Recommendations
The
African Commission recommends that the Government of Sudan:
NISS
1.Takes
adequate measures in combating insecurity, violence, and police and law
enforcement excesses, especially those of the NISS.
2.Ensures that
the conditions of arrest, preliminary interrogation and detention of suspects
comply with the principles of the Robben Island Guidelines.
Judiciary
3.Undertakes to train
members of the judiciary at all levels, state prosecutors, and members of the
bar, police and prison officials on human rights law.
4. Put in place
the reforms to strengthen the judiciary especially as it relates to human
rights training for judges.
Press
Freedoms
5.Take the
necessary measures that ensure freedom of expression and access to information.
Death Penalty
and Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment and Punishment
6.In
its next report provide the number of persons on death row.
7.To
observe the moratorium on the death penalty and take measures for its total
abolition.
8.Takes urgent and concrete
measures to abolish laws that allow corporal punishment including
stoning, amputation, cross-amputation and whipping.
9.Should include standards
like the Robben Island Guidelines in the human rights program of Sudan Police
College and the training of prison officers.
10. Consider
enacting a law criminalizing torture.
11. Appoints an independent commission to investigate
all extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture by the police
and make public its findings.
National
Security Act
12. Repeal
Article
52(3) of the National Security Act 2010 that provides members of the NISS and
their associates with immunity from criminal and civil procedures.
13. Takes
immediate steps to close down all unofficial places of detention.
14. Adopts a
holistic approach to prison decongestion and conditions of detention in the
prisons, ensuring that the Prison
Service get adequate resources, including funding to improve living conditions
and access to health care in prisons and places of detention.
Women
15. Enacts legislation prohibiting female genital
mutilations, violence and other discriminatory practices against women.
16. Takes measures to ensure female participation at
all levels of decision making, including considering enacting a law on
affirmative action.
17. In its next Periodic
Report provides gender disaggregated data with its narrative Report.
18. Ratify the Protocol to
the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in
Africa.
19. Ratifies the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
20. Takes legislative and
other measures that address rape in Sudan.
21. Takes measures that
address the low level of literacy amongst the girl-child.
22. Enact a law that encourages
and promote women’s participation in the political affairs of the State.
23. Takes measures to ban child
labour and recruitment of child soldiers.
24. Should indicate the
participation of NGOs in the preparation of its next Periodic Report.
25. Takes the necessary
legislative measures and material preparations to extend free legal assistance
to all crimes where the accused person cannot afford to pay legal
representation fees.
26. Open up constructive
dialogue, with the full involvement of the AU, with all factions of the various
conflicts in Sudan, in particular South Sudan, in a bid to find a comprehensive
solution to the problems in the country.
27. Ensure that the deportation
of refugees within its territory conforms to international and regional human
rights standards. It should explore measures such as voluntary repatriation,
integration or resettlement as durable solutions for long standing refugees’
problems.
Ratification
of International / Regional Instruments
28. Takes
measures to ratify international and regional human rights instruments,
including:
-
the Convention Against Torture;
-
the
International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
-
the Additional Protocol to the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and
Peoples’ Rights;
-
the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of
Refugee Problems in Africa,
-
and the African Union Convention on Preventing and
Combating Corruption; Charter on Democracy, Elections and Good
Governance.
29. Should undertake to make
a declaration accepting the competence of the African Court under Article 34(6)
of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the
Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
30. Domesticates all the
relevant regional and international instruments it has ratified in line with it
international obligations.
Rights
of Older Persons and the Disabled
31. In its next reporting
period the report should outline how the rights of older persons and disabled
people are protected.
General
32. Ensures that Sharia law
is not applied to Christians and other non-Muslims groups.
33. Requests Sudan to respond
to its request for Provisional Measures on Southern Kordofan.
34. In
its next Periodic
Report provide information on the measures taken by the
authorities to deal with excesses of the police and other security agents.
35. Finally, the African
Commission requests that the Republic of Sudan in its next Periodic Report
inform the African Commission how it has implemented the recommendations in
this Concluding Observations.
Adopted
at the 12th Extra-ordinary Session of the African Commission on
Human and Peoples’ Rights held from 29 July to 4 August 2012, Algiers, Algeria
The government of Sudan presents "in these reports, a synopsis of the major gains made in the area of promotion and protection of human rights in the Sudan. This is supported by the efforts of the State at the legislative, judicial and executive levels to protect of human rights at a time when the Sudan was facing a lot of challenges and difficulties. All that did not deter the Sudan from pursuing its efforts resolutely in promoting human rights and improving its cooperation with the various players at the national, regional and international levels through enacting legislations and adopting of measures and initiatives in this respect."
"Final Observations- Promotion and protection of human rights in the Sudan represents top priority. Despite the unprecedented challenges mentioned in these reports, the National Administration remains firm in its efforts to tackle them and achieve the lofty objectives and principles of human rights;
- The Sudanese Government through these reports, seeks to highlight its efforts to honour its commitments it has always repeated, to improve the status of human rights in the country. The Government hopes that through achieving these objectives, it would move forward the national efforts aimed at the promotion and protection of human rights on the ground by evaluating developments and challenges, exchange of the best practices and expansion of areas of cooperation with the Commission. The Government further hopes that it has come up with constructive recommendations and made commitments that will impact positively on the improvement of the human rights status in the Sudan in fulfillment of what we all aspire to, when this Commission was established as an effective tool for improving the human rights status in all African countries.
- The Government of the Sudan wishes to reiterate that all the points raised by the Commission when reviewing the Sudan’s Report for the period 2003 – 2008 havebeen seriously addressed. The Government equally wishes to stress that the points under reference have been positively dealt with in the Report and that most of them have been either implemented or will be implemented in due course as mentioned in the Report.
- Statistics contained in these reports reflect the efforts being made by the State within the context of its various developmental processes."
Sudan: 4th and 5th Periodic Reports, 2008-2012