CAMPAIGNS
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN ERITREA
Where Are Eritrea’s Dissidents?
On the 20th anniversary of Eritrean governments shutdown of the free press and arrest of their most high profile critics, we jointly launched the #WhereAreEritreasDissidents campaign with Amnesty International. We wanted to remind the world that no one, not even their family members, know where they are. We published stories of the family members and launched a petition demanding that the Eritrean authorities give information about the detained dissidents’ fate and whereabouts and to immediately and unconditionally release them.
#EritreaAt30: How Do We Achieve Liberation?
For the 30 year anniversary of Eritrea’s independence, we organised a campaign encouraging people to reflect on what our liberation fighters really fought for and how we can continue their unfinished mission. Our panel discussion brought together a diverse group of Eritreans who shared their thoughts and reflections to the audience.
#FreeCiham
We co-founded the campaign #FreeCiham with Amnesty International. Ciham Ali was kidnapped by Eritrean authorities when she was only 15 years old. She has not been seen since. Despite being a US national, the US government has not intervened in her case. The objective of the campaign is to get United States secretary of state Antony Blinken to intervene in her case.
We launched the campaign on her 24th birthday with activities throughout her birthday month. We launched the official petition for the campaign, and pushed it on social media with a 24h twitter storm and a social media challenge calling on people to post a picture of themselves from 2012 and now to highlight how much time has passed since Ciham was imprisoned. We also launched a lobbying campaign at the same time. We organised several events on Instagram and Clubhouse, and a large virtual birthday party that was live-streamed on Facebook. The birthday party featured speeches from Ciham’s childhood friend and uncle and moving musical and poetry performances. The party has received over 28,000 views. A few days into the campaign, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee responded to one of the campaigns tweet with a call for her immediate release. It was the first ever statement from a US government body regarding Ciham’s case.
Following the successful launch of #FreeCiham, the campaign was selected to be one of the cases featured in Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign - their annual flagship campaign where their members come together for a month to gather as many signatures as possible for 10 selected cases. We called on members to push the campaign by posting pictures of themselves wearing purple and tagging Secretary Blinken.
We have continued with the lobbying and mobilisation campaign ever since. On her 25th birthday, we organised a virtual birthday party on Twitter spaces and on the 10 year anniversary of her arrest we pushed a social media challenge calling on people to light a candle for Ciham and hold 10 minutes of silence in their homes. Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, joined our calls for Ciham’s release on the 10 year anniversary of her arrest.
The petition currently has 430,000 signatures.
The Hunger Crisis in Eritrea
Eritrea is currently going through a terrible hunger crisis. The transportation ban that the unelected regime initiated as a response to COVID-19 has worsened a food and water crisis that already was devastating the population. The markets are almost empty of supplies and people cannot afford the little food that exists. Everyone calling their family members in Eritrea are met with the same sentence: “we are hungry”.
Eritrean regime officials like to frame the situation as a “Poor African country doing its best” but in fact, what they are doing is enacting policies and withholding resources with the sole intention to hurt and control the Eritrean people.
We have published an article and video explainer outlining the causes to the crisis and what we can do to help. You can read the article here and watch the video below.
Child Imprisonments in Eritrea
For the #DayoftheAfricanChild, we ran a campaign raising awareness about unjust child imprisonments in Eritrea. Child prisoners live in facilities with horrible conditions, suffer health issues and torture, and experience social and economic disadvantages that can impact their lives for years. ADD ALL SLIDES
Honouring Eritrean Women
Nothing makes us prouder than to walk in the footsteps of the brave, strong and resilient Eritrean women who first fought for our independence & now for our freedom. For International Women’s Month, we ran a campaign highlighting several themes interlinking with Eritrean women's rights. Click on the images to read about each theme.
Eritrean Art and Resistance
This campaign aims to highlight Eritrean artists who are bravely resisting the regime. We want to honour their contributions and courage. We also hope that their stories can show people that there are many ways they can contribute to the movement, and inspire other artists and writers in the diaspora to also use their talents to resist the Eritrean regime.
