Khartoum has no will to respect human rights, Sudanese activists tell EU lawmakers
September 22, 2015 (BRUSSELS) – Sudanese prominent activists on Tuesday briefed the European Union (EU) lawmakers about the situation of human rights in the country and pointed to the government’s lack of willingness to enforce domestic laws and international conventions.
Before the meeting which was supported by EU MP Marie-Christine Vergiat, the two Sudanese activists held a press conference where they painted a gloomy picture about the human rights situation in term of lack of freedoms and war crimes in the conflict zones.
Medani who chairs an alliance of civil society groups explained that the country before the Islamist coup d’état of June 1989 had acceded to several international treaties and conventions. He further said that the transitional constitution of 2005 provides in its article 27 section three that all the conventions ratified by Sudan have to be considered part of the constitution.
“But if one stops and looks at the statuary provisions of the laws and codes which govern the day to day life in Sudan you find there is a wide discrepancy between the law and the constitution itself and thereby a (clear) contradiction with the international governance,” he said.
The Sudanese lawyer further stressed that the country is ruled by the State Security Act which is being repeatedly changed to empower the security apparatus and give it the needed means to grip on the country.
To illustrate his statements, Medani cited the constitutional amendment of December 2014 which authorized the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to have its own military organization and to create the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
Also, he said that the NISS has the power to arrest, to search and detain people in its own detention centres not in a prison where people are kept in solitary confinement under bad conditions.
Madani was detained together with the head opposition alliance National Consensus Forces during four months after signing on 3 December 2014 of the Sudan Call declaration which calls for a comprehensive peace and constitutional conference in the country.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEVIATION
From his part, the Sudanese human rights activist and international expert Suliman Baldo reiterated that there is no lake of laws or constitutional guarantees for the protection of human rights in Sudan, emphasizing “the problem is the absence of political will to abide by these very strong guarantees” .
In fact “the problem is the total deviation by the practices of the Government of Sudan from constitutional rights that are written in the constitution, from legal obligations that are written in the domestic laws and from religious values that are written in the Islam from which the government inspires its own claims to legitimacy,” Baldo stressed.
He said that the government considers the human rights as a political game of power balance between it and the international community.
In May 2011, Khartoum government took commitments to adopt and ratify new international conventions including the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa for Legal Action.
The former director of Africa programme for International Crisis Group, stressed that it is not enough to sign and ratify protocols but “a responsible government” should meet its obligations before international and domestic laws.
DARFUR IDPS
Regarding the human rights violations in the war areas, Baldo said the government can demonstrate its genuine desire to resolve the 12-year crisis in Darfur by encouraging the voluntary return of some 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPS).
“The solution is in the hands of the government and it does not need the UN Security Council or the African Union to it,” he said. Before to add “It has to secure the same areas, and to negotiate with the militias that chased the (indigenous) populations out of their areas. So, that they (the militiamen) are part of the solution and not part of the problem.
He explained that the violence in Darfur since 2008 has changed face because the capacity of rebels has diminished, adding that the region is now the scene of intertribal fighting between different tribes that were armed by the government.
“The claim by the government that it secured Darfur is a fallacy. violence rampant as result of government policies in arming the tribes,” he concluded.
(ST)