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Sudan

The situation in Sudan has become much more complex in recent months with a proliferation of rebel fractions in Darfur, the refusal of several rebel groups to join in the peace process which was initiated in Libya, and a failure both on the part of the Khartoum government and the Southern Sudanese authorities to implement many of the key arrangements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 notably the Bill of Rights. The National Human Rights Commission has of yet still not been established largely as a result of continued political disagreements between the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) – the two main parties on making-up the current Government of National Unity.

Rights violations in Darfur, which include unlawful killings, gender-based violence, arbitrary arrests and torture, occur on a massive scale. Insecurity remains high in South Sudan where the disarmament process has still not been fully implemented. At the same time curtailment on freedom of expression and press has increased notably in Khartoum as have attacks on civil society- notably local and community activism. The national census, which is key to the holding of the planned elections in 2009 and marks a crucial step on the road to achieving the aims of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, begun in April 2008; nevertheless many groups are either opposed to it, notably the rebel groups in Darfur, or weary of it.2
The authorities have used disproportionate force against civilians in Darfur and continue to sponsor rebel ‘proxy’ groups, notably the Janjawid militias, which have subjected civilians, and particularly internally displaced people in the region, to significant abuse. According to Amnesty International whilst claming to protect the people of Darfur, the government continues in fact to arm the Janjawid, integrate them into paramilitary forces and to in many ways enable their impunity. 3

Much of the legislation currently in place still needs to be brought into line with the standards established by the Interim National Constitution and other international agreements to which Sudan is party. Current laws regarding the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), for example, give the NISS sweeping powers to arbitrarily arrest and detain people for up to nine months without charge. According to EHAHRD-Net Focal Point in Sudan, the Sudanese Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), this legislation allows for individuals to be held for six months with no right to challenge their detention. Detainees are in some cases held incommunicado for indeterminate periods of time. Although torture is prohibited under Sudan's Interim National Constitution as well as by several of the international agreements that Sudan is party to, in practice, however, physical abuse in custody is widespread in Sudan and is encouraged by a culture of impunity underpinned by mechanisms including immunity laws, pardons and amnesties for state officials responsible for human rights violations. In fact, current legislation grants many categories of state officials effective immunity from prosecution for human rights violations such as arbitrary detention and abuses in custody.

Arbitrary arrests, against HRDs, peace activists, journalists and individuals believed to be linked to Darfuri rebel groups or to the opposition party, Popular Congress Party, continue to occur in Khartoum notably since the attack by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum on the 10th May 2008 which the Sudanese security forces have responded to through mass arrests, torture and disappearances. According to reports by SOAT, in the days following the JEM attacks on 10 May, hundreds of people were arrested in and around Khartoum and the neighbouring city of Omdurman and were held in unknown locations. A large number of those arbitrarily rounded up and detained are or appear to be of Darfuri origin, mainly of the Zaghawa ethnic group, and a significant number have reported to have been subjected to physical abuse and torture in custody.4 Reports also suggest that several detainees have in fact died as a result of the appalling conditions.5 The authorities refused to inform the relatives of many of those detained of their whereabouts.In Darfur, civilians, presumed to have links to rebel groups, continue to be arbitrarily arrested, detained for long periods of time without charge and in some cases subjected to torture by the NISS.6
The group of influential opposition politicians and former members of the police who had been arrested in July in connection with an alleged coup plot continued to be detained until December 2007 when they finally received a Presidential pardon in the name of ‘national reconciliation’. Several members of the group reported having been tortured.
The violent murder of Mohamed Taha in September 2006, the editor of the newspaper Al Wifaq, by a group of Darfuri civilians following harsh reports he made on Darfuris, has lead since 2006 to the arrest of 72 people of Darfurian origin. Nine of those accused of the murder were finally released after one year in detention when it was found that there was insufficient evidence. Nearly all of those detained have said that they were tortured in order to give confessions or information. On the 10th November 2007, the ten remaining detainees – which include Al-Tayed Abdel Aziz who was 15 years old at the time of the murder - were sentenced to death.7 This decision was re-confirmed by the Khartoum-North Court on the 13th march 2008. Evidence used to find them guilty was largely based on confessions which they had made after several months in detention, during which they had not had access to legal counsel, and where, according to certain reports, they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, Sima Samar, recently described women as ‘second class citizens’ despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing equality before the law. Some of the issues highlighted in the report as being of key concern were early and forced marriages, widespread violence against women and practice of FGM and the frequent detention of women for lack of payment of dowry, family debts, acts committed by family members or on adultery charges.8 Women and girls in Darfur, and particularly those that are internally displaced, are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender based violence. Much of the violence occurs at the hands of armed groups.

