To: Volker Türk
      UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should take urgently all the necessary measures to save Eritrean Catholic Bishop Fikremariam Hagos who has been arrested at Asmara airport on the 15th of October 2022 upon arrival from his pastoral duties overseas. As it is always the case, his holiness was not brought to any court of law and nobody knows the reason for his arrest. It is reported that two other Catholic priests, Abba Mihretab Stefanos and Abba Abraham, were arrested recently.

This arrest of the bishop and the two priests is a continuation of other high ranking religious leaders arrests like his holiness Patriarch Antonios - the leader of the Eritrea Orthodox church - who passed on while under house arrest for 16 years. Dozens of other prominent religious leaders have disappeared.

We hereby kindly ask the OHCHR to:

1. Demand from the government of Eritrea for the immediate and unconditional release of his holiness bishop Fikremariam Hagos.
2. Demand from the government of Eritrea for the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience.
3. Hold to account the Eritrean government for its unabated violations of basic rights of Eritrean citizens.
4. Work for the suspension / exclusion of the Eritrean government from its current Human Rights Council membership because of its utter disregard for human rights. As the saying goes, charity begins at home.

Stand for what is right!

Kind regards,
Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR)