Sudan Two Years Post-Bashir: Progress Made but More to Be Done

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11 April 2021 marks two years since Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was removed from office after months of peaceful protests. Since 2019, a transitional government has taken several important steps with respect to human rights and accountability efforts. These include legislative reforms enacted which criminalised female genital mutilation, banned the use of torture and forced confessions, and abolished the discriminatory Public Order laws which have long targeted women and girls.

But other major legislative reforms are yet to occur, and the transitional bodies charged with undertaking these reforms under Sudan’s transitional Constitutional Charter have not been fully established or operationalised.

In a joint submission for Sudan’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), scheduled for November 2021, REDRESS and the People’s Legal Aid Centre (PLACE) outlined the additional reforms to Sudan’s legal and institutional framework that are necessary to ensure the effective prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. REDRESS and PLACE also focused on the urgent need to address obstacles to accountability for the gross human rights violations that occurred under former president Omar al-Bashir, and to realise the promises of Sudan’s revolution.