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Consultative meeting on IGAD’s Revitalization Process for South Sudan…

Ethiopia, as Chair of the IGAD Council of Ministers, together with the IGAD Special Envoy to South Sudan, briefed IGAD Plus members on progress in the South Sudan Revitalization Process at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia on Wednesday this week (November 22). Representatives of IGAD member countries, the AU, of Algeria, Nigeria, and South Africa, and of the Troika of Norway, the UK and the US, as well as the US, China and the UN Special Envoy to South Sudan were in attendance.

State Minister for the Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia Mrs. Hirut Zemene, on behalf of the Chairperson of the IGAD Council of Ministers, opened the session. Recognizing the overwhelming interest and support for the Revitalization Process since it had been launched, she noted the efforts made so far and the progress achieved. Mrs. Hirut underlined the crucial importance of acting together and speaking with one voice for the realization of the Revitalization Process. The State Minister delivered a clear message to all South Sudanese political forces that they should ‘silence the guns’ as soon as possible; that they should support the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) being revitalized through inclusive consultations; and that the International Community should continue its support for the effort to implement the revitalized ARCSS. The State Minister also called on the International Community for its full support for the reconstruction of South Sudan.

Ambassador Ismail Wais, IGAD’s Special Envoy to South Sudan, presented a report compiled on the activities undertaken since the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Governments on June 12 called for realization of the Revitalization Process. He emphasized that the first stage of the activities of the Special Envoy’s office had been the designing of a mapping exercise to help identify the parties to the revitalized ARCSS. Ambassador Wais said the mapping process had been carried out in collaboration with the UN, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM), and the Transitional Government of South Sudan. It had involved an impressive turnout of participants from different sectors including estranged groups and individuals in four cities; Addis Ababa, Pretoria, Khartoum, and Juba. He noted that most of the parties to the peace process had submitted their position papers after pre-forum consultations. State structure, reorganization of institutions, cessation of hostility and national election were major issues of discussion in the process. Ambassador Ismail Wais noted that the results had been distributed to all stakeholders and had been widely accepted.” The next meeting of the IGAD Council of Ministers, scheduled to take place December 11-12, was expected to take decisions based on the consultation report.

State Minister Mrs. Hirut’s Special Adviser on South Sudan, Ambassador Fre Tesfamichael underlined the firm position of the Government of South Sudan on the Revitalization Process. He said the Transitional Government had agreed to implement a unilateral ceasefire and had supported the revitalization process in many ways, including the mapping process. Ambassador Fre noted that all the parties who had been involved in the mapping process had agreed to the cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire. With regard to the deployment of the Regional Protection Force, Ambassador Fre said 200 Ethiopian and 123 Rwanda contingents had already entered Juba. The Ambassador of South Sudan, James Pitia Morgan, took the opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the government in Juba to the Revitalization Process.

The meeting commended the major activities of the Revitalization Process including, the consultations made with the parties to the ARCSS, the completion of the mapping exercise and preparation of what they described as a comprehensive and enlightening report. It reaffirmed its commitment to the IGAD revitalization peace process. Participants also suggested the need to put in place accountability mechanisms under which any violator of ceasefire agreements would face consequences. The need to speak with one voice on the issue of a ceasefire was strongly underlined. The meeting, noting the establishment of a High Level Ad hoc Committee on South Sudan at the 720th meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council in September, also underlined the importance of the participation of the committee which includes members of the AU’s Committee of Five, along with the AU, IGAD and the JEMC.

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…and Dr. Mogae briefs a JMEC plenary session

Dr. Festus Mogae, Chair of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on Monday (November 20) welcomed the Government’s approval of a draft constitution that will allow the enactment a new constitution in line with the August 2015 peace agreement. He described it as significant progress and urged the Transitional National Legislative Assembly to expedite the ratification of the amendments to the Transitional Constitution. He expected the constitutional amendment bill to be endorsed by Parliament next month. According to the 2015 peace agreement a new constitution should be in place 18 months after the formation of the coalition government. It would, said Dr. Mogae, lay a firm foundation for progress in the establishment of all the institutions and mechanisms provided for in the agreement.

