Judgment on Eritrea

Case 54-2020: Eritrea

ETHICAL JUDGMENT

Dear Prosecutor, Ambassador of Peace and Jury Members of the International Buddhist Ethics Committee (IBEC) and Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights (BTHR), regarding Case 54-2020 against “Eritrea”, on the 17th April 2020, it is hereby recorded that the trial to analyze the violations of Human Rights and of Buddhist Ethics carried out by the accused has been concluded. This Case has been carried out as a consequence of the investigation carried out by the United Nations Commission of inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea.

After the analysis of the presentation of the Case and the validation of evidence, 4 members of the Jury voted, all of them declaring “Eritrea” as Responsible for committing the serious crimes of Crimes against Humanity. The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights has been able to study evidence that “Eritrea” has committed serious human rights violations in a systematic and widespread way against civilians, such as international crimes of ethnic discrimination against tribes, religious persecution of unrecognized spiritual communities, arbitrary arrests of thousands of political prisoners and violations of freedom of expression, torture to extract information, inhuman treatment by denying food and health, sexual abuse of conscripted women, slavery of soldiers, extrajudicial killings of refugees, and forced disappearances of opposition civilians, these being crimes that have been committed with impunity. The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights declares that such crimes constitute Crimes against Humanity, causing hundreds of thousands of citizens of Eritrea to flee to other countries as refugees who do not want to live under a tyrannical and brutal regime.

The Buddhist Law recalls that Eritrea has not only breached its own Constitution but has also violated numerous international treaties it has signed, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Forced Labor Convention, and the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention. The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights affirms that although Eritrea has been an independent country since 1991, however, its people have not yet been Liberated, living under a system of tyranny and oppression.

Furthermore, the presidency of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights has also conducted its own investigations, as the UN report is incomplete on the depth of the crimes carried out against the tribal peoples of Eritrea. Thus, the Buddhist Law confirms that Eritrea has not only committed crimes against humanity as stated in the report of the UN Commission, but it would even have committed acts of Extermination, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide against tribal peoples such as the Afar, carrying out mass killings, kidnappings and sexual torture against an indigenous people that is denied its fundamental rights to self-determination and self-government according to its own nomadic pastoralist traditional systems of life.

Finally, although the UN Commission, complainant of the Eritrea Case has presented a large report on violations of fundamental freedoms in that country, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights certainly considers that the UN Security Council has once again failed in its duty not to allow impunity for such crimes, by not promoting the investigation and condemnation of crimes against humanity carried out by Eritrea. In this sense, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights considers that it is not the duty of the UN to carry out ethical judgments, since it is not a non-governmental organization but rather being a powerful intergovernmental organization, having the duty to prevent and criminally prosecute such crimes by means of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ethical justice is the Purpose (Dharma) of the Buddhist Law, and to exercise this global function Mindfulness, compassionate wisdom and humanitarian ethics are required, obviously not committing international crimes, which is something that the very UN has committed with total impunity and which for that reason it received a sentence for Crimes against humanity in 2016.

In conclusion, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights has the Purpose (Dharma) to protect tribal and indigenous peoples around the world, developing a humanitarian ethics that complies at all times with the prevention of Genocide and Crimes against humanity. The Buddhist Law is a beacon of love and justice in the world, spiritually judging and ethically sentencing those who commit international crimes against the sacredness of life. Following Master Gautama, who in India developed a model of tribal community, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights supervises that countries do not attempt against human rights, for which reason “Eritrea” has been sentenced as Responsible for Genocide and Crimes against Humanity.

With spirit of reconciliation (maitri),

H.E. Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha

President and Ethical Judge of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights