UN Human Rights Council 13th Session, Geneva
Statement by the Delegation of the United States
Item 6 – Consideration of UPR Reports
March 17, 2010
Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to the Eritrean delegation for their presentation today.
The United States welcomes the Government of the State of Eritrea’s decision to allow official visits by international human rights organizations (47:10).
We note with concern and concur with concerns expressed by the delegations from the UK (33:8), Austria (37:7), and Australia (40:8) that the Government of Eritrea continues to arbitrarily arrest, detain, abuse, and torture political dissenters, religious adherents, forcibly returned asylum seekers, and independent journalists.
The United States requests that the Government of Eritrea give due consideration to conduct a national review to examine the need to maintain the national state of emergency that has curbed its citizens’ basic human rights.
Thank you, Mr. President.