The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the cases of the parliamentarians listed above, former members of the Parliament of Eritrea who have been held incommunicado since 18 September 2001, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/184/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 183rd session (October 2008),

Recalling the following:

• The parliamentarians concerned were arrested on 18 September 2001 after publishing an open letter criticizing President Issayas Afwerki's policies and have been held incommunicado ever since, accused of conspiracy and attempting to overthrow the legal government without ever being formally charged, brought before a judge or tried;

• In November 2003, upon examining a complaint concerning their situation, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found that the State of Eritrea had violated Articles 2, 6, 7(1) and 9(2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which enshrine the right to liberty and security of person, the right to a fair trial and the right to freedom of expression, and urged the State of Eritrea to order the immediate release of the former parliamentarians and to compensate them,

Considering that scant official information is available on the human rights situation in Eritrea and that the Eritrean authorities have continuously failed to report to the United Nations human rights mechanisms about respect for fundamental freedoms in their country; however, numerous human rights organizations have reported extensive and serious human rights concerns in Eritrea, including with respect to the harsh treatment of prisoners,

1. Is appalled that 11 former parliamentarians continue to languish in incommunicado detention without any prospect for release, which situation, given the widely reported harsh prison conditions in Eritrea and the violations of their human rights identified by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, amounts to severe physical and mental torture and causes their families unbearable anguish;

2. Urges the authorities onceagain to release them forthwith and thus put an end to a situation which flouts all respect for human dignity and cannot be justified on any grounds;

3. Considers that the international community, and more particularly parliaments and their members, can and must do much more to secure their release by putting pressure on the Eritrean authorities to comply with the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in this case;

4. Appeals particularly in this respect to the authorities of the African Union, the African Parliamentary Union and the Pan-African Parliament to do everything in their power for this purpose and so prevent the African Commission's authority from being undermined by the attitude of a State party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; also calls on the competent United Nations mechanisms to make every effort to ascertain the whereabouts of the persons concerned and to obtain their immediate release;

5. Regrets that its longstanding request to carry out an on-site mission to Eritrea has never been answered; earnestly hopes that the Eritrean authorities will finally respond and agree to the request, in the belief that such a mission can be essential to addressing the concerns in this case;

6. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 121st Assembly of the IPU (October 2009).

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