Sample letters to UNSC

Sample letters to UNSC

'Hidmona' Human Rights Group of Manitoba and Eritrean Youth Solidarity for Change (EYSC-North America) have prepared a petition drive to coincide with the crucial vote of the UN Security Council on tightening the sanctions.We, in the opposition, are looking forward to see the sanctions to include investment ban on mining and the diaspora tax. The voices of pro-sanction have yet to be heard. EYSC-NA are using their resources to get people sign the sanction.

Here is how it works. The emails and faxes of the 15 Security Council members are listed. 4 sample letters (one on humanitarian, another human rights, third regional politics, and the last on diaspora affairs) are prepared. Petitioners can use one or all letters depending on their belief why the regime should be sanctioned. Please read the letters.


Sample 1

Your Excellency,

I would like to draw your attention regarding the ongoing debate of the United Nations Security Council on stiffening the sanctions on the regime in Eritrea.

I, hereby, state that I strongly support the stiffening of the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea until the regime fully complies with the demands of the citizens of the country to respect fundamental human rights and plays positive role in bringing about a sustainable domestic, regional and international peace, security and respect of human rights.

Your Excellency, as it has also become clear to your office, the Eritrean people’s long struggle for freedom, democracy and justice has been betrayed by a small clique that seeks to stay in power at all costs. The regime in Eritrea has been exercising inhuman behavior against citizens by making them the prime victims of state-sponsored terrorism. Eritrea is now the only country without a constitution, a free press, functioning parliament, and other pillars of democracy, thus dubbed the ‘North Korea of Africa’. Tens of thousands innocent Eritrean citizens, including journalists, former government officials, elders, members of banned religious groups, conscripts and many others have been languishing without any recourse to due process of law, under innumerable detention centers, underground prisons that littered all over the country. It is known that UN Security Council, through sanctions and pressures, has been playing pivotal role in helping the pro-democracy revolutions in North Africa and Arab World. The voiceless Eritrean people who have been enduring untold suffering for decades under probably the worst regime in the world today deserve to be noticed and protected before it is too late. The time to act is now.

Therefore, I strongly call upon your office:

1.    To extend, and stiffen the sanctions to include investment ban on Eritrea’s mining industry; ban on remittances from Eritrean Diaspora such as the 2% Diaspora tax and other similar nefarious sources of funding.
2.    To urge members states to cooperate in the full implementation of the sanctions and in the allocation of the necessary resources to see to it the desired ends are met.
3.    To remind the UNSC, in its mandate of the duty to protect, has a moral and legal responsibility to extend the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea based on gross violation of human rights as it is no less oppressive than the Gaddafi regime in Libya and Assad regime in Syria and as the Eritrean people have been suffering, in the same or even more than the Libyan and Syrian peoples suffered in the last decades.
4.    To ensure the Eritrean people that are faced with famine and drought have been offered the necessary emergency food and relief aid, and other assistances through the appropriate UN-mandated channels.
5.    To stay seized of the matter.

Thank you!

Name                Country        Signature        Date
________________________         _________________                    _________________               __________
...........................................................................................................................................................

Sample 2

Your Excellency,

I would like to draw your attention regarding the ongoing debate of the United Nations Security Council on stiffening the sanctions on the regime in Eritrea.

I, hereby, state that I strongly support the stiffening of the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea until the regime fully complies with the demands of the citizens of the country to respect fundamental human rights and plays positive role in bringing about a sustainable domestic, regional and international peace, security and respect of human rights.

Your Excellency, as it has also become clear to your office, as a result of indefinite servitude and tight state repression, the Eritrean youth have been leaving their country in thousands, braving a shoot-to-kill policy to cross the borders with Ethiopia and Sudan, making Eritrea one of the biggest refugee producing countries in the world. The overall impact of the regime’s gross violation of human rights inside the country results in mass exodus of the youth. Sadly, Eritrean refugees have continuously been suffering from inhuman treatments by human traffickers in the hosting countries especially in Sudan, Egypt/Sinai and Libya; who sell and buy these refugees, as well as make them sources for barbaric practices of human organ harvesting. There is no end in sight for the Eritrean misery, as the dictator Isaias Afewerki repeatedly demonstrated he would never hold any democratic election in the country, he would never step down and that he would never introduce political reforms of any sorts. Mindful of the fact that failure to act in due time had catastrophic and tragic results in places such as Rwanda and Darfur, we beseech and urge you to take an immediate and effective action before the regime of Isaias Afewerki inflicts irreparable and cataclysmic damage. Act now and save the Eritrean people.

