Posts Tagged ‘Sudan’
December 7, 2014
On the evening of 6 December, 2014, the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested Dr. Amin Mekki Medani, a renowned human rights activist, President of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor (SHRM) from his house in Khartoum. Dr Medani was arrested shortly after he returned from Addis Ababa. There are serious concerns for the safety of Dr. Medani who is 76 years of age and suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. According to the information received, the NISS refused to allow him to take his medications with him when he was arrested.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders strongly denounces the arbitrary arrest and detention of Dr. Medani and considers it as a reprisal to sanction his legitimate human rights activities. [On December 3, 2014 Dr. Medani signed the “Sudan Call”, on behalf of civil society organisations. The “Sudan Call” is a Declaration on the “Establishment of a State of Citizenship and Democracy”, under which co-signatories committed to work towards the end of the conflicts raging in different regions of Sudan and towards legal, institutional and economic reforms. The Declaration, which commits signatories to end wars and conflicts as a priority, was co-signed in Addis Ababa by representatives from political and armed opposition parties, including the National Umma Party, the National Consensus Forces and the Sudan Revolutionary Front. Dr. Medani co-signed the Sudan Call on behalf of the Civil Society Initiative.]
Sudan: Arrest of the President of the Sudan Human Rights (…).
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amin Mekki Medani, arbitrary arrest, FIDH, Human rights defender, illegal detention, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Sudan, Sudan Call, Sudan Monitor, Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS)
October 12, 2014
will honor Ryan Boyette, a human rights advocate based in Sudan, with its 2014 Human Rights First Award. Boyette is recognized for his courageous work documenting and drawing international attention to the ongoing attacks against civilians by the Sudanese government in conflicts largely hidden from worldview. The organization will present the Award at its annual gala on 22 October in New York. Human Rights First’s CEO Elisa Massimino stated: “We are inspired by Ryan’s commitment to keep the eyes of the world on the human rights crisis in southern Sudan.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, conflict and peace, digest of human rights awards, Elisa Massimino, HRF, human rights award, Human rights defender, Human Rights First, journalists, media, monitoring, New York, reporting, Ryan Boyette, Sudan, THF
September 28, 2014
(Justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dosa at the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, 24 September 2014 (Jean-Marc Ferré/UNHRC)
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a draft resolution in Geneva on Friday 26 September calling on the Sudanese government to conduct an independent enquiry into the killing of protestors in September 2013, and March 2014. It also agreed to renew the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan for another year. The Council expressed grave concern at the use of excessive force, including the lethal shooting of demonstrators, and called on the Sudanese government to launch an investigation and refer its findings to the judiciary to ensure justice and accountability for the incidents that occurred.
[A year ago, massive street protests erupted in the country against the lifting of fuel subsidies. According to activists, more than 200 people died in Sudan’s capital. On 11 March this year, a University of Khartoum student was fatally hit by a bullet, and other students were injured, when security forces attacked a peaceful demonstration by the students against widespread attacks by paramilitary troops on rural areas in Darfur.]
The UN human rights agency also expressed concern “at reports of restrictions on the media, pre- and post-publication censorship, seizure of newspapers, the banning of some journalists, and violations of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association and of peaceful assembly”. It urged the Sudanese government to further its efforts for the promotion and protection of human rights, in particular to ensure freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and to respect the human rights of all individuals, including human rights defenders and members of civil society organisations.
The draft resolution urged the Sudanese government to continue its full cooperation with the independent expert and allow him “effective” access to all parts of the country and concerned bodies, [It was proposed on Thursday that the Irish Thomas Edward will succeed the current independent expert, Mashood. A. Baderin.The Sudanese Minister of Justice, Mohamed Bushara Dosa, however, said on Saturday that Khartoum has objected to the appointment of Edward, on the grounds that Sudan had not been consulted. He said that Sudan has requested the extension of Baderin’s term. Dosa called on the UNHRC to end the mandate of the independent expert, and rejected the accusations of committing serious violations of freedoms and human rights, particularly in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. He further rejected accusations by the independent expert that Khartoum was dragging its feet in investigating the September 2013 protests, and pointed out that the government has submitted to him a detailed report on measures undertaken with respect to those events.]
