JOINT PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY / ACJPS
SUDAN: Serious concerns after the arrest of 30 human rights defenders in violent crackdown against peaceful protests
Geneva-Paris-Kampala, February 12, 2019
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies express their utmost concerns over the violent crackdown targeting human rights defenders participating in ongoing peaceful protests in Sudan.
Since December 19, 2018, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and police have carried out a mass campaign of arrests targeting human rights defenders with arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention, in some cases incommunicado, for their participation or suspected participation in protests that have broken out in different parts of Sudan, denouncing the rising cost of living and calling for President Omar Al Bashir to step down. Human rights defenders have been arrested from their homes, work places or during protests.
During this period, 30 human rights defenders have been arrested and all, except one, remain detained to date (see Annex). Four have been subjected to long detention periods under the emergency law declared in some states. At least two of them have been detained more than once since December 2018. Several detainees were moved to places of detention outside their original states thus hindering access to family visits, lawyers and health care. Isolation, combined with the well-documented use by the NISS of torture and other forms of ill-treatment against detainees, particularly whilst held in unknown locations, gives rise to serious concerns for their safety.
These arrests are mostly based on the Emergency legal framework and on the National Security Act 2010. The former allows for preventive arrest and detention on the basis of vague grounds without time limits to the detention or judicial oversight, therefore authorizing prolonged if not indefinite detention. The latter allows NISS officials to detain a suspect for up to four and a half months without charge in absence of any form of judicial scrutiny.[1]
Eleven of the human rights defenders currently targeted are lawyers. For example, on December 21, 2018, and December 31, 2018, two human rights lawyers were arrested while providing legal aid services to detained protesters and students at Khartoum North court and Northern police station in Khartoum, and remain under incommunicado detention at the political section of NISS in Khartoum. As elaborated in the joint Observatory and ACJPS report “Target one to silence a hundred: the repression of human rights lawyers in Sudan”, the continued arrest and detention of human rights defenders has hindered access to legal aid services for thousands of protesters who remain in detention with or without charge.
The Observatory and ACJPS urge the Government of Sudan to cease the repression of human rights defenders and allow them to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, as guaranteed under Sudan’s Constitution and international standards ratified by Sudan. The authorities must guarantee in all circumstances that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals and free from any restrictions, including judicial harassment.
The Observatory and ACJPS recall that, during the crackdown, the Sudanese authorities, including the NISS and the Anti-Riot Police as well as private militias in civilian clothes, have responded by indiscriminately firing live ammunition and tear gas into crowds of peaceful protesters, killing civilians. Witnesses have reported that snipers have targeted demonstrators in the head and chest. At least 40 protesters have been reported dead while hundreds have been arrested.
The Observatory and ACJPS further recall that in 2018 another social protest movement was also met by violent repression[2].
Annex:
List of human rights defenders arrested between December 2018 and February 2019
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. The objective of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.
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[1] See the Joint Report « Target one to silence a hundred: the repression of human rights lawyers in Sudan » published on October 31, 2018.
[2] For more information, see the Joint open letter concerning the crackdown on peaceful protests and the wave of arbitrary arrests and continued incommunicado detentions by Sudanese government forces, February 14, 2018 and ACJPS Statement, February 7, 2018 and OMCT Press Release, Sudan: Escalating government crackdown on protesters sparks greater safety concerns, January 30, 2018.
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