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Sudan

The human rights situation in Sudan is intricately linked to the civil war between the North and South Sudan, the subsequent Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ending the civil war as well as the ongoing conflict in Darfur. The national government continues to arrest and detain activists and opposition party members, break up public gatherings, prevent public meetings, and control the state-owned media - all indicative obstacles to free, fair, and credible elections.

Political repression and other rights violations were witnessed ahead of the April general elections, one of the key aspects of the CPA, and the first of such elections in the country in 24 years, and threatened prospects for a free, fair, and credible vote. A research mission to Sudan by Human Rights Watch reveled that both the Government of National Unity and the Government of South Sudan were violating rights and restricting freedoms critical to a fair poll, including freedoms of expression and of assembly.1

The restrictions on opposition parties and the continued insecurity in Darfur had many doubting whether the conditions for credible elections existed in the country. In fact, on 30th March, the South Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement pulled out of the race for the Sudanese presidency. It is reported that this was in respond to allegations of vote rigging on the part of its tenuous peace partners in the north.2  This greatly hampered the credibility of the elections. Similarly, prior to the elections, the European Union withdrew its election observers from Darfur citing safety considerations like violence, making it difficult to access certain areas. Earlier, President Omar al-Bashir had threatened to expel international observers who pushed for a delay in the ballot, saying he would cut off their fingers and tongues.3

The April elections were marred with rigging which was just a climax of the cumulative irregularities that occurred prior to the elections. The pre-election environment was so restrictive especially to the journalists, opposition party members and election monitors who were intimidated and harassed. The elections which were scheduled for the 11th -13th April were pushed to go two extra days after the first day of voting witnessed a number of irregularities notably; missing names on the register, delay of materials to the polling stations and wrong ballots sent to a polling station-all undermining the credibility of the elections. The ruling National Congress party is accused of having manipulated the census results and voter registration, drafted the election laws in its favour, come up with electoral districts, co-opted traditional leaders and bought tribal loyalties.4 Finally, with all these irregularities, the predictable results were announced with President Omar al-Bashir being declared the winner. Unfortunately, the international and regional community especially those who were involved in the monitoring of the elections have turned a blind eye to the human rights violations taking place and have not come out to condemn such irregularities.

Displaced women and girls in towns, camps and villages continue to experience sexual violence at the hands of government forces, militia and rebels especially in the area of Darfur.

Three key human rights, the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development (KCHRED), the Sudan Social Development Organisation (SUDO) and the AMEL Centre, that had been shut down following the ICC arrest warrant by the Humanitarian Assistance Committee (HAC) are, at the time of writing this report, still closed.

Human Rights Defenders working in Darfur face a particularly harsh situation. The authorities are keen to silence any voice of dissent in this war torn region and therefore human rights defenders, along with foreign aid workers, leaders of displaced communities and politically active students are often harassed and their legitimate work curtailed.

The Press and Printed Press Material Act, was passed by the Sudanese Parliament on the 8th June 2009 despite significant opposition to the draft from national, regional and international media and civil society as well as from within the Parliament itself; in fact, several opposition parliamentarians walked out of Parliament in protest. The Act imposes heavy fines for infractions by the media, establishes a Press Council which lacks independence, with eight of its twenty-one members including the Chairperson being appointed by the Presidency itself, and is granted extensive regulatory powers, notably the power to suspend newspapers without judiciary approval for up to three days. The Press Council is also granted the power to assess the eligibility of journalists to exert their profession. Furthermore, the law allows the State to impose restrictions on the press for national security and public discipline considerations and requires that journalists do not publish material at odds with religious values and traditions.

South Sudan

Insecurity is a major problem in the South especially after the failure of the government of National Unity to implement agreements under the CPA on boarder demarcations and troop deployment. The most affected are the civilians especially in the areas around the North-South boarder. The Ugandan Load Resistant Army operating in the DRC and inside Southern Sudan has also furthered the situation leading to the displacement of a number of people. The security situation is of particular concern given the approach of the 2011 referendum which will determine whether the South becomes a State of its own,. Furthermore, the fact that President Omar al-Bashir was re-elected, he is politically expected to oversee the referendum in the South of which it is reported that he got a slightly more than 10% in the just concluded elections.5 This could have implications on the outcome of the coming referendum

Torture continues to be used by the security forces in order to extract information despite attempts by human rights organizations to carry out trainings in order to raise awareness of the fact that this constitutes a human rights abuse

The justice system in Southern Sudan is weak notably due to a lack of capacity largely resulting from the legacy of the region’s 20 year conflict. Judges are unqualified and absenteeism is high.6 Customary justice is presently the main form of justice available in Southern Sudan even though the judges of these courts are rarely aware of key national and international legal standards. 7

Independent human rights activism in more or less inexistent in South Sudan and the establishment of a Southern Sudanese national human rights commission has done little to overcome this.

Prior to the country’s elections, the media environment in South Sudan deteriorated. Security forces embarked on a clamp down of the local media for broadcasting or printing anything not approved by the government. Notably, on March 3 2010, armed security officials stormed the offices of Bakhita FM, a community-based radio station run by the Catholic Church, and Liberty FM, a private radio station, and arrested the two directors at the stations. The incident occurred after Liberty FM aired an interview with the campaign manager of an independent political candidate in Juba. 8