(Sources: UNHCR, EU-UN.Europa, Sudan Tribune)
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: censorship, draft resolution, freedom of expression, Human Rights Defenders, independent enquiry, journalists, Justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dosa, mass kiling, Radio Dabanga, Sudan, UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur
April 23, 2014
On 21 April 2014, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network announced the loss of its founding member, Osman Hummaida. Mr Hummaida, who died of natural causes on Thursday 17th April 2014, was a leading Sudanese human rights defender and an inspiration to countless activists in the international and African human rights community. He advocated for human rights in Sudan, challenging the impunity of those responsible for atrocities carried out against civilians. Forced to leave Sudan, having been detained and tortured on account of his work, Mr Hummaida founded the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies in exile. The Centre’s success and strength in documenting and reporting ongoing human rights violations in the country and advocating for justice is a living testament to Mr Hummaida’s vision and determination.
via Human Rights Defenders Mourn the Loss of Osman Hummaida – East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, death, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, exile, human rights, Human rights defender, impunity, in memoriam, Osman Hummaida, Sudan
March 25, 2014
On 20 March 2014, human rights defender Mohamed Salah Mohamed was forcibly disappeared at Khartoum International Airport as he was traveling to a workshop in Tunisia. His family have not been provided with any information to his whereabouts.
Mohamed Salah Mohamed is actively involved in the mobilisation of Sudanese citizens to demand human rights and democracy. The human rights defender had attended the funeral of Ali Akabar, a student protester who was killed during a demonstration on 11 March 2014. During the memorial he had given a speech in which he named National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) officials who he claimed were directly responsible for the killing. According to sources, this is very likely to be the reason for his disappearance.
On 20 March 2014, Mohamed Salah Mohamed, for reasons of security, was accompanied by family and friends to the departures hall of Khartoum International Airport. They left the airport after receiving a message from his phone stating that he had boarded the aircraft. However, other individuals on the same flight later informed them that the human rights defender never boarded the plane. Later, the airline confirmed that he had never checked in. After spending four hours seeking information as to his whereabouts, Mohamed Salah Mohamed’s family were informed by an unofficial source that he had been arrested before he checked in. According to the source, he was kept at the airport for some time and was then taken to an unknown location.
On the morning of 21 March 2014, members of Mohamed Salah Mohamed’s family went to NISS headquarters in Khartoum to deliver clothes and personal items to the human rights defender, however they were told by a source in the political section that he was not in their custody and that they should “look for him elsewhere”. They were further advised to search in other NISS centres in Khartoum to obtain information regarding the human rights defender’s whereabouts.
Since the events of 11 March 2014, Mohamed Salah Mohamed’s family home in Khartoum has been monitored, with at least ten security guards spending the night in front of the house every night. On 15 March, the human rights defender’s brother was kidnapped by plain-clothed NISS agents metres from their home. The agents took him to a deserted location of the Alshagara neighbourhood in Khartoum, and there assaulted and robbed him. He was told that this was a message for his brother, Mohamed Salah Mohamed, and that both brothers “should be careful from the consequences of their actions” [sic].
via
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Forced disappearance, Front Line (NGO), Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Khartoum International Airport, Mohamed Salah Mohamed, Sudan
October 4, 2013
Looking back at the 24th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council which came to an end last Friday, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [CIHRS] is disappointed to see how timid the Council becomes when dealing with human rights in the Arab region. Indeed, the people of Syria, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, and Yemen need all the support they can get to move their countries towards political stability and the rule of law. The Council should be a driving force in confronting cases of human rights violations and making recommendations to address them.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Arab region, Bahrain, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, CIHRS, Civil society, Council, Egypt, foreign funding, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights mechanisms, human rights violations, International Criminal Court, Non-governmental organization, reprisals, retaliation, Sudan, Syria, UN Resolution, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations Human Rights Council, Yemen
September 19, 2013
(Sudanese IDPs – (c) AI private)
In a long letter to the UN Human Rights Council now in session a group of 13 NGOs urges the Council to continue monitoring Sudan. The letter has two main chapters on:
Conflicts in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile, ………and
Repression of Civil and Political Rights……….
The letter ends with urging the Human Rights Council to:
- condemn the human rights violations in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, as well as the government’s continued use of indiscriminate bombing in all three states, attacks on civilians, and other abuses by government forces and allied militia;
- establish an independent investigation into ongoing human rights violations in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Darfur, and report back to the Human Rights Council promptly;
- urge Sudan to grant humanitarian agencies access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, in compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law obligations;
- express concern over the continued restrictions of basic civil and political rights, and the continued harassment of critics of the government, including the practice of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, preventing meaningful public dialogue on critical issues at a time when Sudan is preparing to adopt a new constitution and for national elections in 2015;
- urge Sudan to reform its repressive National Security Act of 2010 and other laws granting immunity to officials, seriously investigate allegations of human rights violations and hold perpetrators to account;
- renew the special procedure country mandate on Sudan for at least three years under Item 4 with a clear mandate to monitor and report twice a year to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly on violations of human rights in all parts of Sudan.