#Purple4Ciham
Ciham Ali is an Eritrean-American citizen who was imprisoned without a trial when she was only 15 years old. For her 23rd birthday we painted the world purple (her favourite color) to pressure her Senator Kamala Harris to start fighting for Ciham’s release. We called on our community to change their profile picture to purple and post a picture of themselves wearing purple and tag Senator Kamala Harris. Over 150 people participated in the picture challenge wearing purple clothes, accessories and hair. We also organised a 24h calling campaign to Senator Kamala Harris office.
The campaign brought together a beautiful community of young women from all over the world. We organised a virtual birthday party for Ciham where her uncle spoke and young women who had been active in the campaign gave speeches and musical and poetry performances.
The campaign was supported by all major diaspora Eritrean human rights organisations and social media pages. It was also supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Nobel Women’s Initiative and covered by Al Jazeera. Ou- also a 23 year old diaspora born Eritrean - wrote a powerful letter to Ciham talking about their similarities and differences, and why she is fighting for her release. The letter was published by Mail & Guardian.
#TeachTiffany
Tiffany Haddish is an Eritrean-American actress who has actively supported the Eritrean dictator. In March 2020, we published an article in Buzzfeed outlining how Tiffany has supported the dictator and how her support is benefitting them. The article was the second most read on the website on the day of the launch and was widely circulated online. We launched the social media campaign #TeachTiffany alongside the publication of the article to mobilise our community to tag Tiffany in posts about the human rights crisis in Eritrea.
Tigrinya translation of the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJUFq48_xc&t=14s
#18StolenYears
On the 18 year anniversary of the government’s shut down off the Eritrean free press, we organised an 18 day campaign - one day for each year the government had stolen from us. We organised protests in Washington DC, London, Denver, Stockholm and Kitchener and mobilised hundreds of people to change their profile picture to a picture of the number 18 for the duration of the campaign as a form of protest and to raise awareness to their followers. We produced chronicling what had happened in the 18 years that we encouraged our community to share whilst amplifying our calls for change. It was the first time there was a clear expectation to take a stance either for or against the dictatorship. At the time, it was the largest online mobilisation effort of diaspora-born Eritreans ever done. The campaign was highlighted by the BBC World Services and Radio France International, and supported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
#HappyBirthdayCiham
Ciham Ali is an Eritrean-American citizen who was imprisoned without a trial when she was only 15 years old. On her 22nd birthday we launched a campaign raising awareness about her case and calling on her Congresswoman Karen Bass to take on her case. Congresswoman Bass had never worked on Ciham’s case or even acknowledged it. We ran the campaign her entire birthday month of April and mobilised our community to organise birthday parties, protests and post videos singing happy birthday on social media. The campaign was covered by CNN and Al Jazeera and supported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
There were birthday parties and protests in many cities, including San Diego, New York, Nantes, Taipei, Durham, Stockholm, Toronto and London.
A few days into the campaign, Congresswoman Bass made her first ever statement regarding Ciham’s case.
A Night In Solidarity With Seyoum
On World Press Freedom Day 2018, we organised a night in solidarity with Seyoum and his colleagues. There was spoken word and musical performances by incredible Eritrean artists AWATE and Lula Mebrahtu. Our executive director Vanessa Tsehaye - Seyoum’s niece - also spoke about Seyoum's story and how his fate is contextualized within the wider story of Eritrea and its people, and about the current efforts to change the situation. At the end of the night, we ate injera together.
Silent Protest Outside Eritrea’s Mission to the United Nations
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Hanna and Meaza’s Story
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394,500 views on Facebook
76,000 views on YouTube
Boycott the Eritrean government festival!
We worked with other Eritrean groups based in Sweden to organise a campaign calling on people to boycott the Eritrean government festival. We organised a protest outside the festival and handed out flyers to people heading inside. The campaign was covered by Swedish media organisations such as SVT, Swedish Radio and Expressen.
Raise Your Voice!
On the 16 year anniversary of the shutdown all independent media and imprisonment the country’s most vocal critics, including Seyoum, we launched the campaign “Raise Your Voice” encouraging people from all walks of life and corners of the world to raise their voice for Seyoum and his colleagues in whatever way they can. We wanted people to use any platform at their disposal, regardless of the size, to amplify our call for Seyoum’s release. We encouraged people to raise their voices on their campuses, workplaces, communities, social media etc. The pictures below are of some of the actions that were done.
