United Nations


Briefing to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Sudan



Objective

Human Rights Watch calls on the Commission on Human Rights to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights for Sudan, and condemn gross abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law by the Sudanese government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) forces in the twenty-year Sudan conflict.


Background

Human Rights Watch has followed in detail the armed conflict and human rights abuses in Sudan for many years. Our research shows that the Sudanese government has targeted and bombed civilians and civilian objects, including relief distribution locations, churches, and schools, causing many civilian casualties and damage to the fragile civilian infrastructure of the south. Together with the Sudanese army, the Sudanese government-sponsored ethnic militias have engaged in scorched earth campaigns against Nuer civilians in the oilfields of Western Upper Nile/Unity State in which thousands have been forcibly displaced and scores of civilians (primarily the weak, elderly, women, and children) have been killed, and many women raped. Conspicuously, the government has not captured any combatants during the twenty-year civil war in which some two million civilians have died, leading to the conclusion that it has a policy of summary execution of captured and wounded combatants.

In the cities of the north, far from any armed conflict, a state of emergency has remained in place for three years. The government has continued to impose tight controls on political activity through a pervasive web of laws and security forces. Security forces break up demonstrations and meetings, arbitrarily detain human rights advocates and political activists, including students, and hold them without trial, sometimes torturing them. An executive decree has kept the leading Islamist political opponent in prolonged arbitrary detention for two years, with no charges pending against him.

The SPLM/A engaged in abuses against southern populations, on at least two occasions in 2002 killing or abducting scores of civilians in two villages, Tuhubak and Todaj. It has often impeded the rights of assembly and expression of persons living in SPLM-controlled areas. During its capture of Torit in August 2002, the SPLM/A reportedly summarily executed scores of captured government soldier combatants.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A have been engaged since June 2002 in peace talks under the sponsorship of the regional InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), headed by Kenya, and mediated by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway, among many other international actors backing peace in Sudan. The parties agreed to an initial protocol resolving issues of religion and state and self-determination on July 20, 2002, and in mid-October agreed on a ceasefire during negotiations and until March 31, 2003, and also on free humanitarian access through December 31, 2002. However, fighting had broken out in Western Upper Nile/Unity State as of early January 2003.


The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan

The report of the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly on November 4, 2002, concluded that overall the human rights situation in Sudan had not yet changed significantly. As to human rights conditions in the government-controlled areas far from the war, he noted that the Criminal Procedure Act of 1991 and the National Security Forces Act were amended to give additional powers to the security forces, "the main responsible for the occurrence of human rights abuses as well as impunity of security officers." He recommended that the state of emergency and these amendments should be lifted, but this has not occurred. As long as such a repressive structure remains in place, arbitrary detention and torture continue as they do, and impunity is the norm for the security forces, Sudan will continue to need the scrutiny of a Special Rapporteur. It is particularly important for the Special Rapporteur to continue his work alongside the peace negotiations to ensure that human rights are addressed adequately in the process.


Recommendations

The Commission on Human Rights should:

  • Renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights for Sudan.

  • Condemn the gross abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Sudanese government.

  • Call on the Sudanese government to end impunity and ensure accountability for gross abuses of human rights, by conducting thorough investigations of all violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and prosecuting those responsible. Call on the Sudanese government to lift the state of emergency in non-conflict areas, and rescind the laws granting impunity and extensive powers on the security forces.

  • Condemn the gross abuses of international humanitarian law by the SPLM/A and call on it to investigate and hold accountable those responsible. Call on the SPLM/A to respect the human rights of persons living in its territories.


February 27, 2003

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