——-
Earlier on AI’s Global Blog, Khairunissa Dhala, Researcher on Sudan/South Sudan team at Amnesty International has answered her own question: “Does the human rights situation in Sudan still require a UN-mandated Independent Expert to monitor and report back on developments?” as follows: “Given Sudan’s dire human rights situation – ongoing armed conflicts in three different states, restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and assembly, including arbitrary arrest and torture of human rights defenders and activists – it is hard to imagine that there is even a question on whether this is needed. But we’ve been here before.
Two years ago, I attended the HRC’s 18th session where members of the Council reached a “compromise” on human rights monitoring in Sudan. It was a “compromise” because, while the Independent Expert’s mandate was renewed, it solely focused on providing technical assistance and capacity-building support to the national authorities. In other words, the Independent Expert would no longer be asked to monitor the human rights situation in Sudan. [….]Compromising on the Independent Expert’s mandate was seen as a concession to Sudan by the international community. A concession given to a country where widespread and systematic violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law are taking place.
But there should be no compromise on human rights. Since then, the Independent Expert’s mandate has successively been renewed to provide technical assistance, while the awful human rights situation in Sudan calls for a clear need for monitoring.. Conflict remains ongoing in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, to the detriment of the civilian population. Over the past two years I have interviewed numerous men, women and children from these two states. They have shared harrowing accounts of how their loved ones were killed when bombs dropped by Antonov aircrafts, from high altitudes, by the Sudanese Armed Forces, landed on their homes. Coupled with ground attacks by Sudanese forces and the armed opposition group the SPLA-N, this conflict has led to more than 200,000 people fleeing to refugee camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia, in addition to the tens of thousands of internally displaced people in the two areas. The Sudanese authorities are still denying unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas. Meanwhile, in Sudan’s Darfur state, a decade after the start of the armed conflict, the crisis is ongoing and violence has again intensified. This year alone, more than 300,000 people were forced to leave their homes behind, fleeing violent clashes between predominantly ethnic Arab groups.
Across Sudan, freedom of expression, association and assembly also remain restricted. Journalists and activists face constant harassment, arbitrary arrests, as well as torture and other forms of ill-treatment by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service. Given the critical human rights situation, any compromise on the Independent Expert’s mandate is an abdication of the Human Right Council’s duty to promote and protect human rights in Sudan…..The Independent Expert should have their mandate strengthened to monitor Sudan’s human rights situation under item 4 (Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention) and report twice a year to the Council and the UN General Assembly on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law taking place anywhere in the country.”
Read more:
Sudan: Letter to the UNHRC regarding the renewal and strengthening of the special procedure mandate on the situation of human rights in Sudan
Why monitoring human rights in Sudan still matters | Amnestys global human rights blog.
Posted in AI, FIDH, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Blue Nile, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Darfur, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, experts, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in Sudan, human rights violations, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, international human rights and humanitarian law, Khairunissa Dhala, killings, South Kordofan, Special Procedures, Sudan, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations Human Rights Council
June 3, 2013
Via Protection on Line I got this fairly detailed report by Katherine Ronderos done for AWID on the situation of women human rights defenders in Sudan. It tells how the Sudanese people, inspired by the Arab spring and led by women and youth, took the streets of Sudan demanding regime change in 2011. Authorities violently cracked down on these demonstrations, detaining more than 150 women, who were sexually abused or tortured, injured and beaten in the protests. Since June 2012, new protests against the Sudanese regime have intensified violence against women human rights defenders.
via Illegal detention of Women Human Rights Defenders in the midst of the border conflict of Sudan | | ProtectionlineProtectionline.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Arab, Arab spring, AWID, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, June 2012, Katherine Ronderos, Sudan, Sudanese, women human rights defenders, youth
May 21, 2013
Canada LRWC is a committee of Canadian lawyers and law professors who campaign internationally for advocacy rights and advocates in danger and on rule of law issues. The following is both an illustration of professional solidarity and giving information on a Sudanese woman human rights lawyer, Asma Ahmed: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Asma Ahmed, Canada, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Jalila Khamis Koko, lawyer, lawyers, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, legal profession, National Security Service, Solidarity, Sudan
April 30, 2013
(Professor Paul Gready at York University with Nagi Musa, a human rights activist from Sudan)
Sheena Hastings reports in the Yorkshire Post of 30 April 2013 on the programme offered by York University that lets human rights defenders stay on a fellowship that provides a safe haven and adds to their skills .
“In the few months that Nagi Musa has lived in York, he has not lost the learned panicky response to the odd creaking noise in the night, and he does still find himself scanning any group of people in case there’s someone who looks like a threat. He tends to position himself where he can see the nearest exit, too. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, CAHR, fellowship, Human right, human rights activist, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Karak Denyok, Nagi Musa, Paul Gready, protection, Protective Fellowship Scheme for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, safety, South Sudan, Sudan, UK, York university, Yorkshire Post
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 