Sudan's Human Rights Crisis
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sudan’s human rights crisis: High time to take article 2 of the Covenant seriously Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee ahead of its Examination of Sudan’s Fourth Periodic Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights June 2014 Table of Contents I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4 II. Summary of developments and concerns since August 2007 ................................................................ 4 III. Compliance with the obligations under the Covenant ...................................................................... 8 1. Constitutional and legal framework within which the Covenant is implemented (art. 2)..................... 8 1.1. Constitutional review process ......................................................................................................... 8 1.2. Compatibility of the Constitution with the Covenant ................................................................... 11 1.3. The Right to an Effective Remedy and Immunities ....................................................................... 11 2. Refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons (arts. 2, 7 and 12) .................................. 13 3. States of emergency (art. 4) ................................................................................................................. 14 4. Non-discrimination and equal rights of men and women (arts. 3, 23, 25 and 26) .............................. 15 5. Violence against women (arts. 2, 3, 7, 23 and 26) ............................................................................... 19 6. Right to life and prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (arts. 6 and 7) .. 21 6.1. Violations committed in the context of armed conflict ................................................................ 21 6.2. Death penalty ................................................................................................................................ 31 6.3. Torture and inhuman, degrading or cruel treatment (ill-treatment) ............................................ 33 6.4. The lack of effective prohibition of torture in Sudan’s legal system ............................................. 43 6.5. Corporal punishment ..................................................................................................................... 47 7. Right to liberty and security of person, treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and fair trial (arts. 9, 10 and 14) ................................................................................................................................... 51 7.1. Detention conditions ..................................................................................................................... 51 7.2. Right to liberty and security .......................................................................................................... 53 7.3. The right to a fair trial .................................................................................................................... 56 8. Freedom of conscience and religious belief (art. 18) ........................................................................... 58 9. Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and of association (arts. 19, 21 and 22) ..................... 59 10. Minority rights (art. 27) ...................................................................................................................... 63 Annex: List of demonstrators killed during the September – October 2013 demonstrations ................ 65 2 This report is dedicated to Osman Hummaida, the late Founding Director of the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, who fought tirelessly throughout his life to obtain justice for victims of human rights violations in Sudan and hold perpetrators to account. 3 I. Introduction Sudan is facing a serious, ongoing human rights crisis. Gross violations continue to be committed in armed conflicts, in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Meanwhile, particularly since South Sudan’s independence in 2011, civil society and the media have been subjected to repeated crackdowns. Public protests have been met with excessive force, and frequently been followed by arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment. Sudan’s legal system fails to protect its citizens, particularly women, and foreign nationals living in the country, from violations and facilitates breaches, such as torture, which are committed with impunity. This applies particularly to the National Intelligence and Security Forces (NISS) which enjoy virtually unlimited powers. Impunity for violations, both in the context of armed conflict and in other situations, remains the norm. Legislative and institutional reforms to address widely acknowledged systemic deficiencies have, with few exceptions, not been advanced. These realities result in the perpetuation of the status quo, which is incompatible with the Covenant. Interventions before and by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) have highlighted the seriousness of the situation, which requires urgent and concerted measures to bring about the changes needed to ensure the protection of rights, as well as accountability and justice for violations. We, REDRESS and the African Centre of Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) – relying on a number of sources of first-hand information and secondary sources that testify to the nature and scale of human rights violations – call on the UN Human Rights Committee to do its utmost to ensure that the State party upholds its obligations under the Covenant. II. Summary of developments and concerns since August 2007 1. The State Party has not addressed most of the concerns identified in the Committee’s 2007 concluding observations on Sudan’s third periodic report, and several new issues of concerns have arisen since. 2. The period from August 2007 until July 2011, the date of South Sudan’s independence, was characterised by ongoing violations in the armed conflict in Darfur and a crack-down on civil society organisations and the media, particularly in response to the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for international crimes against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir in 2009.1 In parallel, the State party largely failed to undertake 1 See in this regard in particular “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, Sima Samar”, UN Doc. A/HRC/11/14, June 2009, paras.29-45, at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/11session/A.HRC.11.14_AUV.pdf.; African Commission, Communication 379/09 – Monim Elgak, Osman Hummeida and Amir Suliman (represented by FIDH and OMCT) v Sudan, which is pending before the African Commission. the legislative and institutional reforms envisaged in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The 2007 Police Act, the 2008 Army Act and the 2010 National Security Act retained a number of features, such as lack of safeguards, immunities and jurisdiction for special courts, which facilitate human rights violations and are detrimental to accountability.2 Protests against the failure to reform the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in line with the CPA and the Interim National Constitution (INC) were met with excessive force in 2009 and 2010.3 Further reforms, particularly in relation to women’s rights, were discussed but not carried out, with the exception of the 2010 Child Act.4 3. At the time of South Sudan’s independence, the unresolved status of the border regions of South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains (July 2011) and Blue Nile (September 2011) erupted into open armed conflict between forces of the State Party and opposition forces.5 The situation in Abyei remained tense, notwithstanding the 2009 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration,6 and was characterised by repeated assaults and displacement.7 The armed conflict in Darfur continued, with a number of reported violations in the midst of increased lawlessness.8 Various sources have documented serious human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment and large- scale displacement committed in the course of ongoing armed conflicts in Kordofan and Blue Nile, as well as in Darfur.9 4. In 2011, at the time before and after the independence of South Sudan, the State Party took a number of steps seemingly aimed at strengthening what it considers the Arab and 2 See further below at para.17. 3 See Amnesty International, “Sudan must end violent crackdown on protesters”, Press Release, 7 December 2009, at http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/sudan-must-end-violent-crackdown-protestors- 20091207. 4 See Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Sudan, UN Doc. CRC/C/SDN/CO/3-4, 22 October 2012, para.9: “The Committee welcomes the promulgation of the Child Act (2010). It is concerned, however, that the State party has yet to establish a regulatory and policy framework to effect its implementation.” 5 See African Commission, Communication 402/2011: Interights, Human Rights Watch, Sudan Democracy First Group and REDRESS v Sudan, at http://www.redress.org/case-docket/redress-sdfg-hrw-and-interights-request- for-provisional-measures-in-regards-to-southern-kordofan-sta. 6 See Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Government of Sudan / The Sudan People's