Paulos Tesfagiorgis is an Eritrean

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. Fought for his people by establishing the only PFDJ licensed Regional Centre for Human Rights and Development in

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. (The People's Front for Democracy and Justice) Tesfagiorgis was also co-founder and head of the Eritrean Relief Association during the

Eritrean war of independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the d ...

.Paulos Tesfagiorgis
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Early career after independence

During the

Paulos Tesfagiorgis was the head of the Eritrean Relief Association, coordinating international aid for Eritreans, particularly during the

1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia A widespread famine affected Ethiopia from 1983 to 1985. The worst famine to hit the country in a century, it affected 7.75 million people (out of Ethiopia's 38–40 million) and left approximately 300,000 to 1.2 million dead. 2.5 m ...

. Following Eritrean independence Tesfagiorgis was appointed to the commission which drafted Eritrea's constitution. The constitution was ratified in 1997. In 2002 Tesfagiorgis and 17 other Eritreans set up the "Citizens Initiative for the Salvation of Eritrea" (CISE)

Political views

In his Paper ''A Personal Observation'', Tesfagiorgis explains his political views on “What Went Wrong?: The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front from Armed Opposition to State Governance”,and

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

. He believes that only democratically elected governments have legitimacy, because they are always accountable to the people they govern. For this reason he also abstains from violence. He joined the UK based non partisan activist group Eritrea Focus in 2018 to promote non violent transition to democratic rule. https://www.eritrea-focus.org

Exile

From his exile in London, and later in South Africa,Tesfagiorgis has been working for the advocacy organisation Justice Africa, and has spent much time working for agreement among other Eritrean dissidents on a non-violent democratic alternative for Eritrea. He also abstains from violence. In June 2015 a

United Nations Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...

of Inquiry accused President Afwerki of systematic, widespread and gross

human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

that may constitute

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

Education

He has a master's degree in law from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and has been a lecturer in law at the

University of Asmara The University of Asmara (UoA) was a public university in Asmara, Eritrea. The nation's first university, it was founded in 1958 by the "Piae Madres Nigritiae" ( Comboni Sisters). The school was meant to provide for the local population, though ...

. While he was a Faculty of Law at McGIII University, Montreal, October 1991 wrote his Thesis: "HUMAN RIGHTS, DEVELOPMENT AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE

HORN OF AFRICA The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

"
"A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIAEMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS (LL.M.)."

Honors and awards

Paulos Tesfagiorgis was awarded the

Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize (''Raftoprisen'') is a human rights award established in the memory of the Norwegian human rights activist, Thorolf Rafto. Organization The prize is awarded annually by the Rafto Foundation for Human Righ ...

for 2003 for his work for human rights and democracy.

References

External links

Photograph
McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Living people Academic staff of the University of Asmara Year of birth missing (living people) {{activist-stub