UN expert arrives in Khartoum, visits Sudan’s dialogue exposition
April 14, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Aristide Nononsi, Thursday arrived to Khartoum where he paid a visit to an exposition on the National Dialogue Conference.
According to a briefing issued by the conference’s secretariat, the independent expert visited an exposition on the different stages of the national dialogue process, and also received a detailed account from the National Dialogue Conference Secretary General, Hashim Ali Salim.
Salim said the visiting Beninese expert praised the process and vowed to encourage the holdout opposition groups to join the process, stressing that dialogue is the only way to settle crisis in the African countries, as it was reported in the briefing.
The Sudanese official further said that his meeting with Nonosi discussed freedoms in Sudan and the steps that have been taken to ensure it. He further hastened to add that the visitor “didn’t make any reservation on this respect”.
Opposition groups refuse to join the process, before to discuss confidence building measures such as freedoms, release of political prisoners and detainees, humanitarian access and cessation of hostilities.
In a statement issued earlier this week, Nonosi said he will meet the Sudanese officials to assess the situation of human rights with a view to making recommendations on technical assistance and capacity-building for addressing human rights in the country.
“I will meet with relevant stakeholders to follow-up on the implementation of recommendations made to Sudan by all human rights mechanisms, including those made by my predecessors and those contained in my report of September 2015 to the Human Rights Council,” Nononsi stressed.
He is expected to present a report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2016.
This is his second visit to Sudan since his appointment by the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.
(ST)