The Committee’s recommendations took many of the NGOs concerns into consideration. In particular, the UN Committee deplored the persistence of “widespread and systematic serious human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population”, committed by States agents, including all security forces and militia under State control. The Committee urged the Sudanese Government to “put an end to such violations immediately”, and “ensure that no financial support or material is channelled to militias that engage in ethnic cleansing or deliberate targeting of civilians”. The Committee further reflected the concerns of NGOs by insisting on the duty incumbent upon the Sudanese authorities to guarantee the safe and the voluntary return of displaced persons.
In another significant concluding recommendation, the Human Rights Committee criticized the imposition of the death penalty which is still widely applied in Sudan. The Committee called upon the Government to “guarantee that the death penalty will not be applied to persons aged under 18”.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) and the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) remain alarmed by the large scale of ongoing human rights violations occurring in Darfur, where 200,000 people have been killed since 2003, and 2.5 million have fled the unrest. NGOs recall the obligation of the Sudanese authorities to take appropriate steps to protect internally displaced persons, in particular women and children who are continually attacked by the Janjaweed militias.
Sudan urgently needs to take measures to comply with the rights guaranteed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in this regard, implement the recommendations adopted by the Human Rights Committee.