Press Statement on the Release of Human Rights Defenders in Sudan

The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa has learned with satisfaction of the release of Ramzi Yahia, Abdul Rahman Abu Al Hassan, Ahmed Mohamed Abdallah, Adil Abdallah Nasr El Dein, Satti Mohamed Alhaj, Amro Hamad Omar, Mohamed Salah Mohamed, Mohamed Al-Usbat, Al Said Mustafa, Abdulgadir Mahmoud, Faisal Shabou, Tarig El Sheikh, Nahid Gabralla, Marwa el Tigany, Mai Shatta and Amira Osman; human rights activists who were detained without charges for several weeks in Sudan.

The Special Rapporteur commends the Government of the Republic of Sudan for this action which reflects its willingness to provide justice to human rights defenders and expresses her gratitude to the Sudanese authorities for their efforts to build a society governed by respect for human rights in line with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international human rights promotion and protection instruments.

The Special Rapporteur would like to seize this opportunity to call upon the Government of the Republic of Sudan to continue its efforts to guarantee the right to freedom and physical integrity, particularly by putting an end to judicial harassment against human rights defenders working in Sudan.  

 

Banjul, 22 August 2012