Dr. Mogae, who was addressing a plenary session of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission also called for a “unified” and “one voice” message to end the conflict in South Sudan. He told parties in the coalition government that a “one voice” approach would strengthen revitalization efforts to end conflict. He said: “Collectively, the IGAD Heads of State must prevail over the South Sudanese leadership to rethink the current trajectory of the country and take the necessary steps to restore peace and inclusive governance”.

Dr. Mogae referred to a five-point approach that could end the conflict if accepted and implemented by parties without hesitation. He said this involved an inclusive political process, bringing together all parties and estranged groups, a cessation of all hostilities and a renegotiated permanent ceasefire that includes all armed groups, as well as the establishment of transitional security arrangements with robust verification and enforcement mechanisms. Other elements would involve a clear plan of action to address the current dire humanitarian situation, facilitate eventual voluntary return of IDPs and repatriation of refugees, and an enforcement mechanism that included accountability measures for spoilers and violators.

Dr. Mogae also underlined the need for specific reforms to ensure the conduct of credible, free and fair elections at the end of the transitional period and dedicated funding for implementation of the revitalized peace agreement. He emphasized that the current security situation remained fragile, and renewed calls to stop the fighting, end the violence, deal with criminality, prevent sexual and human rights abuses, improve human suffering and address the economic crisis. He said violations of the ceasefire had continued since the last plenary joint briefing, leading to the publication of five violation reports, one of which highlighted the extent of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by uniformed men in Yei River state.

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COP23: Need for renewed urgency and more effort to tackle climate change

The United Nations Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties (COP23) ended on Friday in Bonn, Germany, expressing a renewed sense of urgency and the need for greater ambition to tackle climate change. The main focus at the conference was how to maintain momentum two years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. COP23 took place a year after entry into force of the Paris Agreement, now ratified by 170 Parties out of the 196 which adopted the Agreement which calls upon countries to combat climate change by limiting the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius and aim not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. A week before the opening of COP23, the World Meteorological Organization announced that the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at “record-breaking speed” to new highs in 2016.CO2 emissions, after remaining stable for three years, will rise by two percent in 2017, a development that one scientist called “a giant step backwards for humankind”.

COP23 ran from November 6 to 17, chaired by Fiji, an island State particularly affected by the impacts of climate change, and climate finance and climate resilience were at the center of the discussions. One key outcome of the conference was the Talanoa Dialogue. Talanoa is a Fiji term for a conversation in which the people involved share ideas and resolve problems. The dialogue aims to encourage the international community over the coming year to take more ambitious action to close the global climate mitigation gap. Under the leadership of Fiji and Poland, this dialogue aims to bring together contributions from the scientific sector, industry and civil society and produce be a stocktake geared to motivating the Parties to take more ambitious action to close the global climate mitigation gap.

Agreement was reached on Fiji’s Gender Action Plan, highlighting the role of women in climate action, and a global initiative, the ‘InsuResilience’ Global Partnership, a major scaling-up of an initiative started by the G7 in 2015,  was launched with the aim of providing insurance to hundreds of millions of vulnerable people by 2020. Fiji’s Prime Minister Bainimarama said the Global Partnership was a practical response to the needs of those who suffer loss because of climate change.

Fiji said in advance of COP23 it wanted to make progress on “Loss and Damage” as a priority of its presidency. In 2013, at Warsaw, a Loss and Damage mechanism was created offering the concept of compensating victims of climate change. Article 8 of the Paris provided a legal basis for long-term action on loss and damage,” calling for action that is “cooperative and facilitative.” This now offers a third strand to provide funds to offset climate change, along with mitigation, reducing worldwide emissions to make climate change less severe, and adaptation, taking steps to make the world more resilient against the impacts of climate change.

