<<previous | index | next>>
- Establish as a matter of urgency a public registry of persons detained in any location in Khartoum for more than 24 hours since May 8, 2008 . The registry should include the date of arrest, places and dates of detention, and dates of transfer to different prison facilities or investigation offices. Inform the relatives of each detainee of their whereabouts, condition, and the charges against them, and make the registry available to all members of the public seeking information on the whereabouts of individuals.
- Promptly release all detainees for whom there is no legal basis for detention, or charge them with a legally cognizable offense.
- Publicly identify all places of detention in Khartoum and ensure they are accessible to relatives of detainees and defense counsel, and independent Sudanese and international humanitarian agencies, and human rights monitors.
- Ensure that all persons in detention are able to exercise their right to challenge the legal basis for their detention, and that those who are charged are promptly tried in accordance with international fair trial standards.
- Take all necessary measures, including the issuance of public orders to the police and security personnel, to end the practice of arbitrary arrests and detention. Ensure that arresting authorities immediately record the arrest of any individual and the legal basis for that arrest, and make this information readily available to the person’s family.
- Promptly conduct a full and impartial inquiry into allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention by NISS in Khartoum; make public the results of any such inquiry. Discipline or prosecute as appropriate those implicated in abuses and make public the names of those found responsible and the measures taken.
Treatment in Detention
- Ensure that conditions of detention conform to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, including those in relation to the detention of minors (UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty); permit and encourage visits to detainees by legal counsel, medical personnel, and family members.
- Publicly and unequivocally condemn the practice of torture and other forms of mistreatment in detention. Take all necessary measures, including the issuance and wide dissemination of orders to the police, armed forces and security personnel to immediately end all mistreatment of detainees, whether for extracting confessions, exacting retribution for alleged support of rebel groups, or for any other reason.
- Investigate promptly all allegations of mistreatment, torture, and death in detention in accordance with international standards. Ensure that NISS officers, police and other officials who are found responsible for the abuse or deaths of detainees are subject to disciplinary measures or criminal prosecution as appropriate. To that end, authorize the establishment of a transparent, independent and impartial commission to investigate allegations of serious abuses of persons in custody by officials.
- Ratify the Convention against Torture and the Optional Protocol, which allows independent international experts to conduct regular visits to places of detention within the territory of state parties, to assess the conditions of detention and to make recommendations for improvements.
- Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Treatment of Former Child Soldiers
- Work with UNICEF and child protection agencies to ensure that children who have been used to participate in armed conflict are transferred to appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
Freedom of Expression and Association
- Immediately cease all illegal censorship of newspapers and other media outlets, and other unlawful restrictions on the freedom of expression.
- Take all necessary measures, including the issuance of public orders to security services, to end harassment of journalists and of human rights defenders and investigate promptly all allegations of such harassment. Ensure that those officials found responsible are subject to disciplinary measures or criminal prosecution as appropriate.
Fair Trial
- Persons charged with legally cognizable offenses should be tried before competent, independent and impartial courts in accordance with international fair trial standards. These include the rights of a defendant to communicate with counsel of one’s choosing, to have adequate time to prepare a defense, and to have the opportunity to examine and contest witnesses and evidence.
- Immediately and publicly call on Sudan to end all arbitrary arrest and detention, promptly release all detainees for whom there is no legal basis for detention, or charge them with a legally cognizable offense; inform the families of the whereabouts of detainees; immediately end all use of torture and other mistreatment of detainees.
- Publicly call upon the Sudanese government to conduct a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation into violations in Khartoum. Closely monitor the progress of government investigations and take prompt and appropriate action in response to their findings.
- Privately and publicly urge the Sudanese government to promptly implement the above recommendations, and that Sudan’s response will be the basis for deciding whether further international action should be taken.
- States with influence should publicly condemn violations committed by the armed forces, and urge the government to address them.
- Call upon the Sudanese government to permit full and unimpeded access to Sudan by independent human rights groups and the media.
- Immediately end all recruitment of persons under age 18, whether for use as combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, guards, or for any other military purpose.
- Demobilize children under age 18 from all armed forces, and transfer them to their families or to appropriate child protection agencies.
- Establish appropriate procedures for disciplining any local or regional commanders who recruit children to be soldiers or who do not immediately release children.
- Cooperate with UNICEF and other national and international monitors to ensure compliance with an end to the recruitment and deployment of child soldiers, and provide international agencies such as UNICEF, OCHA, and OHCHR full and unhindered access to all military installations and forces for verification purposes, including permitting observers to make spot inspections.
- Promptly deploy human rights monitors to all places of detention in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan to register detainees and to monitor their condition and treatment. Report publicly on violations of international human rights law regarding their arrest and detention, treatment in custody or right to a fair trial.
June 2008
<<previous | index | next>>
|
