Joint oral statement of the FIDH, the OMCT and the SOAT on Sudan, at the 9th session of the Human Rights Council

16/09/2008
Press release

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Ninth session

Oral statement
FIDH/OMCT/SOAT
Item 4: SR Sudan, including follow up to special sessions (Darfur)

FIDH, OMCT and its members SOAT are concerned over the human rights situation in Sudan and urge the Human Rights Council to support the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Sudan.

Although the government has agreed to new policies, this has failed to impact on the ground where gross violations continue. Laws which violate the Constitution and international human rights standards are still in use. These include cases of women sentenced to death by stoning on adultery charges in application of the penal code.

Under the National Security Act, arbitrary arrests, detentions are carried out. Following the 10 May Omdurman attacks, widespread arbitrary arrests took place with the National Intelligence and Security Service targeting Darfuris. Released detainees, some as young as 14, had to be treated for physical abuses in custody. Students, political activists and human rights defenders have continued to be targeted.

The conditions in the newly formed ’Special Courts’, set up to try suspected rebels under Sudan’s 2001 Anti-terrorism law, violate both national and international human rights standards. Defendants don’t have a fair trial, access to lawyers has been denied and confessions extracted in custody taken as evidence. Through these courts, 50 defendants have been sentenced to death.

The situation in Darfur continues to be a key focus particularly after the ICC Prosecutor issued the indictments against Al-Bashir including genocide. The Rapporteur has devoted attention to the conflict, which is essential as Darfur remains a region where mass internal displacement continues. SOAT has documented several attacks on settlements in 2008 in Darfur, perpetrated by government forces and militias on civilians. Such crimes remain uninvestigated with existing legislation often granting immunity to state officials.

Sudan authorities are crackdown on the media. Journalists have been intimidated and Newspapers have been closed down under the National Security Act.

To achieve widespread peace and stability in Sudan, the CPA must be implemented, the Interim National Constitution fully applied, impunity questioned and human rights law respected, the Rapporteur is crucial to this process.

So FIDH, OMCT and SOAT call on the Council:

To maintain and support the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Sudan;

To call on the Government of Sudan to:

1- Continue cooperating with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur;

2- Cease harassment and the arbitrary detention of Darfuris, students, journalists and human rights defenders and remove restrictions on local media;

3- End the culture of impunity and ensure accountability for the crimes perpetrated in Darfur in order to end the conflict, including cooperating with the international community and in particular with the ICC

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