Vladimir Putin and Omar al-Bashir, November 23, 2017 (Source: www.kremlin.ru/WIkimedia Commons)
SUDAN
Our Concerns
- Systematic use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, particularly during periods of secret detention;
- Judicial harassment of journalists, political opponents, and human rights activists and restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly;
- Violations of fair trial guarantees, particularly against political opponents and peaceful activists and in terrorism and security related cases.
Upcoming
- 31 July 2017: Submission of Sudan’s fifth periodic report to the Human Rights Committee.
In 2017, Sudan witnessed important developments in its foreign policy, particularly in its relationship with major global powers. After the Obama administration temporarily lifted the United States’ 20-year economic embargo on the country in January 2017 – subjecting this decision to a bi-annual review – the Trump administration decided to make the lifting of the embargo permanent in October. This decision – which opens the Sudanese petrochemical and oil industry to U.S. investment – was criticised by some human rights groups, which were concerned that the decision would decrease diplomatic and economic pressure to put an end to Sudan’s human rights violations.
Sudan’s international cooperation with global powers was also widened shortly after this sanction was lifted, with the first official visit of Sudanese President Omar Al Bachir to Russia on November 23, 2017. The visit was carried out in spite of two outstanding arrest warrants against Al Bachir from the International Criminal Court for the crimes of genocide and other crimes against humanity committed in Darfur in 2005.
While Sudan’s relations with major powers ameliorated in 2017, the human rights situation in the country continued to deteriorate, and the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were severely restricted. In particular, political opponents and human rights defenders suffered from increased state repression and became the victims of abduction, torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention.
In May 2017, the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan called on the authorities to “undertake democratic reforms as a means for ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights in the country”. He expressed concern over the harassment of civil society actors and the restrictions imposed on NGOs, and also denounced the censorship of newspapers and increasing restrictions on journalists from freely expressing their opinions.
Secret detentions as a tool of repression against human rights defenders and political opponents
Similarly to previous years, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) were the main perpetrators of human rights violations reported in the country in 2017. Throughout the year, members of the NISS carried out arbitrary arrests of political opponents, students and human rights defenders. Victims were all secretly detained for extensive periods of time, during which they were subjected to torture as a form of punishment against their peaceful activism, and also as a means to extract self-incriminating confessions, which were later used to charge and prosecute them in court.
“Similarly to previous years, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) were the main perpetrators of human rights violations reported in the country in 2017.”
Such practices are used as reprisal measures against human rights defenders and political opponents for their peaceful activism. For example, on March 13, 2017, Tasneem Ahmed Taha Elzaki and Noora Obeid, were released without any legal procedure more than two months after their abductions by the NISS. The two women were clearly targeted in retaliation for their peaceful activism. At the time of their arrests, Elzaki was working as a lawyer, and Obeid as an accountant for the engineering company of the prominent human rights activist Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam.
Furthermore, political opponents were also targeted by the NISS. Alkarama and the Arab Coalition for Sudan brought several cases of arrests and disappearance to the UN Special Procedures’ attention. Among these cases were those of Mohammed Al Amin, a leading member of the Sudanese Nasserist Democratic Unionist Party and of the National Consensus Party, who was arrested in January 2017, as well as Musa Ali Ahmed Abdeen and Malek Abdallah Abdulgadir, two politicians who remain disappeared six years after their abductions by the NISS.
This practice of secret detention by the NISS amounts to enforced disappearance, which is considered one of the most serious crimes under international law. In 2017, a country visit by the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances was scheduled to take place between November 20 and 29. However, the visit was postponed by the authorities, which have yet to set a date for a future visit of the Working Group. Lastly, such human rights violations remain all the more alarming considering that NISS officers have been granted immunity under the National Security Act of 2010 for all abuses committed in the exercise of their functions. By allowing the NISS to operate without any independent judicial oversight and carry out systematic arbitrary arrests and secret detentions, this legislation has institutionalised such practices, putting human rights defenders and political opponents at risk.
