Prison State, Pariah, And Proxy War: Human Rights Narratives and the Sovereignty Backlash in Eritrea

The Eritrean state has been depicted by media and by human rights organizations as a pariah and “prison state” violating the human rights of its citizens and engaging in senseless conflicts with its neighbors. I examine these representations in mainstream, global media and the response to them in the rhetoric of Eritrea’s leaders. The characterization of Eritrea conflates its human rights record with international policies, particularly support for Islamists in Somalia, and casts the country as rogue. President Isaias Afwerki’s responses to these depictions draw on narratives of the international community persistently neglecting Eritrea, thus using discourses of isolationism and self-reliance to buttress his rule and situating critiques of Eritrea’s human rights record as part of a broader attack on Eritrea’s sovereignty. Eritrean leaders’ assertions of sovereignty, the right to protect one’s borders and govern within them, thus indirectly counter calls for an improved human rights record.