There is broad consensus that since the wealth of industrialized countries is based on the historical burning of fossil fuels, they should be responsible for decarbonizing their own economies and for helping out the rest of the world. However, the “finance gap” remains a looming threat to implementing the Paris Agreement and discussions of “loss and damage” compensation for the irreparable and most destructive impacts of climate change have now been put off to COP24 next year in Poland. France is convening a ‘One Planet summit’ next month, and COP24 is taking place in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018. Brazil has offered to host COP25 in 2019. The UN Climate Summit takes place in September 2019.

One encouraging factor at COP23 was an upsurge in the response from cities, local administrations and businesses, including American cities and states, underlined their commitments to achieve the goals set out in Paris. This was especially welcomed in the context of the US withdrawal from the Paris accord.  Mayors from 25 cities around the world, representing 150 million citizens, pledged on Sunday (12 November) to cut their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. The C40 Cities network, which supports cities in tackling climate change, has committed to aid nine large African cities, including Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Lagos and Nairobi, to craft long-term green plans. The almost 7,500 cities in the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy launched a new global standard for measuring and reporting emissions from cities and local governments, to be applied from 2018.

During the conference, Ethiopia’s Minister for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Gemedo Dalle, addressed the High-Level Forum on South-South Cooperation on Climate Change: “Partnership for Climate-Friendly and Sustainable Development: Southern Countries in Action”. He underlined the very real benefit of building cooperation and the positive opportunities that could arise. Ethiopia, he said, had worked to focus on implementing partnerships, with governments in Africa, outside the continent and various development agencies and organizations, and had integrated cooperation into its strategies. Working closely with those supporting Ethiopia’s cooperation projects had brought tremendous contribution in achieving economic growth and stimulating development at the macro level. He emphasized that many youth were already part of the solution: “If we guide our youth, with skills and training, that can enable them to become creative and entrepreneurial, we will then be able to address many of the development dreams we may have.”  Entrepreneurship, he said, was an inclusive process to be engaged in further to achieve a robust economy. Dr. Gemedo emphasized:  “Through our Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy, we have already started industrial development paths, and an inclusive transformation plan and sustainable agricultural path at macro and grass-root levels.” It was in this spirit, he added, that Ethiopia was joining the Partnership for Climate Friendly and Sustainable Development.

Ethiopia’s State Minister for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kare Chawicha Dabessa, participated in a panel on the presentation of the Sustainable Insurance and Takaful Facility (SITF). This integrates the fundamental principles of Islamic finance to close the insurance protection and the disaster risk reduction gaps. It is a vulnerable country-led initiative which seeks to fill gaps in the G7 Climate Risk Insurance Initiative (InsuResilience) and other risk transfer mechanisms. Ato Kare said Ethiopia as a chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum /Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers (V20) welcomed “the initiative being put forward to provide access to innovative climate and disaster risk finance to vulnerable countries including sustainable insurance scheme.” The CVF aims to extend insurance coverage against climate-related risks to every community in its member countries for the period 2030-2050 or sooner. The Forum announced during the Marrakech climate talks last year that it would work to achieve 100% renewable energy production within the same timeframe. The V20 has set an initial target of raising at least 20 billion US dollars for V20 economies by 2020 from international, regional and domestic mobilizations. 

Ethiopia is currently the Chair of the 48 nation Least Developed Countries group. Chairman, Gebru Jember Endalew, said the LDC group came to COP23 with “high expectations for a COP of action and support, with substantive outcomes to achieve the goals set by the international community in Paris.” He welcomed the “progress that has been made here at COP23, including the adoption of the Gender Action Plan and the Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Platform.” He noted progress had been made on the design of the Talanoa Dialogue, which he identified as a dialogue that must lead “to an increase in ambition by all countries to put us on track to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” He underlined that it remained “essential that we amplify marginalized voices and recognize the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and indigenous communities around the world. This is crucial for achieving global climate justice and for addressing the multi-faceted threat of climate change.”