Sudan is in certain ways an exception in the region as despite increasing levels of censure and restrictions by the Khartoum regime it continues to have quite a diverse independent media and an often outspoken civil society. Nevertheless, although the interim constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, expression and press, in practice restrictions on human rights defenders, arbitrarily detentions and harassments have increased in Darfur since 2006 and in Khartoum since mid-2007.9

Government control over NGOs has been further entrenched by the introduction of the Organisation of Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act in 2006. This Act grants enormous oversight to a government appointed commissioner- who can periodically review the activities of NGOs and refuse to re-register them. The act also allows the authorities to review NGOs’ documents, dismiss their members and expel foreign workers. Under this act registration requirements are stringent.
HRDs have increasingly faced harassment, intimidations notably by being subjected to lengthy interrogations by the NISS. In November 2007 several human rights defenders, notably members of the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development (KCHRED), were detained and subjected to protracted interrogations concerning their legitimate work.10 According to SOAT, in the course of the month the NISS summoned, detained and interrogated: KCHRED chairperson Amir Suleiman, two members of the center’s freedom of expression programme, Faisal al-Bagir and Lemia el-Jaili Abu Bakr and the financial officer, Mashair Abdullah Omer. In some cases they were summoned repeatedly, threatened, maltreated and ordered to produce documents relating to the organizations’ finances.  
Local activists notably denouncing the construction of a series of dams in Northern Sudan, in the Kajbar and Merowe Regions, have been subjected to harassment and to arbitrary detentions. Mr. Osman Ibrahim, spokesperson of the committee against the Kajbar Dam, for example, was arrested on 20th July 2007 while at his home in Farraig village, Halfa Municipality (Northern Sudan). No warrant of arrest was issued to him and he was not informed of where the police was taking him.11 This is just one amongst a wave of arrests and arbitrary detentions which have occurred aimed at stifling community activism.
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.

Since mid-2007, and in particular since February 2008, attacks on freedom of expression, notably through case-by-case pre-print censorship, public information bans, legislation, intimidation and arrests of journalists, have increased. This recent attack on freedom of expression is the toughest since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and is in clear contravention of the Interim National Constitution which firmly guarantees freedom of press and media.  
The NISS appears determined to control the media and to prevent it from undermining the Khartoum regime.12 It has increasingly been paying visits to the main media houses, checking the content of reports and ordering the withdrawal and replacement of articles deemed unacceptable.13 The authorities have also been imposing bans on the reporting of certain issues a means of stifling criticism. In December 2007 a ban was imposed on all reporting of criminal cases that were under investigation. This censorship appears to have been taken to a new level. SOAT reported that on April 13th 2008 newspaper editors in Khartoum were informed that they would have to submit a copy of every edition which they produced to the NISS prior to publication. Two days later the NISS prevented the publication of three newspaper, Ajras al-Hurriya, al-Ayyam and Rai al-Shaab, which were refusing to comply with these orders.14 Although this new requirement has since been abandoned, several other newspapers have been banned from publishing.
Censorship has further intensified since the May 10th attacks particularly regarding the coverage of the recent mass arrests in the capital and neighbouring towns.
The authorities have no qualms about arresting and allegedly torturing journalists who have witnessed abuses, notably those which witnessed and sought to report on the police crackdown on peaceful protestors opposing the construction of a dam in Northern Sudan on the 13th June 2007.15 Journalists have also received death threats as a result of their public stances on key political issues notably on the question of the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur. More recently, following the May 10th attacks, a freelance journalist, Al-Ghali Yahyda Shegifat, who heads the Association of Darfuri journalists, was arrested and held incommunicado.16 
As a result journalists are often forced to resort to self-censorship and overlook the taboo issues, notably developments in Darfur and Chad, as well as issues regarding the government’s response to the May 10th attacks as they know that the risks involved in taking on such issues are increasingly significant.
These restrictions are of particular concern given that Sudan has recently initiated its national census process which is supposed to pave the way for the elections in 2009,  journalists,  as all HRDs, will play a crucial part in ensuring that any abuses in this process are brought to public and international attention; such restrictions however are likely to prevent them from playing their role as watchdogs.17

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services are the main perpetrators of these rights violations yet they continue to work in a climate of impunity. In Darfur this culture of impunity is particularly widespread and once again most investigations into violations are generally thwarted by a lack of cooperation this time on the part of the military.

According to sources the human rights situation in the region has seen some improvements. However, much work still needs to be done for even basic human rights to be guaranteed. Lack of resources is a considerable problem and at present there are no mechanisms in place to protect and promote human rights as the Southern Sudanese assembly has largely failed to implement key legislation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Military personnel continue to carry out illegal arrests. Cases of sexual assault involving Sudanese People’s Liberation Army units continue to occur and yet local police are often unwilling to investigate the reports. Ill treatment in order to gain information continues to be practiced by the security forces. 18

Political freedom is largely undermined by the fact that majority of members of parliament are members of the SPLM- thus running the risk that Southern Sudan could turn into a one-party state. This also clearly thwarts attempts to bring an end to impunity. In fact, most legislation which has been promulgated so far by the SPLM tends to protect the government from future prosecution. 

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. Customary justice is presently the main form of justice available in Southern Sudan.

Civil society is largely inexistent in South Sudan as a result of the years of warfare which have thwarted the development of a national civil society. As a result, most of the human rights work is carried out by International NGOs or UN agencies and this is likely to persist given that donor attention is currently focusing on institution building rather than on offering greatly needed support to civil society.
Efforts to challenge or critique government practices by human rights activists tend to be perceived as treason or offences against the state. The few human rights organizations which operate on the ground face considerable constraints; the Legal Aid Centre, which is run by South Sudan Law Society, has been threatened with closure as a result of their work on land rights and access to land in urban areas. 
Activists are concerned by the fact that one of the only domestic human rights entities in existence on the ground is the Human Rights Commission, which has been established as part of the CPA, and is a governmental entity.