Year after year. Report after Report. The UN is, at best, a mediocre think tank. Meanwhile, the Eritrean regime continues to violate fundamental individual rights with impunity, and the political prisoner cases become yet another statistic. In the time Dawit Isaak has been wrongfully detained by the regime, 25 years and counting, global bureaucrats have come and gone, and politicians in Sweden, too. Yet the one office that never changes hands is the cell that holds him. Reports do not open prison doors; people acting with principle do. So let us talk about pressure, because the tools exist and are no longer theoretical. In September 2025, Dawit Isaak's daughters, Betlehem and Danait, wrote directly to President Trump, asking him to do what reports cannot and it appears #Sweden cannot: bring the weight of the American people to bear on Asmara. As a senator, Secretary Rubio was aware of the matter and even backed the congressional resolutions on their father's behalf. The United States now has a mechanism to designate state sponsors of wrongful detention, with sanctions, export controls, and travel restrictions attached. Why did Swedish nationals reach out to America for help? That is another story for another day. #Sweden has a citizen to defend and a duty, under Swedish law and under the Vienna Convention, to defend him. And the 2024 complaint for crimes against humanity, filed with the Swedish Prosecution Authority, finally treats his captivity as what it is: a crime with a perpetrator, not a misfortune with no author. Twenty-four years of words have produced libraries of concern and not one open door. What remains is action: name the regime, attach the cost, and make Isaias Afwerki understand that holding Dawit Isaak and other political prisoners is more expensive than releasing him. Anything less is another, well, you can fill in the blank, another report. Look at the two photographs attached to this post. An American diplomat recently cut a star-spangled cake in Asmara; Sweden's foreign minister offered her hand to the same regime, the first such visit in decades. Two Western capitals, warming to #Eritrea within a single season. Yet neither brought Dawit Isaak home nor secured the release of any other political prisoner (note: there are reports of several Americans or US nationals wrongfully detained in #Eritrea). This issue touches a broader debate about the emerging international architecture for wrongful detention: again, heavily papered, but light on follow-through. America keeps doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Where is the resolve in Sweden and across Europe to do the same, in this case and others like it? We can do better. When Americans are in a jam around the world, and there are many, these seemingly isolated cases for us can impact more than you think. @bergersus @Edelstam @TheRWCHR @GLALegalDefense @usembsweden @USAmbSweden @EmbassyEritrea @hawelti @hadnetkeleta @Ministersaleh @AsstSecStateAF @SecRubio @DeputySecState @HouseForeignGOP @SenateForeign @SFRCdems @HouseForeign @RepJoeNeguse @JoeNeguse

Norway has already acted against Eritrean regime supporters who falsely claimed asylum while backing the same dictatorship they said they fled. Now Israel is moving in the same direction.The principle is clear: refugee protection is for victims of repression, not for agents or supporters of repression. But any action must follow the law, with real evidence not assumptions based only on an Eritrean national flag. Supporting Eritrea as a country is not the same as supporting the PFDJ dictatorship. The real test must be: did the person support, organize for, threaten, intimidate, or collaborate with the Eritrean regime? Justice must protect genuine refugees and expose those who abuse asylum systems while serving the dictatorship. @KjetilTronvoll @mrubin1971 @michelawrong @mvreisen @TiborPNagyJr @DrChTouati @IsraeliPM

She grew up believing the story she was told until arrests, disappearances, and indefinite military service shattered it. Yirgalem Fisseha takes the stage at the Oslo Freedom Forum to share a life split in two: from poetry to prison, from hope to solitary confinement. Her story reveals what it costs to speak when a state demands silence.