Therefore, I strongly call upon your office:

1.    To extend, and stiffen the sanctions to include investment ban on Eritrea’s mining industry; ban on remittances from Eritrean Diaspora such as the 2% Diaspora tax and other similar nefarious sources of funding.
2.    To urge members states to cooperate in the full implementation of the sanctions and in the allocation of the necessary resources to see to it the desired ends are met.
3.    To remind the UNSC, in its mandate of the duty to protect, has a moral and legal responsibility to extend the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea based on gross violation of human rights as it is no less oppressive than the Gaddafi regime in Libya and Assad regime in Syria and as the Eritrean people have been suffering, in the same or even more than the Libyan and Syrian peoples suffered in the last decades.
4.    To ensure the Eritrean people that are faced with famine and drought have been offered the necessary emergency food and relief aid, and other assistances through the appropriate UN-mandated channels.
5.    To stay seized of the matter.
Thank you!

Name                Country        Signature        Date
________________________    __________________    _________________    ________________
........................................................................................................................................................

Sample 3

Your Excellency,

I would like to draw your attention regarding the ongoing debate of the United Nations Security Council on stiffening the sanctions on the regime in Eritrea.

I, hereby, state that I strongly support the stiffening of the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea until the regime fully complies with the demands of the citizens of the country to respect fundamental human rights and plays positive role in bringing about a sustainable domestic, regional and international peace, security and respect of human rights.

Your Excellency, as it has also become clear to your office, the regime in Eritrea has aligned itself with radical militants such as the Somali insurgents including Hizbul Al-Islam and Al-Shabab; offered them political, military and diplomatic heaven in the country. In face of this, we could not sit idly as a dictatorial, unrepresentative regime decided on its own narrow agenda, to squander Eritrean reputation and resources in ill-conceived and dangerous game against the real interests of the Eritrean state and public where no parliament or public gave consent to, and plunged Eritrea into  the complicated internal Somali politics. Through its resolution (UNSC-1907), the UNSC sanction has brought about measurable results in forcing the regime to seek mediation in the conflict with Djibouti after vehement denials that there had in fact been military crisis between the two countries, amply demonstrating that effective, stiff and punitive sanctions are the only language the Eritrean regime responds to. In addition, the tyrannical regime immediately released the British and Australian citizens it had detained for six months on serious allegation of attempted assassination of the Eritrean leader; upon the British government’s diplomatic and economic pressure and threat of sanction, once again proving beyond any reasonable doubt that forceful and stiff sanctions do effectively work in dealing with the tyrannical Eritrean regime.

Therefore, I strongly call upon your office:

1.    To extend, and stiffen the sanctions to include investment ban on Eritrea’s mining industry; ban on remittances from Eritrean Diaspora such as the 2% Diaspora tax and other similar nefarious sources of funding.
2.    To urge members states to cooperate in the full implementation of the sanctions and in the allocation of the necessary resources to see to it the desired ends are met.
3.    To remind the UNSC, in its mandate of the duty to protect, has a moral and legal responsibility to extend the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea based on gross violation of human rights as it is no less oppressive than the Gaddafi regime in Libya and Assad regime in Syria and as the Eritrean people have been suffering, in the same or even more than the Libyan and Syrian peoples suffered in the last decades.
4.    To ensure the Eritrean people that are faced with famine and drought have been offered the necessary emergency food and relief aid, and other assistances through the appropriate UN-mandated channels.
5.    To stay seized of the matter.
Thank you!

Name                Country        Signature        Date
________________________    __________________    _________________    _____________
.....................................................................................................................................................

Sample 4

Your Excellency,

I would like to draw your attention regarding the ongoing debate of the United Nations Security Council on stiffening the sanctions on the regime in Eritrea.

I, hereby, state that I strongly support the stiffening of the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea until the regime fully complies with the demands of the citizens of the country to respect fundamental human rights and plays positive role in bringing about a sustainable domestic, regional and international peace, security and respect of human rights.

