Undeniably, the overriding oppression in Eritrea is leading to a growing frustration among citizens. Regardless of the various local and international peaceful calls for reform, the problems of oppression in Eritrea could not be defeated primarily due to the unwillingness of the government to open up the political and economic space of the nation.

Many concerned individuals and organizations, including the EMDHR, have been contributing their part for a solution to the injustices prevailing in Eritrea. They have mainly been carrying out important activities, which include advocating against the injustices in Eritrea, letter writing and petitioning to the international community, making critical analysis about the laws and policies of the government, as well as conducting public meetings, demonstrations and social activities essentially with the intent of initiating public discussions as well as mobilizing the public.

Despite the abovementioned activities, yet there have been visible problems prevalent in a search for a comprehensive solution to the injustices in Eritrea, the most important of which are people’s fear and indifferences to the problems in Eritrea, confusions and suspicions that usually lead to serious misunderstandings and divisions among individuals and organizations, and stressing more on side issues which hinder the political and social maturity of core issues that need to be dealt with approprietly. These problems have certainly been hindering active engagement and participation of the public, which is a requisite factor for achieving sustainable democracy and rule of law in every nation.

Whatever the cause might be, one point is obvious - in a struggle for democracy numbers are very important. Without active participation of the general public there is little that can be achieved. Thus one of the preoccupations of the EMDHR has been to devise mechanisms, which improve active public participation. Accordingly, the EMDHR is convinced that a first step to ensure the above objective is to increase the awareness level of the public through community education about the means through which the people can exercise and defend their rights. The EMDHR recognizes that the identified means shall be able to empower the people to overcome their fear and passivity, and most importantly to empower the people to be able to question authority, should there be a need to do so.

Based from its founding principles as well as the ongoing discussions among its members and other concerned individuals and organizations, the EMDHR is convinced that waging active nonviolent struggle by the people is the best way to promote peace, justice and sustainable democracy in Eritrea. Many people might believe that nonviolent struggle is a way of avoiding conflict and being passive. However, it is the conviction of the EMDHR that active nonviolent struggle is a method of actively engaging in resistance against oppression by a government or any group of people through carefully planned campaigns of disobedience, non-cooperation and disruption.

This project known as ‘Civic Awareness - Manual’, which was officially launched on 14 August 2005 [1] in Pretoria and which involves the development of a manual is based on the above insight. It has been discussing issues which include what are the theories, principles and practices of active non-violent struggle? How can these theories and practices be related to the Eritrean cause?

The project has three major benefits. One is that the public discussions that have been carried out in the development of the manual are encouraging participatory democracy, a vital element missing in Eritrean state of affairs. The motto of the project, ‘Affairs of the People by the People’, is based on the above account. Also, the discussions have certainly been promoting civility, respect and tolerance of divergent views.

Moreover, the project has been serving as a platform for developing ideas, mechanisms and techniques of active nonviolent struggle. The platform has already demonstrated that the techniques of nonviolent struggle are freely available at the disposal of the people and are proven effective for protesting human rights abuses by a group or a government. Additionally, on a successful completion of the project an educational manual, prepared in local Eritrean languages, will be produced which will always be accessible as a reference training material to grassroots community.

The project team members based from the ongoing activities as well as in their recent discussions and communications convinced that it is necessary to avoid hatred and bitterness, despite the outrageous human rights abuses in Eritrea. Instead they pledged to look at the matter objectively and without negative implications. The discussions apparently produced for the contents of the manual to be guided by the following principles:

• Shall be all inclusive
• Shall avoid offensive statements towards any individual or group, as this will not further the desire to play a reconciliatory and constructive role.
• Shall only make use of historical facts appropriately and accurately
• Shall primarily focus on the acts of omission. Of course, it would also be necessary to point out the acts of commission but in a very sensitive way. The only thing which needed to be avoided is to address the negative actions in a derogatory and demeaning way. There might be a need to point out what exactly is wrong in a rather an understanding manner while highlighting the omission as a contributing factor to the commission of others.
• The most important point is: there shall not be an interest of proving one side as a winner and another as a loser but it shall motivate for both to work towards peace and justice.

Finally, the EMDHR genuinely welcomes every Eritrean to participate in the discussions that have been carried out in the development of the educational manual and thus make the project a success story.

Yoel Alem

Pretoria, SA