Overview
On 1 January 1890, Italy set the boundaries of Eritrea and ruled it as a colony until 1941, when the British defeated the Italians in Africa and took over the administration. After the Italian defeat in World War II, Britain administered Eritrea. Following a decision by the United Nations, Eritrea was federated to Ethiopia in 1952, with a certain amount of autonomy. However, during the federation with Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie’s government systematically violated the rights granted by the UN. The oppression culminated with the dissolution of the Eritrean parliament and the annexation of Eritrea as Ethiopia’s fourteenth province in 1962. In 1961, an armed struggle for independence began. The thirty years of fighting ended in May 1991, when the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) liberated Asmara and established the Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE). In an internationally supervised referendum in April 1993, 99.8% of Eritreans voted for independence, which was officially declared on 24 May 1993.
Eritrea joined the United Nations in 1993, as a full fledged member, soon after it has achieved its independence through 30 years of liberation struggle and a UN supervised referendum. Eritrea is fully engaged in the United Nation’s reform process and hopes to further enable the United Nations refocus its priorities and become a more effective multilateral institution in addressing the challenges of the day.
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