Ato Gebru said, “A key priority at COP23 was making significant progress on developing the ‘ruleset’ that will govern how countries implement their Paris Agreement commitments”. Many areas of work, he pointed out, were still lagging behind and this jeopardized ability to complete the Paris ruleset by the agreed deadline at the end of 2018. He stressed the necessity to “urgently put pen to paper to properly finalize the ruleset in a thoughtful and considered manner, without a last-minute rush.” He under lined the need to rapidly translate work done in the negotiating rooms into tangible action on the ground. This, he stressed, called for “ambitious climate action by all countries through strengthening and implementing national contributions, managing the decline of fossil fuels, and promoting renewable energy.” He said, “The LDCs are committed to leading on ambitious climate action in our countries – a key example is the LDC Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative, an LDC-owned and driven initiative to bring universal access to clean energy in the world’s poorest countries.”

Ato Gebru also underlined that tackling climate change required support for adaptation and loss and damage action in poor and particularly vulnerable countries. He thanked Germany, Sweden and Belgium for their contributions to the Adaptation Fund and Least Developed Countries Fund, but added that  the LDC group hoped to see other countries following suit and “rapidly accelerate their finance pledges to meet the scale of support needed by developing countries to fill the ever-widening finance gap.” He stressed: “the need to adapt to, and address the irreversible loss and damage arising from, climate change is a matter of urgency for LDCs. The scale of loss and damage that LDCs are experiencing is already beyond our capacity to respond and it will only get worse, with more lives lost, more destruction to infrastructure and a bigger impact on our economies. We will not be able to raise our people out of poverty if we do not effectively address loss and damage and for that we need support.” The LDCs, he said, called “for a global response to climate change that is fair and equitable, that advances the interests and aspirations of poor and vulnerable countries and peoples, and fulfils our Paris vision of limiting warming to below 1.5°C to ensure a safe and prosperous future for all.”

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President Kenyatta to be sworn-in for a second term on November 28

Kenya’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday (November 20) that Uhuru Kenyatta won the re-run presidential election on October 26. In a unanimous decision, the Court dismissed two petitions challenging the validity of the October 26 vote. It said the petitions failed to show that the poll was so fundamentally flawed to warrant nullification: “The court has unanimously determined that the petitions are not merited …As a consequence, the presidential election of October 26 is hereby upheld as is the election of Uhuru Kenyatta.”

The Court had nullified the August 8 presidential election over irregularities and ordered a new vote. It was the first time a court in Africa had overturned a presidential election. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose legal challenge led to the nullification, however, boycotted the repeat election. He said the Independent Boundaries and Election Commission was not ready to conduct a credible election. The petitioners challenged President Kenyatta’s victory, arguing that the Commission was supposed to conduct a fresh nomination process after Mr. Odinga withdrew. They also argued the election should not stand since 25 constituencies did not participate in the repeat poll.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, President Uhuru Kenyatta will now be sworn-in for a second term on Tuesday next week (November 28). The ceremony will take place at the Safaricom Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi. After his victory in the repeat poll on October 26, the President said, “Today, I as a Kenyan celebrate the resilience of the nation, but I also celebrate the resilience of our democracy.”  He said any other county experiencing the turns and twists of the recent electoral process “would have burst asunder.” He appealed for unity and said he would consider dialogue with the opposition after the outcome of any court proceedings. The President described his victory as a validation of his win in August, saying the 7.5 million votes that he received in October amounted to 90% of what he got earlier. In August, President Kenyatta received 54% of the vote to Mr. Odinga’s 45%.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, had said before the October 26 vote that he could not guarantee its credibility. However, before announcing the results, he said he was confident it had been a “free, fair and credible election.” In a statement after Monday’s Supreme Court decision, Mr. Chebukati said the unanimous decision by the court had affirmed the agency’s resolve and its efforts to conduct a free, fair and credible election.

