C O N T E N T S
Editorial
The Situation of Human Rights
(May 1-September 30, 2007):
By SHRO-CAIRO SECRETARIAT
Charter for the Sudanese Women:
By Zeinab Osman al-Hussain
CEDAW Workshop:
By Mona Awad Khugali
Economic and Cultural Rights:
ByJournalist Al-Sir Mekki
Agricultural Rights:
By Professor Farouq Mohamed Ibrahim
Persistent Crises in Our National Development:
By Economist Mohamed Ali al-Mahasi
Editorial
The 25th Issue of the Sudanese Human Rights Quarterly
The persistent collective murders and other genocide crimes by the
Government of Sudan and her Janjaweed highwaymen against the innocent
people of Darfur will not help to bring peace to the region. Our most
recent report on the period ending in September 2007 reads: “May 22 and
the succeeding days, the villages of South Darfur were bombarded by
aerial attacks, as well as land operations by the government and the Janjaweed
militias… Tens of civilians were murdered and thousands forced
to cross the border to Central Africa.”
With these reckless attacks that inhibit the march of the Nation towards
prosperity and political stability, the time is now for a principled
implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the dear
hope for national accomplishment. The escalated conflicts between the
Central Government on the one hand, and the Government of South Sudan
(as well as the people of Darfur and many groups in the other regions)
on the other, testify to the urgent need to ensure the largest participation
possible of all Sudanese parties and civil society groups in the
national decision making of peace, democratic rule, and development in
the country – instead of the failing bilateral partnership of the ruling parties.
Quarterly 25 is a crown of 15 years of voicing the Sudanese grievances,
the concerns for human rights, and the striving for democratic rule.
Back in December 1992, when SHRO-Cairo was just initiated by a
small group of activists, in exile, it was a dream to publish a human
rights’ journal – one fully dedicated to our country’s concerns for the just
and permanent peace, electoral democratic rule, and a sustainable system
of social and economic development based on the equitable access to the
civil and political rights, as enshrined in international norms, as well as
the full enjoyment of economic, cultural, and social rights.
The first Sudanese Human Rights Quarterly was thus a great celebration
when it came to light including several reports on the gross human
rights violations committed by the Government of Sudan against the People
of Sudan, of which the murder of popular activist Dr. ‘Ali Fadl was
strongly condemned in the national and international arenas. The Quarterly
documented many other violations with a special focus on the activists’
views on various issues of the human rights situation in Sudan.
The 24 other issues of the Quarterly covered a vast area of human
rights, peace, and democracy concerns in varying degrees. Our reports
ranged between cases of individuals subjected to tortures by the notorious
State Security Department, the NIF special guards, or the regular police
forces up to massive massacres of army officers and regulars in April
1990 (the holy month of Ramadan); the bombardments of innocent citizens
in the South; the police brutalities in Eastern Sudan and the Northern
Provinces; and the ongoing genocide of Darfur populations.
The Quarterly provided a systematic up-dated documentation of these
violations that should help to track the role played by the ruling party’s
politicians or executives in these heinous crimes over 15 years of unchecked
tyrannical rule.
In this issue, we read a short report about CEDAW training workshop,
an activity performed by the SHRO-Cairo women activists among Sudanese
refugees in Cairo. The workshop revealed that the awareness of
women about CEDAW is indeed negligible, which warrants additional
efforts to increase the women’s awareness of the fundamental rights and
freedoms guaranteed by CEDAW as a significant part of the international
human rights norms. Along with this need, the SHRO Groups Inside decided
to exert more efforts to provide women with the knowledge necessary
to implement CEDAW in both society and state levels of action, as
much as they can.
In this Quarterly, we included summaries of 3 (three) critical papers
aimed to stimulate discussion amongst a few villages in rural Sudan by
emphasizing the impact of international norms on the economic, cultural,
and social life. A SHRO workshop was held for this specific purpose for
35 participants whose opinions indicated the need to expand such training in the other rural areas of the Homeland.
A significant document earlier prepared on Charter for the Sudanese
Women in the early 1990s is included in this Issue. At this point, the Or
ganization reiterates a lifetime commitment to collaborate closely with
civil society groups by collective planning in the national scope to boost
the concern for women’s rights, as stipulated by international human
rights norms, independently from all governmental or partisan influences
or forms.
The human rights activities by all democratic NGOs will surely proceed
with consistency and integrity, only if all political parties and government
departments pledge to respect the independent status of these
NGOs, indiscriminately in legal and practical terms, especially those of
them concerned with the women’s groups and trade unions and the grassroots initiatives of rural Sudan.
Mahgoub El-Tigani
Editor-in-Chief
SHRO_25.pdf
Attached documents
