Sudan’s interior ministry distances itself from calls to reinstate anti-women laws
March 25, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Ministry of Interior distanced itself from calls by the Khartoum state police chief to reinstate the public order law and urged police commanders to show discipline.
The Director-General of the Police Forces recently called for granting police officers full immunity enabling them to end insecurity. Also, he expressed dissatisfaction with what he called the “Sudanese feeling of increased freedom after the Revolution”.
In the same vein, the Khartoum State Police Director demanded that the Public Order Law be reinstated to curb “negative practices”, as he said.
Civil society groups rejected these calls and considered it a political position by the police officials.
Further, activists launched on social media calls for the dismissal of the chief of police in Khartoum State, Lieutenant General Issa Adam Ismail, saying such calls encourage violence against girls.
The Interior Ministry “is committed to the requirements of the (transitional period) and supportive of the popular will to achieve change and lay down the foundations of the civil state,” said the Ministry of the Interior in a statement on Thursday.
The ministry further stressed it does not support the re-imposition of legislations that the Sudanese people rejected as restricting public freedoms.
The statement pointed out that at the top of these legislations is the Public Order Law, which “will not return in any way.”
Under the transitional government, ministers of the defence and interior are appointed by the military component.
In November 2019, the Sudanese government repealed the public order law. This repressive legislation gave the public order police extensive powers to arrest any person and targeted women for dancing at parties.
Women groups still call on the hybrid transitional government to do more and ratify important international instruments related to women’s rights including the Maputo Protocol and the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
(ST)