Mr. Odinga issued a statement claiming the Supreme Court decision had been made under constraint and describing the Jubilee government as illegitimate. The statement said: “We in NASA have repeatedly declared we consider this government to be illegitimate and do not recognize it,” adding, “This position has not been changed by the Court ruling, which did not come as a surprise. It was a decision taken under duress.”The opposition said they will not recognize President Kenyatta’s presidency and will continue to fight for what they call electoral justice. Mr. Odinga, who has called for another election, has said he will form a “resistance” movement to oppose the government, which has in turn accused opposition leaders of fomenting violence with incendiary rhetoric.

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State Minister, Dr. Aklilu Hailemichael, visits South Korea

Dr. Aklilu Hailemichael, State Minister of Foreign Affairs led a delegation to South Korea this week to attend a meeting of the joint Ethiopia-South Korea cultural forum. The delegation, which included Mrs. Meaza Gebremedhin, State Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, arrived in South Korea on Tuesday (November 21). Accompanies by Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Ambassador Shiferaw Jarso, they visited the Korea Culture and Information Service in Sejong-city on Wednesday. The Korea Culture and Information Center is an affiliated institution of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea and it is involved in the promotion of Korea overseas and is involved in international cultural exchanges.

Dr. Aklilu noted that the Ethiopian government wished to share Korean experiences in establishing and operating Korean cultural centers outside Korea. He underlined the importance of promoting Ethiopian culture to other countries as a way of increasing the number of tourists to Ethiopia. He emphasized that the government was dedicated to promoting Ethiopia’s diverse cultural and tourist attractions, including UNESCO registered heritages. Mr. Kim Tae-hoon, Deputy Minister of the Korea Culture and Information Service, told the Ethiopian State Ministers that Korea was very willing to support Ethiopia in regard to the development of cultural centers and to share Korean experiences in expanding the growth of culture and tourism. Dr. Aklilu and Mr. Kim agreed to hold further discussions on future   cooperation.

The Ethiopian delegation also visited the Korea Tourism College, a private two/three year vocational college specializing in tourism and its development. Ethiopia also has a public college under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism specializing in tourism, and Dr. Aklilu suggested the two colleges of both countries should work together and develop an exchange program for students and staff.  Mr. Kim Sung-I, President of the Korea Tourism College, welcomed the idea, and agreed to exchange ideas how to cooperate in the areas of student exchange and scholarships for Ethiopian students organized through the Ethiopian Embassy in Seoul. The College promised to initiate a Memorandum of Understanding in the near future to form the basis for their cooperation. Dr. Aklilu, Mrs. Meaza, and Ambassador Shiferaw toured the campus and the facilities of the college. They also had a chance to meet the Korean students attending the college.

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The result of Somaliland’s presidential election announced this week

 

Somaliland’s National Electoral Commission announced on Tuesday (November 21) that the winner of the presidential election held on November 13 was Musa Bihi Abdi, the candidate of the ruling Kulmiye party. The Commission said there had been an 80% (556,617) turnout of the over 700,000 registered voters. Musa Bihi Abdi had received 305,909 votes (55%); Abdirahman Abdullahi Irro, candidate of the main opposition Waddani Party had 226,092 votes (40.7%), and the third candidate, UCID’s Feisal Ali Warabe had 23,141votes (4.17%).

The Chairman of the National Electoral Commission said he was satisfied the Commission was able to meet the conditions set for the election, “and I believe it was a free, fair and credible election.” The election was also overseen by 60 election observers from 27 countries, members of an International Election Observer Mission, funded by the UK. Dr. Michael Walls, head of the International Observer Mission, said, “On election day, we are pleased to have observed a poll that in the main seems to have preserved the integrity of the electoral process.”The Mission “congratulated Somaliland on a largely peaceful process; another progressive step in the electoral evolution.” The observer team dispatched observers to 350 out of the 1,600 polling stations across all six regions in Somaliland as well as covering the counting process. It said: “Observers noted that polls opened and closed on time, in a generally calm environment, with peaceful voting, and no major violence or intimidation observed,” and eligible and domestic observers were able to conduct their work without restrictions.

