‘UN Human Rights Council should continue to monitor Sudan’

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) welcome the progress in the establishment of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) country office in Sudan.

In a joint oral statement today to the 44th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, the two organisations call on the international community to continue to provide support to Sudan’s transitional authorities.

However, they call on the Human Rights Council to maintain a form of monitoring and reporting on Sudan until the demands of the protesters for ‘Freedom, Peace and Justice’ are fully met.

“We welcome the latest announcements from the authorities, including on apostasy law, flogging, and cooperation with ICC. We urge for the prompt set up of the [long-awaited] Legislative Council to enable public debate of future laws,” they stated.

“On the question of accountability, we urge the authorities to pick up the pace on the investigations on the 3rd June [2019] massacre, and to lift the immunities perpetrators may benefit from. A system of protection for victims should also be ensured in these proceedings.

“We are also concerned that attacks against civilians, IDPs and refugees continue in Darfur and other conflict areas.

“We repeat our call for a meaningful reform of the security sector [with the full participation of political actors and civil society, under the monitoring of and the assistance by the concerned regional and international bodies] – which should, among other things, clarify the RSF [Rapid Support Forces] official status [, and fully integrate them into the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)].

Women participation

“Finally, as deeply entrenched gender inequalities remain in Sudan, we urge the transitional authorities to make a priority of women’s rights [– including access to quality education], and meaningful participation in decision-making processes.

“In this regard, we regret that so far, no woman has been selected for the position of state governor,” the statement concludes.

On Wednesday, women groups in Sudan launched the campaign No Excuse – We Want Our Full Rights to involve more women in government positions, especially at the level of state governors.

They strongly denounced the statement of government spokesperson who said earlier this week that no member of the broad coalition of the Forces for Freedom and Change has nominated a woman for the position of governor.

In addition, some states have major security problems caused by repeated tribal conflict. “This has to be taken into consideration when appointing governors,” Saleh said.

The current military state governors will be replaced by civilian rulers following the conclusion of the peace agreement between the government and most of the rebel groups in the country. The agreement will soon be signed in Juba, the head of the South Sudanese mediation team said yesterday.

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