Sudanese Government Preventing Work of Rights Defenders in Khartoum

Alert Issued: July 13, 2006

The Sudanese government is using new legislation and other forms of harassment to prevent human rights defenders from doing their essential work.

The Organisation of Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act of March 2006 and other measures are preventing national and international organizations from collecting or publishing information on human rights conditions. These measures also interfere with efforts by aid workers to assist the country’s large internally displaced population. 

Individual defenders have been arrested and beaten because of their work.

In the latest incident, Dr. Nagib Nagm Eldine, director of the Amel Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, was arrested on July 9, 2006. He was interrogated about reports issued by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), with whom his organization is affiliated, concerning the summary trials of hundreds of protestors following the sudden death of First Vice President Dr. John Garang in August 2005.

Dr. Nagib, released on bail nine hours later, was accused of providing information to SOAT, and is being investigated for offenses such as publication of false news and defamation. Given other recent harassment of SOAT, which works to combat human rights abuses in Sudan, it appears that this incident is part of a broader campaign aimed against SOAT and its partner organizations.

At a time when the government of Sudan is responsible for mass killings, torture, rape, and other serious human rights violations, it is vital that nongovernmental organizations are allowed to function freely.

Please call on the Sudanese government to uphold the right of human rights defenders to carry out their work without interference or persecution.

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Despite a UN-sponsored “moratorium on restrictions” on humanitarian activity promised by the Sudanese government in July 2004, persecution by Sudanese government bodies has continued unabated.  In addition to arbitrary arrests and detentions by Sudanese National Security offices, the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), which oversees the activities of NGOs, has consistently obstructed the work of these organizations.  Suspensions, asset freezes, travel restrictions and other government-imposed delays and obstructions have made the already difficult operating conditions for NGOs in Sudan even more arduous.  On many occasions, this type of harassment has prevented NGOs from delivering aid to displaced and otherwise deprived populations, and from documenting human rights violations in sensitive areas. 

The recent Organisation of Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act requires “non-interference by foreign and international organizations in the internal affairs of the Sudan, to the extent that these infringe upon the sovereignty of the country.”  “International interference in internal affairs” has long been used by the government of Sudan as an excuse for targeting NGOs, particularly those working in sensitive regions and attempting to speak out about human rights violations. That this pretext has been formalized in the new law is worrying, and is one of many ways in which the HAC can use the law to obstruct the work of NGOs in Sudan. Most Sudanese NGOs depend heavily on funding from foreign donors, so government restrictions on these sources of support is of great concern.

The act grants the HAC a range of broad and vaguely defined powers, which it has already used on a number of occasions to control the activities of NGOs. On April 11, 2006, the Sudanese government froze the assets of a local women’s rights organization called the Women’s Awareness Raising Group (AWOON) – Red Sea, making it impossible for the organization to continue its work.  AWOON is a group of mostly female lawyers, and plays a vital role in promoting women’s and children’s rights, addressing critical issues facing Sudanese women through human rights training, advocacy and free legal assistance in the city of Port Sudan. AWOON Chairperson Ghada Shawgi believes that the government is trying to prevent the organization from campaigning for women’s rights, and that it was the organization’s outspoken efforts to have women’s and children’s rights properly recognized in the Sudanese Interim National Constitution last year that first brought them under the scrutiny of the authorities.

In March 2006, the HAC in Al Ginnena (West Darfur state) ordered the closure of two field offices of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), and the freezing of SUDO’s bank accounts for those offices.  In early April, the HAC served notice to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) that its agreement on coordination of the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons in South Darfur state would not be renewed.  Although no reason was given, the NRC was told to end all humanitarian operations in Darfur and leave the region.

The Sudanese government further demonstrated its hostility to the work of humanitarian and human rights organizations when it denied permission for a plane carrying Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, to land in either Khartoum or Darfur.  Egeland later said he believed the reason for the prohibition was to prevent him from witnessing the dire conditions being endured by the people of the Darfur region, and the violence being perpetrated against them by their own government. 

In addition to the arrest of Dr. Nagib this week, several other recent cases demonstrate a pattern of persecution by the Sudanese government.

• On June 30, 2006, approximately 150 armed officers attempted to arrest Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah while he was participating in a meeting on the Darfur Peace Agreement, accusing him of attending a meeting that was not legal under the State of Emergency laws, and of being opposed to the Peace Agreement.

• Mossad Mohamed Ali, lawyer and coordinator of Amel Centre in Nyala, and Adam Mohammed Shareif, member of Amel Network of Lawyers in Nyala, were twice arrested and detained without charges in May 2006, and denied access to their families or legal counsel. Both were eventually released without being charged.

• On March 15, 2006, Hassan Altaieb, lawyer and SOAT monitor in Port Sudan, was detained and questioned about the nationwide campaign for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), organized by the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development (KCHRED) and Amel Center in collaboration with SOAT, and cancelled the event with no explanation.

• On March 10, 2006, Hussain Osman Mohamed Ismail, a 32 year-old student and human rights defender who had been investigating reports of human rights abuses in Toker earlier that month, was arrested by military intelligence officers, and interrogated about his activities. His whereabouts were unknown until his release on March 18, when he was informed that, due to his activities as a human rights defender, he was no longer considered an “ordinary citizen.”

These incidents of harassment and intimidation are in direct violation of the rights to freedom of expression and to freedom of assembly, as provided for in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sudan is a party, as well as in Sudan’s own National Interim Constitution. These actions are in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights which protects against arbitrary detention. Finally, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders outlines the duty of states to take all necessary measures to protect human rights defenders from violence and arbitrary action.

Both United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour have raised concerns about the restrictions placed on humanitarian work by the Sudanese government.

Sample Letter

His Excellency Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President’s Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan

Your Excellency,

I am deeply troubled by the recent campaign of harassment of human rights defenders and humanitarian aid organizations by the Sudanese government, particularly by its Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC). I urge the Sudanese government to repeal all unfairly restrictive measures and to end interference with the work of human rights and humanitarian workers.

Most recently on July 9, Dr. Nagib Nagm Eldine, a medical physician and Director of Amel Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, was arrested at his home. He was interrogated for hours and accused of providing information about the hundreds of people summarily tried after protests in the wake of the death of First Vice President Dr. Garang in 2005. I understand that Dr. Nagib is being investigated for offences under Articles 66 (Publication of False News), 77 (Public Nuisance), 96 (Omission to produce document or deliver Statement), and 159 (Defamation) of the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code, and Article 37 of the Press Act, and that there have been reports that the Sudan Organisation Against Torture is facing similar charges for its reporting on these same events.

This disruption is only the latest incident in a recent campaign of harassment by government bodies of human rights and humanitarian organizations. Such actions are in direct violation of article 39 of the National Interim Constitution, which guarantees the right to Freedom of Expression, while Article 40 (1) provides that “...every person shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form or join political parties, associations and trade or professional unions for the protection of his interest.”

The government of Sudan is also obliged to adhere to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which states in Article 6 that “Every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person …in particular, no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained.” Article 1 of the 1998 U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders states that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels.”

The enactment in March 2006 of the Organization of Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act, however, has given the HAC broad and vaguely defined powers to control the activities of NGOs. Since then, the HAC has used these powers to seize the assets of organizations, close their offices, and arbitrarily expel them from certain regions and refuse to renew their operating permits.

In early April 2006, a plane carrying Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, was refused permission to land in either Khartoum or Darfur.  Egeland later complained of “systematic obstruction” by the Sudanese authorities and said he believed the reason for the prohibition was to prevent him from witnessing the worsening conditions being endured by the people of the Darfur region. 

On May 3, during her visit to Sudan, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour expressed her concerns to your government about the restrictive new law, stating that “When fully implemented, the NGO law will further hamper the work of NGOs by imposing heavy bureaucratic requirements and additional costs and delays and therefore restrict even more the already limited space available to civil society generally.”

Many of the provisions of the Organization of Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act, and certainly the harsh application of the law by the HAC, contravene both the Sudanese Interim National Constitution and international standards on freedom of association.

The government of Sudan must uphold these obligations under Sudanese and international law. I urge you to immediately put an end to the persecution of NGOs and human rights activists in the Sudan, and to guarantee the right to a fair and timely legal procedure before an impartial tribunal of all individuals and organizations facing valid legal charges.

Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter. I will continue to monitor the situation of human rights defenders in Sudan closely.