The voting process was unusually sophisticated with the registered 700,000 voters using biometric eye scanning identification. This provided the world’s most sophisticated voting register, and was in fact the first time anywhere in the world that iris recognition has been used in a presidential election. In looking for an improved and effective democratic performance, Somaliland wanted to reduce voter duplication. It considered the effectiveness of different face, finger and iris recognition technologies, and concluded iris recognition was the best available to avoid voter duplication, which had occurred in the 2008 elections.

Following the voting, Waddani claimed there had been vote rigging and the use of fake ballot papers. There were protests in Hargeisa and Burao in which three people died. The International Election Mission said in a statement that it was aware of the complaints and grievances about the electoral process, and it urged complainants to pursue those grievances through appropriate customary and legal channels. The statement said the Mission stood by its earlier statements reporting “a largely peaceful and well-organized polling day in areas observed”. It said it still had a small team of observers to report on the post-poll process and it called on all Somalilanders to work to maintain the peace and to respect due process as results were finalized and complaints considered. It said, “We remain convinced that appropriate customary and formal avenues are available for the peaceful pursuit, consideration and adjudication of disputes.”

Following the protests, retiring President Ahmed Mohammed Mohamud Silanyo also issued a strong warning against hooliganism, violence and illegal demonstrations while the counting was taking place. He said November 13 had been a great day for Somaliland and thanked the people for the manner in which the exercise of the electioneering process took place across Somaliland. He described it as a national triumph.

The main opposition candidate, Abdirahman Abdullahi ‘Irro’, originally said he would disassociate himself from the results if Musa Bihi won. However, following the announcement of the results, he issued a statement conceding that “Mr. Bihi will be the fifth president of Somaliland”. He said, “I know there were irregularities and the commission declared false results”, but stressed he accepted the results for the sake of his people and added all candidates who participated in the election had “the responsibility of bringing people together”.

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Eritrea: Nevsun’s efforts to stop forced labor case fail

Canada’s British Columbia Court of Appeal on Tuesday (November 21) dismissed an appeal by Nevsun Resources Ltd., that sought to block a case brought against the company by three Eritreans over the alleged used of forced labor at Nevsun’s Bisha Mine in Eritrea. The Bisha mine is 60% owned by Nevsun Resources and 40% owned by the Eritrean government through ENAMCO (Eritrean National Mining Company). A British Colombia lower court ruled last October that the lawsuit could proceed in British Columbia, saying that as Nevsun was a British Colombian company, the British Columbia court had territorial jurisdiction. Nevsun appealed the ruling, arguing the case should be dismissed and that any lawsuit should be heard in Eritrea, not Canada.

Counsel for the plaintiffs welcomed the decision: “This is a very important win for the claimants. Nevsun will now have to answer these allegations of grave human right abuses on their merits in a Canadian court of law.” The case can now go forward in a British Columbia court, though Nevsun can still appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In Tuesday’s judgment, three British Columbia Appeals court judges said the lower court judge had not erred in his ruling, and dismissed all three of Nevsun’s appeals. Giving a unanimous judgment, Justice Newbury expressed particular concern about the lack of adequate alternative recourse in Eritrea, the plaintiffs’ country of origin. In reviewing the evidence on Eritrea’s judicial system, Justice Newbury agreed with the assessment of the lower court, noting that the plaintiffs faced the prospect of “no trial at all” in Eritrea, or a trial “presided over by a functionary with no real independence from the state (which is implicated in this case) and in a legal system that would appear to be actuated largely by the wishes of the President and his military supporters.” Justice Newbury also noted that the Eritrean government’s practices of institutionalized forced labor through its so-called ‘National Service’ program were “not contemplated by any legislation”. In any event, the acts alleged were so grave that they “could not be justified by legislation or official policy.” The ruling allows that the plaintiffs can prosecute a civil case in Canada for Nevsun’s alleged complicity in crimes against humanity, slavery, forced labor and torture at the Bisha mine. The Court also noted that international law is “in flux” and that transnational law, which regulates “actions or events that transcend national frontiers”, is developing, especially in connection with human rights violations that are not effectively addressed by traditional “international mechanisms”.

