abuses against civilians and refugees. The governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia must ensure the protection of Eritrean refugees and uphold the principle of non-refoulement.

The African Union, UN and concerned states should pursue coordinated measures, including targeted sanctions and asset freezes, against senior PFDJ and military officials credibly implicated in grave human rights violations. States should also support the continuation and strengthening of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate in the upcoming 62nd session of the HRC in June.

Access constraints have prohibited updated monitoring of Eritrea.