Your Excellency, as it may have become clear to your office, the Eritrean regime had taken advantage of its Diaspora networks to undermine the UNSC sanction; Orchestrated campaigns to annul it by pretending the demands were coming from genuine Eritreans while the irrefutable truth is the regime’s petitions have been collected under duress, coercion, propaganda, intimidation, threats, and vitiating consent, misconstruing the targeted nature of the sanctions as if they meant to affect ordinary citizens. Not surprisingly, not even a single demonstration was held inside Eritrea to oppose the sanctions proving Eritreans inside the country do understand the “smart” nature of the sanctions, and they implicitly approve its objectives. Moreover, remittances from Diaspora Eritreans (particularly the 2% Diaspora Tax) have been used by the regime to control the Diaspora Eritreans, to hold them hostage and use them as tools for propaganda and as key sources of revenue for the regime’s insatiable appetite to inflict further damage and misery on the Eritrean people. Moreover, the argument that the revenues of mining operations would hurt Eritrean economy is totally baseless and false since in the past Eritrea’s economy has never, ever depended on mining. There is no question that the revenues to be deduced from the mining operations would only end up in the coffers of the unaccountable regime that will spend the funds in further entrenching its tight dictatorial control of the state apparatus as well in arming and funding regional militant insurgents.

Therefore, I strongly call upon your office:

1.    To extend, and stiffen the sanctions to include investment ban on Eritrea’s mining industry; ban on remittances from Eritrean Diaspora such as the 2% Diaspora tax and other similar nefarious sources of funding.
2.    To urge members states to cooperate in the full implementation of the sanctions and in the allocation of the necessary resources to see to it the desired ends are met.
3.    To remind the UNSC, in its mandate of the duty to protect, has a moral and legal responsibility to extend the sanctions against the tyrannical regime in Eritrea based on gross violation of human rights as it is no less oppressive than the Gaddafi regime in Libya and Assad regime in Syria and as the Eritrean people have been suffering, in the same or even more than the Libyan and Syrian peoples suffered in the last decades.
4.    To ensure the Eritrean people that are faced with famine and drought have been offered the necessary emergency food and relief aid, and other assistances through the appropriate UN-mandated channels.
5.    To stay seized of the matter.
Thank you!

Name                Country        Signature        Date

________________________    __________________    _________________    _____________

List of Contact Addresses of UN Security Council Members

H.E. Mr. Ivan Barbalic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
420 Lexington Avenue, Suites 607 & 608
New York, NY 10170
Fax: +1 (212) 751-9019
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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H.E. Mrs. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti (Brazil)
747 Third Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 371-5716
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Li Baodong (China)
350 East 35th Street
New York, NY 10016
Fax: +1 (212) 634-7626
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H.E. Mr. Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (Colombia)
140 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022
Fax: +1 (212) 371-2813
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Gerard Araud (France)
1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,
245 East 47th Street, 44th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 421-6889
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Denis Dangue Rewaka (Gabon)
18 East 41st Street, 9th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 689-5769
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


H.E. Dr. Peter Wittig (Germany)
871 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 940 04 02
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Hardeep Singh Pur (India)
235 East, 43rd Street, [between 2nd and 3rd Avenue]
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 490 9656
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Nawaf Salam (Lebanon)
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 531-533
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 838-2819/6756
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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H.E. Mrs. U. Joy Ogwu (Nigeria)
828 Second Ave
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1(212)-697-1970
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or you can email your letters to
http://www.nigeriaunmission.org/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=2&Itemid=53

H.E. Mr. José Filipe Moraes Cabral (Portugal)
866 Second Avenue, 9th floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 355 1124
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Mr. Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation)
136 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10021
Fax: +1 (212) 628-0252, 517-7427
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H. E. Mr. Baso Sangqu (South Africa)
333 East 38th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Fax: + (212) 692-2498
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

H.E. Sir Mark Lyall Grant (United Kingdom)
1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 885 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 745-9316
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


H.E. Ms. Susan E. Rice (USA)
140 East 45th Street
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 (212) 415-4443
212-415-4053
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

http://www.facebook.com/AmbassadorRice

Also: you can mail your letters to

http://archive.usun.state.gov/Issues/Contact2.html


UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
2United Nations Plaza,
New York, NY 10017
Fax: 1-212-963-4879 or 1-212-963-2155
EMAIL: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Post Your letters to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon                  
http://www.un.org/en/contactus/contactform.asp

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