New independent rights expert to visit Sudan after elections
March 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The new independent expert on human rights situation in Sudan, Aristide Nononsi , will visit the country for the first time next May after the upcoming general elections.
Nononsi who is from Benin was appointed last November after Khartoum rejection to the appointment of the Irish Thomas Edward. He has been executive director of the e Gambia based Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa since 2012.
The visit was announced by the justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa in a talk show broadcasted by the public Radio Omdurman on Friday.
Dousa stressed the mandate of the new expert remains to evaluate the technical needs to build capacity in the field of human rights, adding that the independent expert is not a monitor of human rights in Sudan.
The minister further accused the international community of politicising the human rights file and seeking to us it as a political card to implement its own agenda.
“Sudan will keep struggling with the international community as long as this file remained politicised,” he added.
However, Dousa admitted the existence of “limited” human rights violations in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states and Darfur region due to the ongoing armed conflicts. But, he enumerated the steps undertaken by the government to improve the situation.
The former independent expert, Mashood Baderin, told the Human Rights Council last September that Sudan continued to adopt relevant human rights legislation and policy, including the adoption of the 2014-2018 strategic plan by the National Commission on Human Rights.
However he urged Khartoum to improve the human rights situation by amending the 2010 National Security Act, stopping the curtailment of civil society activities and the continuing press censorship.
He also pointed that the security situation in the conflict areas remains uncertain and impacts negatively on the situation of human rights.
(ST)