#15YearsOfSilence
In September 2001, the Eritrean regime shut down all independent media and imprisoned the country’s most vocal critics. Immediately following this, they turned the country into one of the most censored in the world and forced the population into silence.
To highlight the 15 year of anniversary of the silencing of the Eritrean people, One Day Seyoum organised silent protests across the world. The concept was simple - various congregations of people who wish to be involved come together for 15 minutes of silence. Some held signs of the names of people who have been silenced in prison and some also taped over their mouths. There were protests organised in public spaces and university and high school campuses in places like Kampala, Philadelphia, London, Oakland, Boston, Toronto, Uppsala, Stockholm, Edinburgh and Glasgow. A large group of Swedish parliamentarians also organised a silent protest in parliament. Some also did 15 minutes of silence in their homes. The 15 minutes of silence were as a symbol for the 15 years that have passed since Seyoum and his colleges were imprisoned. Those who participated were silent in protest against the Eritrean regime and in solidarity with those who have suffered under it.
The campaign was covered by AFB News Agency, BBC World Services three times, BBC TV News, Voice of America. Our executive director Vanessa Tsehaye also wrote op-eds in Swedish newspapers Metro Sweden and Dagens Nyheter.
Share His Story!
This campaign was an attempt to share Seyoum's story to new audiences and to get the people who already know his story to share it even further. We ran an online campaign, and mobilised our members to spread the campaign in their citites. We also organised a speaking tour at US universities. The campaign was launched with an op-ed in the HuffPost written by our executive director Vanessa Tsehaye. The campaign was also promoted by One Young World - an organisation bringing together the brightest young leaders from around the world - with a blog post by Vanessa shared to their entire community.
Where Are Our Heroes?
On the 14 year anniversary of the arrest of Eritrea’s most high profile critics, we organised a letter writing campaign demanding information about them. We wrote a powerful letter and created a mechanism on our website where people simply could click on a button and send the letter to all the email addresses for Eritrean embassies and government offices that are publicly available. We encouraged our community to raise awareness about the campaign online and by wearing our campaign t-shirts. We also mobilised our community in London and Stockholm - many of whom are family members of the imprisoned - to deliver letters to the embassies in their cities. None of the embassies opened the doors to accept the letters, but the activists put them up on the doors and outside to make sure the message was delivered. We encouraged people to also write personalised letters. The campaign was covered by the BBC and TV4, a Swedish TV channel.
Installation for imprisoned Eritrean journalists
On World Press Freedom Day 2015, we organised an installation in Stockholm’s city centre and had volunteers gathered over 500 signatures from people passing by. The installation was covered by Al Jazeera that described the installation like this:
“In the middle of the Swedish capital’s main square, Sergels Torg, 12 chairs are lined up next to each other – four occupied by people dressed in black T-shirts with duct tape covering their mouths. The remaining eight are empty. The square, a frequent protest venue set against the backdrop of a fountain, is a busy spot with shoppers and tourists strolling along as commuters rush by. The chairs in the middle of the square represent a dark story. This symbolic installation has been set up for World Press Freedom Day on Sunday to express solidarity with journalists held in Eritrean jails thousands of kilometres away.” You can read the full article here.
#FreeEritrea
We started the campaign #FreeEritrea to show why the liberation of the political prisoners would lead to the liberation of the entire country. We showed how the detention of the political prisoners led to the destruction of Eritrea and shared stories of the human rights crisis that we know that Seyoum and his colleagues would have shared if they were free. We argued that the people who have the skills and power to free Eritrea, so by freeing them, you will be freeing Eritrea. We called on people to sign our petition demanding their release. We wrote articles, released a podcast and created social media content to raise awareness and push the petition. We also encouraged our community to share the campaign by putting up posters with catchy taglines and a call to action to go to our website to access the information from the campaign. Our executive director spoke about the campaign on Radio Erena - an Eritrean radio station based in Paris and is the only independent news media that is transmitted in Eritrea. Since Eritrea is the worlds' most censored country, it is near to impossible to communicate freely with the people living there without putting them in danger, thus making the struggle for democracy and human rights in the country even more crucial and at the same time, even tougher. Radio Erena has created a bridge between activists in the diaspora and the people in Eritrea. The radio station plays a key role in the struggle for democracy in the country. The campaign was covered by Radio France International. We launched the campaign with a video and an article highlighting our mission with the campaign and it was published in English for the Eritrean diaspora news website Asmarino and in Swedish for daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Remembering the heroes of Fenqil
Fenkil day is a milestone in Eritrean history. The victory in the battle of Massawa was the beginning of an end that no one ever thought was coming. After 30 years of struggle, Eritrea was going to be independent.
