UN Watch today strongly condemned the appointment of the Eritrean regime as Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s 2026 Social Forum, calling the decision “a grotesque farce that places one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships in charge of a body tasked with advancing human rights.”
“Inmates are running the asylum,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “Eritrea is a militarized one-party dictatorship with a Freedom House score of 3 out of 100, meaning their human rights record could hardly get worse.”
The reclusive dictator Isaias Afwerki has been shunned by the West for decades. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Eritrea after its soldiers raped and pillaged their way across neighboring northern Ethiopia during the war in Tigray.
“Eritrea’s regime has held no national elections since independence in 1993. It enforces indefinite national service that amounts to slavery. It jails critics and journalists without charge or trial for decades. It systematically tortures political prisoners and religious minorities. Known as the ‘North Korea of Africa,’ this regime has no business anywhere near a human rights body. Putting the Eritrean regime in the chair is a sick joke.”
This year’s UN Social Forum is mandated to promote “international cooperation and solidarity,” including the “realization of the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”
“Appointing Eritrea-whose regime has for years subjected its own people to rape, torture, forced labor, enforced disappearances, and the complete shutdown of independent media-makes a mockery of that mandate, said Neuer.
“Journalists such as Swedish-Eritrean Dawit Isaak have been held incommunicado without trial since 2001. Thousands of others remain disappeared. The ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice under president-for-life Isaias Afwerki tolerates no opposition, no free press, and no genuine civil society,” Neuer added.
UN Watch has documented these abuses through expert testimony at its Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Survivors and human rights defenders have described a system of indefinite conscription, arbitrary detention, and total control that leaves ordinary Eritreans with no escape except perilous flight.
“This appointment does not occur in a vacuum,” said Neuer. “It is the latest example of the Human Rights Council’s chronic failure to uphold its own standards, allowing serial abusers to capture positions of influence while genuine victims are sidelined. The credibility of the entire UN human rights system is further eroded when dictatorships are rewarded with leadership roles.”
“UN Watch therefore issues a direct challenge: We call on United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to publicly and unequivocally condemn this appointment without delay. Silence would constitute complicity in the degradation of the institution he leads.”
“We further call on all democratic governments that claim to defend universal rights represented on the Human Rights Council-especially including UNHRC member states such as France, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and Switzerland-to issue an immediate joint statement rejecting Eritrea’s chairmanship. They must demand a reversal of this outrageous appointment, and announce that they will not legitimize any proceedings under Eritrean leadership. These governments must also intensify bilateral and multilateral pressure on Eritrea to release all political prisoners, end the system of indefinite forced labor, allow independent media, and permit free and fair elections,” said Neuer.
“Anything less rewards tyranny and betrays the very people the Human Rights Council was created to protect. The world is watching. Democracies that remain silent will share responsibility for this shameful decision.”
