Since a 25 October 1994 presidential decree, the government of Eritrea has stripped Jehovah's Witnesses of citizenship rights for declining to vote in the 1993 independence referendum and for conscientiously objecting to military service on religious grounds, and has imprisoned members without charge, some for over two decades. Eritrea officially recognizes only four religious bodies, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Sunni Islam, the Eritrean Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea, leaving Jehovah's Witnesses and unregistered evangelical and Pentecostal congregations outside the four recognized faiths without legal standing and subject to raids and arbitrary detention.
Facts
Status
Current StatusAs of October 2024, more than 270 Jehovah's Witnesses had been imprisoned in Eritrea since 1994, with 64 still held, none of them ever charged with or convicted of a crime. 1 Official RecognitionSourced to the subject's own accountNot formally recognized by any body 3 Recognition BasisSourced to the subject's own accountNo international body has classified Eritrea's treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses or unregistered evangelical Christians as genocide or crimes against humanity. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ruled on 20 August 2025 that Eritrea violated the individual rights of three named, long held Witnesses and ordered compensation, a finding on individual rights violations rather than a genocide or crimes against humanity determination. 3 The Event
When It HappenedOngoing since 1994, when the government revoked the legal status of Jehovah's Witnesses. 1 Where It Happened Victim GroupJehovah's Witnesses in Eritrea, stripped of citizenship rights since 1994, and members of unregistered evangelical and Pentecostal congregations outside the four officially recognized religious bodies. 1 Perpetrator RegimeThe government of Eritrea under President Isaias Afwerki. 1 Origins
Defining MomentSourced to the subject's own accountOn 20 August 2025 the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ruled that Eritrea had violated the rights of three Jehovah's Witnesses, Paulos Eyassu, Isaac Mogos and Negede Teklemariam, abducted 17 September 1994 and held without charge or trial for roughly twenty six years, citing arbitrary detention, denial of legal status and judicial proceedings, and inhumane treatment, and ordered Eritrea to compensate the three men. 3 History
Historical NotePresident Isaias Afwerki's 25 October 1994 decree revoked Jehovah's Witnesses' business licenses and civil status for their refusal, on religious grounds, to participate in the 1993 independence referendum and to perform compulsory military service, without official identification many Witnesses were barred from employment, government benefits and travel. Eritrea's registration regime recognizes only four denominations, leaving all others, including evangelical and Pentecostal congregations whose organized presence in the country expanded from the 1990s onward, without legal status. 1 Consequences
Death TollSourced to the subject's own accountJehovah's Witnesses' own reporting names four Witnesses who died in Eritrean prison from the conditions of their detention and three more who died shortly after release, a documented total of seven deaths tied to imprisonment since the 1994 decree. This is the persecuted community's own count rather than an independently audited tally, and no outside body has published a competing or corroborating aggregate, so death-toll-max is left unwritten rather than guessed. Cross-Tradition Connections
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