ERITREA: Arrest of a female Jehovah’s Witness, six months pregnant, an emblematic case
HRWF (29.10.2024) – Recently, News Agency Dire has reported on serious violations of human rights in Eritrea, especially affecting Jehovah’s Witnesses who have 64 people in prison detained in inhumane conditions: 35 men and 29 women.
The case of Saron Ghebru is emblematic. She was arrested on 27 September 2024 despite being six months pregnant. Born on 21 December 1985 and raised in Asmara, she became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2004 and got married in 2019 with someone sharing the same faith. Her father was imprisoned four times because of his religious activities and her brother has been jailed since 2005. Other members of her family were also arrested during a mass arrest of 150 Winesses on their main annual religious event on 14 April 2014.
Saron was detained three times due to her religious activities: in 2014, 2016 and 2024. On this last occasion, her husband was arrested with her.
Being a Jehovah’s Witness is a crime
The “crime” committed by these citizens is simply that of being Jehovah’s Witnesses and, for males, of refusing military service, without the option of carrying out an alternative civilian service. This decision was made by the Eritrean government with a decree issued in 1994, in which Jehovah’s Witnesses were required to register for military training to complete their 12th grade of the country’s school system. Following this decision, many Jehovah’s Witnesses have been arrested and detained as conscientious objectors.
On 25 October 2024, it will be 30 years since the signing of a presidential decree by the Eritrean government that deprived the Witnesses of all civil rights, including citizenship, the possibility to obtain documents showing their identity, to work in government offices, to receive a business license, or to find employment. All of that simply because they wish to peacefully practice their faith, which includes conscientious objection to the unlimited armed military service imposed by the government.
As repeatedly denounced by human rights bodies, a violent and systematic repression of fundamental civil freedoms and personal rights is taking place in the country.
Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Among the most important organizations that have spoken out on this issue is USCIRF, it is worth mentioning the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, independent and bipartisan, established in 1998 with the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
In the 2024 Annual Report, it mentioned Eritrea among the countries on the Special Watch List which includes the CPCs (Countries of Particular Concern) nations, in which religious freedom is violated in a “particularly severe” and illegal way.
According to IRFA standards, the violations of these nations are “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious. These include torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, prolonged detention without charges, abduction or clandestine detention, and other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons” (USCIRF Report 2024 p. 1-2).
In the part dedicated to Eritrea (Report 2024, pp. 28-29) USCIRF states that “throughout the year, the Eritrean government particularly targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses”. As for the situation in prisons, the conditions of those detained are very bad both for lack of care and for the violence suffered and continuous intimidation. “The government punished families of those who evade military service by evicting them from their homes and denying them food and other basic necessities, especially for women and children”.
After outlining the situation in Eritrea, USCIRF recommends that the United States
- “reestablish the 2021 arms embargo, reimpose targeted sanctions on Eritrean government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom,
- reconsider or bar the entry into the United States of those individuals,
- engage with the Eritrean government to end religious persecution of unregistered religious communities,
- grant full citizenship right to Jehovah’s Witnesses and
- release the remaining detainees held on account of their religious activities” (2024 Report, p. 28).