Stopping the Silencing in Sudan

The recent wave of enforced disappearances that have taken place in Sudan, particularly of peaceful protesters is deeply concerning and, calls for urgent action by both Sudanese authorities and the international community to end such acts and ensure accountability for victims and families. Since 19 December 2018, following the outbreak of a nation-wide anti-government protests that led to the ousting of President Omar al Bashir on 11 April 2019, the practice of enforced disappearances has increasingly been used by Sudanese national security forces and government-backed paramilitaries, purportedly to preserve national security.

From 3 June alone, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters have been reported to have disappeared after national security forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces violently broke up a sit-in outside the Army headquarters in Khartoum, killing at least 100 and injuring hundreds. According to the Central Committee of Doctors, more than 40 bodies were recovered from the waters after security forces tried to camouflage the extent of their crimes, by throwing bodies into the Nile, weighing them down with bricks. While some of the people who were reported to have been disappeared have returned home over recent days, there are credible reports that several still remain missing.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) request to access the country to conduct investigations into the serious human rights violations that occurred since 3 June did not receive a response from Sudanese authorities. The United Nations Human Rights Commission’s proposal to send an international fact-finding mission to Sudan was also rejected. However, OHCHR continues to monitor the situation in the country, including through mandated Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

On 6 June, after the violent repression of protest led to over 100 deaths, the African Union Peace and Security Council suspended Sudan from all African Union activities “until the effective establishment of a Civilian-led Transitional Authority.” Following sustained mediation efforts by the African Union and Ethiopia, on 4 August, the Transitional Military Council and the opposition coalition of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) agreed to form a civilian-led transitional government, which was followed by the appointment of Abdallah Hamdok as Prime Minister of the transition on 20 August.

The crime of enforced disappearance is one of the gross human rights violations that has been committed with impunity for decades in Sudan, in a variety of context including; civil war, internal conflicts and quelling political dissents. It is regularly used not only to silence political opponents, journalists and human rights defenders, but also used as a tool to intimidate citizens. Lack of accountability by the government has left thousands of families unaware of the fate of their relatives to date.

Insufficient research has been allocated to the existing shortcomings in Sudan’s legal system, particularly in respect of Sudan’s international human rights obligations, though a number of key areas of concern has been highlighted. These includes torture, immunities as a barrier to justice and the right to protest. Perpetual impunity in Sudan is a significant challenge for policy-makers and although scholarship has focused on historical coverage, little is known about policies that officials in Sudan use to address impunity related issues in the country. Further investigations are therefore needed to crystallize at what point the impunity manifests and how it can be effectively addressed by the international community.

Enforced disappearances in Sudan are often coupled with other gross human rights violations, such as the practice of arbitrary arrests and/or detention, torture, rape and in some cases death, particularly by the NISS and government-backed militias. This is facilitated by the fact that victims are often detained incommunicado, in “inaccessible” NISS detention centres, NISS controlled prison sections and, in unknown locations, thus placing them outside of protection of the law with no access to legal remedies.

Unfortunately for victims, lack of accountability has impacted their rights to remedy and redress, as well as the right to truth of the families. Sudan has not ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) or UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. While the Interim National Constitution of 2005 outlaws torture, it is silent on enforced disappearances. Further, although Article 161(1) and 162 of the Sudanese Criminal Law 1991 criminalizes abduction and kidnapping respectively, it does not contain an explicit provision on enforced disappearance. Therefore, neither the totality of the crime of enforced disappearance, nor the crucial role of the state are embodied. Another factor that has contributed to impunity are laws that provide perpetrators, specifically Security agents with wide-ranging immunities. The 2007 Armed Forces Act, 2008 Police Act, and 2010 National Security Act each grant immunities to state actors. Even in cases where the immunities mentioned above have been lifted, victims face various barriers that make it extremely hard to report cases of enforced disappearances.

As Sudan ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1986, Sudan is bound by the ICCPR’s provisions, including Article 21 (the freedom of peaceful assembly) and Article 22 (the freedom of association). Sudan is a party to several relevant international treaties prohibiting torture, including the the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. These treaties are also an integral part of Sudan’s Bill of Rights. Sudan is therefore obliged to take measures aimed at preventing torture, responding to allegations of torture by means of prompt, impartial and effective investigations and prosecutions, and providing effective remedies and reparation.

Following Sudanese independence, civil society organizations (CSOs) working on civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights formed across the country, especially in Khartoum. The legal and operating environment for CSOs varied significantly in subsequent years, however, depending on the nature of the government in power. When the present military government took power in a 1989 coup, the government of newly installed President al-Bashir declared a State of Emergency that included the banning of all political parties, organizations, professional associations, trades unions, societies, newspapers and magazines. It has been an uphill battle for CSOs in Sudan ever since.

It is imperative that Sudan must uphold its international obligations under relevant regional and international treaties which it ratified by immediately carrying out independent, transparent and effective investigations with a view to determining the fate and whereabouts of all missing peaceful protesters disappeared since 19 December 2018. Perpetrators must be held to account through fair trials. Sudan must also ratify and domesticate the ICPPED as a fundamental step towards the prevention, and the ultimate elimination, of the inadmissible practice of enforced disappearances. Laws that grant immunity to perpetrators must be amended, NISS detention centres and controlled sections of prisons outside the normal custodial system, where victims are frequently held incommunicado must be closed.

Despite the progress made in Sudan after the ousting of former President Bashir and the formation of a civilian-led transitional government, there is plethora of work to be done in order for Sudan to eradicate the phenomenon of enforced disappearances and ensure that a culture on impunity does not prevail. Regional and international human rights bodies must collectively and firmly demand that Sudan must end all enforced disappearances and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable. An independent international fact-finding mission, must be dispatched to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent crime of enforced disappearance committed in Sudan.

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