Free Dawit Isaak

Dawit Isaak, born in 1964, is a dual citizen of Eritrea and Sweden who has been imprisoned without trial in Eritrea since September, 2001. In the first 20 years of his life Dawit became a prominent, award-winning author of several novels and plays, including two in Tigrinya, Eritrea’s official language. Dawit fled Eritrea, the country of his birth, in 1985 during the country’s brutal 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia. During this time Dawit moved to Sweden where he began at a refugee camp but found work cleaning a church in Gothenburg. The author became an active member of Sweden’s Eritrean diaspora, who shared the dream of an independent homeland.

When Eritrea had its independence officially recognized in 1992, Dawit returned to the new country’s capital of Asmara, and started a children’s group at a local theater. In 1997, with a group of journalists, Dawit founded Setit, the first and only independent newspaper in Eritrea’s history. In 2001 a group of opposition politicians published a letter urging President Isaias Afwerki to hold free elections as promised, and Setit reported on the story. On September 23, 2001 two state security officers arrested Dawit without charge.

Dawit Isaak has been hospitalized on many occasions throughout his imprisonment, as he has been subjected to torture and has extra medical needs as a diabetic. Eritrean prison conditions are notoriously poor, and summer temperatures regularly reach 45º C (113º F.) Seven of Dawit’s colleagues have died in captivity, and he has been feared to be dead on many occasions.

Dawit Isaak was stated to be alive most recently on June 20, 2016, by Eritrea’s foreign minister Osman Saleh. Dawit’s Brother Esayas Isaak joined the Swedish MP and former Eritrean child soldier Arhe Hamednaca in expressing both a distrust for the government and hope for Dawit’s safety, taking the news skeptically.

Dawit Isaak has received numerous awards during his imprisonment, including the Freedom of the Press award from Reporters Without Borders and the Gold Pen of Freedom from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

Dawit Isaak is currently being held in the maximum-security Eiraeiro Prison 15 kilometers north of Asmara, Eritrea. Due to the arbitrary nature of his detention, it is impossible to suggest when Dawit Isaak will be released.

Your Message

Message Recipients: Amanuel Giorgio, Human Rights Deputy of the Permanent Mission of Eritrea to the United Nations

I am deeply concerned with the arrest, imprisonment, and ongoing arbitrary detention of the award-winning Eritrean novelist, journalist, and playwright Dawit Isaak. Dawit, born in Asmara, fled his native country for Sweden as a refugee of the Eritrean war of Independence, but returned to Eritrea with his family in 1992 when the country’s independence was recognized, founding the newspaper Setit. At Setit, Dawit reported on a group of opposition politicians in September, 2001, and was taken to Eiraeiro Prison without explanation or charge days later. Dawit holds dual Swedish-Eritrean citizenship, and his imprisonment is especially concerning due to health concerns from diabetes. Dawit Isaak has been hospitalized on many occasions and has been allowed no contact with the world outside his cell for over a decade, though in 2014 Eritrea’s ambassador to Israel Tesfamariam Tekeste confirmed that he is alive. It is never acceptable to hold anyone prisoner for their creative work. The state of legal limbo into which Dawit Isaak has been placed since 2001, without charges, without adequate health support, and without contact to family or lawyers, is especially cruel. The secrecy surrounding Dawit’s arbitrary detention is especially disconcerting, as Eritrea’s government has been called upon multiple times to clarify his status. Eritrea must follow the example it set in 2015 with the release of six journalists who were also detained arbitrarily and unconditionally free Dawit Isaak. Dawit’s arrest violates internationally recognized norms of freedom of expression as voiced in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, to each of which Eritrea is a party. Furthermore, the arbitrary detention of this prisoner of conscience without legal counsel violates the ICCPR, The UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. I strongly urge you to unconditionally release this prisoner of conscience.

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