The systematic practice of torture and arbitrary detention
T his year, torture continued to be practised widely, and Sudan is yet to ratify the UN Convention against Torture. Torture is not defined in the country’s Criminal Code, which merely states that torture is prohibited and provides a three-month sentence for perpetrators. Moreover, the Sudanese Criminal Code provides for corporal punishment – which amounts to torture and ill-treatment under international human rights law – for a wide range of acts, including stoning for hudud crimes such as adultery (article 146), and flogging for other vaguely defined acts outside of “hudud” crimes such as “disturbing public peace” (article 68) or “obscene and indecent acts” (article 152).
Moreover, security services systematically resort to torture and ill-treatment, particularly when they detain individuals in secret. While human rights activists, journalists and political opponents are the most affected by the practice of torture, all detainees – including children – remain at risk of being subjected to such acts. Meanwhile, detainees are regularly denied visitation rights, and kept in inhumane conditions. Furthermore, cases documented by Alkarama show that the authorities regularly deny appropriate medical care to people in detention, putting their lives and health at risk.
The practice of arbitrary detention is also concerning as this practice is used against human rights defenders to deter opposition and criticism. In this regard, the 2010 National Security Act brings a wide range of acts under the jurisdiction of the NISS, including to “maintain social fabric and safety of its people from any internal or external threat” or “detect and control activities of sabotage exercised by organizations, groups, individuals”, which in practice and under the discretionary power of the NISS, may include peaceful political activities or human rights activism.
Furthermore, arbitrary detention is also enabled by the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act, which includes a broad definition of terrorism, including damages to state property or its “strategic assets”, and, most importantly, introduces special courts for which the rules of procedures are established by the president of the Supreme Court and the Minister of Justice. Besides the fact that the establishment of the rules applicable to these courts were defined by a member of the executive – violating the principle of separation of powers – these rules also derogate from the country’s Code of Criminal Procedure. In particular, such procedures allow for in abstentia trials, considerably reduce the time allowed for a defendant to file an appeal, and restrict the appeal process from two stages in ordinary courts to only one in counter-terrorism cases. In practice, defendants are often detained incommunicado, preventing them from being informed of the charges against them, and from adequately preparing their defence.
The arrest of prominent human rights defender Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam by NISS agents, and his subsequent prosecution under charges of terrorism, among other charges, exemplifies the continued use of the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act as well as the 2010 National Security Act as legal tools to deter peaceful criticism, activism and political opposition in the country.
Reprisals against prominent human rights defenders
In 2017, along with several human rights organisations, Alkarama advocated for the release of two arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, Hafiz Idriss and Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, who were detained for nine months in reprisal for their human rights work.
Hafiz Idriss, a notorious human rights activist advocating for the rights of internally displaced persons in his country, was arrested on November 24, 2016, from his relatives’ house in Omdurman by several NISS officers who forcibly took him to an unknown location without providing him with a warrant or any reason for the arrest. Despite numerous enquiries with the authorities, his family was denied any information about his fate and whereabouts. In detention, he was subjected to severe acts of torture, including electric shocks and beatings, with the aim of extracting a confession.
A few weeks after Idriss’ arrest, on December 7, 2016, Dr Mudawi was abducted by members of the NISS, who forcibly took him and his driver without explaining the reasons behind the arrest or showing a warrant. They were taken to an unknown location where they were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment while other NISS agents broke into Dr Mudawi’s house and confiscated materials without any warrant. He remained disappeared for several weeks, as the authorities refused to provide his family and lawyer with any information about his fate and whereabouts, claiming that he was not under their custody.
It was only in late January 2017 that his relatives were allowed to briefly visit him in Kober prison in Khartoum. They expressed serious concern over his apparently poor health, as he showed clear signs of weight loss due to the hunger strike he undertook to denounce his arbitrary detention and the abuses to which he was subjected. While Dr Mudawi was denied essential medication for a pre-existing heart condition, former co-detainees reported that he had been subjected to torture by NISS officers, including by being chained to a cooling system and beaten.
On June 5, Hafiz Idriss and Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam were charged by the State Security Prosecutor with six offences, namely “publishing false reports”, “stirring up sectarian hatred”, “undermining the constitutional system”, “espionage”, “waging war against the state”, and “running a terrorist organisation”, the latter of which carries life imprisonment and the death penalty.
On August 29, 2017, a presidential pardon was issued, and Dr Mudawi was released the same day. Fellow human rights defender Hafiz Idriss was released two days later.