Sudan denies launching CEDAW ratification process

June 4, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese ministry of justice denied reports of launching ratification process of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) adding that such operation requires prior consultations within the government institutions.

Recently local press reported that Justice Minister Mashaar al-Doleb told the parliament about the intention of the justice ministry to ratify the CEDAW and that the international treaty has been lodged to the legislative chamber for ratification before the formal signing at the United Nations.

The international bill of rights for women was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 but Sudan is among very few states that declined to sign it. Over fifty countries signed and ratified the Convention have done so subject to certain reservations and objections, including the Saudi Arabia which posed three reservations.

“It is not accurate that the ministry has recommended or submitted the treaty to the parliament for ratification,” said the ministry of justice in a statement released on Monday.

Further, it added that such matter was not included in the nine-month activities report to the parliament presented by the minister last week.

In a response to a question about the CEDAW, the minister explained the means by which an international treaty enters into national legislation and its right to express reservations with its signature, stressed the statement.

“She explained that the (justice) ministry does not work alone, but such process is done within inter-minstrel bodies,” the statement said.

Last Thursday, the European Union Commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management Christos Stylianides welcomed an alleged statement by Sudanese Minister of Justice expressing Sudan’s decision to ratify the CEDAW.

Also, a Sudanese radical Islamic preacher Mohamed Ali al-Gazouli, last Saturday criticized the minister of justice for the alleged statement about the signing of the CEDAw saying it violates the Islamic law.

Speaking Monday at a meeting on the prohibition of female gentile mutilation in the country, Minister al-Doleb voiced her support for the signing of the CEDAW with reservations to the dispositions that contravene the Islamic law.

(ST)