Petros Solomon led the troops that liberated Massawa. When the war was won, he expected not only independence, but also democracy. Today, he has been imprisoned for more than 13 years. Seyoum Tsehaye filmed the liberation of Massawa and made one of the best documentary from the war, “Kibtzet”. like Petros Solomon; he expected democracy when independence finally came. Today he has been imprisoned for more than 13 years. This day symbolizes liberation from oppression, supremacy and then, when the future still was unknown, it might have been worth celebrating but today, it wouldn't be right.
Today, we see a country in despair. More than 4,000 people are fleeing every month. The Eritrean government is one of the most repressive and authoritarian in the world. We can’t celebrate a day that was supposed to give us a freedom that never came.
That is why this year OneDay Seyoum and Arbi Harnet (Freedom Friday movement) have decided to encourage the Eritrean people to not celebrate Fenkil day together with their oppressors. Through a message recorded by me, Vanessa Berhe, the niece of Seyoum Tsehaye we are going to make calls to remind the people about the real meaning of Fenkil day.
We fundraised enough money to make 3000+ robocalls and the data from the calls showed that no one hung up the calls and listened all the way to the end.
Listen to the message (in Tigrinya) below:
13 Year Anniversary of Seyoum’s and his colleagues arrests
We organised an event in Stockholm to celebrate Seyoum and his colleagues bravery, struggle and determination. Some of our speakers included:
Mona Sahlin - leader of Sweden’s largest political party
Meron Estefanos - Eritrean activist
Jordanos Tsehaye - sister of Seyoum Tsehaye
Betlehem Isaak - daughter of political prisoner Dawit Isaak
Hanna and Meaza Petros - daughters of two Eritrean political prisoners, Aster Yohannes and Petros Solomon (via video link)
It was live-streamed by one of Sweden’s largest news outlets and by an Eritrean diaspora channel.
We started out the event with a minute of a silence for all the people who perished in the Sinai desert, the Mediterranean Sea and in Eritrea. To all the people who have disappeared and to all the lives that have been lost due to the brutal regime in Eritrea.
Download this video: https://www.expressen.se/tv/nyheter/13-ar-sen-dawit-isaak-fangslades-/
Seyoum is my brother!
‘Seyoum is my brother’ was our first campaign and it focused on spreading Seyoum’s story to as many places as possible through campaigning at high schools, universities and through online actions such as signing the petition and posting a picture of yourself with a picture or t-shirt with the campaign slogan. The reasoning behind the name of the campaign was that we wanted people to take a stance saying that they would fight for Seyoum as if he was their brother. On the 21st of each month (the monthly anniversary of Seyoum’s arrest), we would mobilise our community to wear the t-shirts, post on social media and gather signatures at their schools. We started an ambassador programme that recruited and provided students with the information and equipment to spread our campaigns to their high schools and universities.
The campaign was spread places like Mexico City, New York, Taipei, Nairobi, Paris, Stockholm and many more places. Some of our most famous supporters were Pope Francis, Hope Solo and Deray Mckesson.
12 year anniversary of Seyoum’s and his colleagues arrests
We launched our organisation on the 12 year anniversary of Seyoum’s arrest with a video about his case and our goal, and a petition demanding his immediate release. Our launch was covered extensively by the media in Sweden, where we were based at the time. Our founder, Vanessa Tsehaye, also spoke at a solidarity event for the detained journalists alongside Esayas Isaak, the brother of a detained journalist and Martin Schibbye och Johan Persson, two Swedish journalists who had just returned home after being detained in Ethiopia.
