Publications

In this letter, submitted ahead of the 42nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, REDRESS and other civil society organisations urge the Council to take action to address serious human rights violations and abuses that have been and continue to be committed in Sudan, and to support systemic reforms in the country.

REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) have issued this briefing which identifies priority areas for reform on torture in Sudan following the recent removal of Omar al-Bashir as President. It focuses on reparations for victims of torture, ensuring individual accountability and preventing torture in the future.

The report, ‘Criminalisation of Women in Sudan: A Need for Fundamental Reform’, shows how public order laws, designed to protect morality, continue to disproportionately target women, who can face long spells in jail and flogging for infractions such as wearing ‘trousers’. Focusing on Khartoum state, the reports describes the experiences of some of the women most affected by the application of these laws, including alcohol brewers and sellers, human rights defenders, female students and migrant women. The report was written by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) and REDRESS.

REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies have made a joint submission to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan and South Sudan. The Government of Sudan remains non-complaint with its obligations pertaining to the absolute prohibition of torture, including accountability for torture by officials of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) under the National Security Act of 2010. The UK government must develop a specific human rights strategy for its engagement with the Sudanese government. In particular, the UK government must make respect for human rights - particularly accountability for torture and ill-treatment - a key condition of any future engagement between the UK and Sudan.

REDRESS' submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Sudan focuses on developments since 2011, and the urgent need to carry out thorough reforms of Sudan’s legal and institutional framework and practice to ensure the effective prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This submission is based on our extensive work on torture in the region, including representing and assisting individual survivors of torture in proceedings before national, regional and international bodies, and advocating for legislative and institutional reforms.

This brief, prepared by REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), outlines the main concerns of the organisations in relation to Sudan's implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) have brought to the attention of the UN Human Rights Committee the "serious, ongoing human rights crisis" in Sudan, marked by widespread and ongoing human rights violations. In a report submitted to the Committee, which will be reviewing Sudan's human rights record on 8 and 9 July 2014, the organisations document the continued use of stoning, amputation and whipping in Sudan in violation of Sudan’s human rights obligations. They also draw attention to the killings and torture of hundreds of students, activists, journalists and human rights defenders by the intelligence and security forces, and the gross violations being carried out in armed conflicts in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.  

The Project for Criminal Law Reform (www.pclrs.com), a joint initiative by REDRESS and the Sudanese Human Rights Monitor, has identified a series of shortcomings in Sudan’s legal system, particularly in respect of Sudan’s international human rights obligations, and advocated reforms over the last seven years. This Compilation of Advocacy Briefings, which covers four briefings published in the period May 2013 to January 2014, highlights a number of key areas of concern:  torture, immunities as a barrier to justice and the right to protest. In addition, it draws together the multiple recommendations made by regional and international human rights bodies.