It is always prudent to remember and quote important provisions of international law to make our case. Because what usually pass as established practices in Eritrea are gross violations of the law. National service is forced labour because the law says so. Under international law—the Forced Labour Conventions and ILO Convention 29—the key points when considering the definition of forced labor are the extent to which: “(i) the works or services are exacted involuntarily; (ii) the exaction of labor or services takes place under the menace of penalty; and (iii) these are used as a means of political coercion, education or as a method of mobilising and using labor for purposes of economic development, as well as means of labor discipline.”211 This is most certainly the case in Eritrea, and it would thus appear that forced labor on the Eritrean scale and for indefinite periods is a gross human rights violation. HRW, Service For life: State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea (April 2009) hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/eritrea0409webwcover_0.pdf
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 17:01:18 +0000