In affidavits filed with the court, the plaintiffs, who have since left Eritrea, said they were forced to work at Nevsun’s Bisha Mine from 2008 to 2012 and that they endured harsh conditions, including hunger, illness and physical punishment at the hands of military commanders. The three plaintiffs allege they were national service conscripts and that their labour was provided to Nevsun and its operating subsidiary, Bisha Mining Share Company, through two Eritrean government-owned construction firms subcontracted to build the mine. They alleged those Eritrean companies are documented slavers and the plaintiffs’ labour was extracted under threat of torture, arbitrary detention, imprisonment in inhumane conditions and reprisals against family members. Nevsun argued that the Eritrean military never provided labour to the mine, and, even if it did, the company said it was not directly responsible for employing the workers.

In fact, various Eritrean human rights organizations have drawn attention to the use of National Service conscripts as forced or slave labor by international companies operating in Eritrea over a number of years. The UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Eritrea has also extensively documented the use of conscript labor. In a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council last June, the Commission noted: “Like the victims of the crime of enslavement in Germany during the Second World War, in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, and in the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s, the victims of the military/national service schemes in Eritrea are not bought and sold on an open market.”  It referred to the uncertain legal basis for the national service programmes, and the arbitrary and open-ended duration of conscription, which routinely lasted for years beyond the 18 months provided for by law, and the involuntary nature of the service beyond that period. It noted the use of forced labour, including domestic servitude, to benefit private, party-controlled and State-owned interests, and the associated limitations on freedom of movement, as well as the inhumane conditions of service, including the use of torture and sexual violence, the extreme coercive measures to deter escape and punishment for alleged attempts to desert military service, without any administrative or judicial proceedings. The Commissions also emphasized the  limitations on all forms of religious observance for conscripts, and what it described as, overall, “the catastrophic impact of lengthy conscription and conditions on freedom of religion, choice, association and family life.”

Specifically referring to forced labor, the Commission noted the extensive use of conscript labour for the benefit of the Government, as well as senior officials. Conscript labour, it said, had been used in construction projects, ranging from roads to schools, clinics and office buildings, and in support of private enterprises; in agriculture; in the civil service, to staff government ministries as well as work as teachers and nurses; and in the judiciary as judges. The use of conscript labour in, inter alia, construction and agriculture had benefitted not only the state but private individuals, and private and state-controlled enterprises. One account of conditions of workers at an enterprise, quoted by the Commission, said: “The workers did not receive sufficient food. There were many diseases because of the poor nutrition and poor sanitation. Labourers were flogged and subjected to especially hard labour if they misbehaved, refused to work or disobeyed orders. Medical treatment is very basic and insufficient. Movement is severely restricted and commanders prevent conscripts from going anywhere even when they are sick. Workers are rarely allowed to go on leave. They are compelled to stay and work long hours.”

The Director of Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRC-E), Ms. Elsa Chyrum, said the Appeal Court decision was “a significant milestone in holding perpetrators of gross human rights violations in Eritrea to account”. She said: “The Canadian court judgment is a huge step forward in the struggle for accountability for human rights abuses. If the plaintiffs go on to win this case, it will have major implications for other potential cases against international companies and their operations in Eritrea. Former Eritrean victims of forced/slave labor, now refugees in other parts of the world, are registering with human rights groups to file cases against international companies operating in Eritrea, and HRC-E says it is compiling a list of ex-victims. HRC-E says it is hoped that, “when this case finally comes to judgment, that it will become clear to all international companies working in Eritrea that they will be held responsible for the treatment of the workforce provided by the Eritrean government in their industrial operations.”

 

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