National Human Rights Commission (Sudan)

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National Human Rights Commission
Agency overview
JurisdictionSudan
Agency executive

The Sudanese National Human Rights Commission has been headed by Hurriya Ismail, appointed by former president Omar al-Bashir, [1] since March 2018 or earlier [2] and continued under her leadership during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.

Contents

Creation

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has existed since March 2018 or earlier. [2] Hurriya Ismail (also: Hurria) was appointed as its head by former president Omar al-Bashir, [1] wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity carried out during the War in Darfur. [3]

Sudanese Revolution

On 24 September 2019, just a few days after civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok's decree initiating the creation of the Khartoum massacre investigation committee, Hurriya Ismail, head of the NHRC, stated that 85 people had been killed during the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre and 400 had been injured. She stated that the 85 people were killed by live bullets. [1] In relation to Sudanese doctors' estimates of the rape of 70 women and men during the massacre, [4] [5] Ismail listed "16 allegations of sexual violence, 9 cases of rape and sexual violence" and stated that the NHRC had not received direct complaints from victims. [1]

The newly appointed Chief Justice of Sudan and head of the Sudanese judiciary, Nemat Abdullah Khair, and Attorney-General of Sudan, Tag el-Sir el-Hibir, both appeared publicly with Ismail in late October 2019 and stated their intention to cooperate with Ismail and the NHRC on human rights protection and prosecutions for human rights violations committed during the al-Bashir era and during the Sudanese Revolution. [6] [7]

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Omar al-Bashir Former President of Sudan

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese politician and dictator who served as the seventh President of Sudan from 1989 to 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south. He was elected three times as President in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Sudanese government announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.

War in Darfur Ongoing genocidal conflict in Southwestern Sudan

The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Ahmed Mohammed Haroun is one of five Sudanese men wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Despite international pressure on the government of Sudan to surrender him to the ICC, Haroun served as Sudan's Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs until May 2009 when he was appointed to the governorship of South Kordofan. In September 2007, he was appointed to lead an investigation into human rights violations in Darfur. In July 2013 he resigned as Governor of South Kordofan, and was reappointed by Omar al-Bashir as Governor of North Kordofan. On 1 March 2019, President Omar al-Bashir handed over the running of the country's leading political party, the National Congress, to him. He was arrested in April 2019 by local authorities in Sudan following a coup which overthrew al-Bashir.

2011–2013 Sudanese protests

The 2011–2013 protests in Sudan began in January 2011 as part of the Arab Spring regional protest movement. Unlike in other Arab countries, popular uprisings in Sudan had succeeded in toppling the government prior to the Arab Spring in 1964 and 1985. Demonstrations in Sudan however were less common throughout the summer of 2011, during which South Sudan seceded from Sudan, but resumed in force later that year and again in June 2012, shortly after the government passed its much criticized austerity plan.

Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile

The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile is an armed conflict in the Sudanese southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a northern affiliate of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan. After some years of relative calm following the 2005 agreement which ended the second Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese government and SPLM rebels, fighting broke out again in the lead-up to South Sudan independence on 9 July 2011, starting in South Kordofan on 5 June and spreading to the neighboring Blue Nile state in September. SPLM-N, splitting from newly independent SPLM, took up arms against the inclusion of the two southern states in Sudan with no popular consultation and against the lack of democratic elections. The conflict is intertwined with the War in Darfur, since in November 2011 SPLM-N established a loose alliance with Darfuri rebels, called Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).

International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur

The International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur or the situation in Darfur is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into criminal acts committed during the War in Darfur. Although Sudan is not a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty which created the ICC, the situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC's Prosecutor by the United Nations Security Council in 2005. As of June 2019, five suspects remained under indictment by the court: Ahmed Haroun, Ali Kushayb, Omar al-Bashir, Abdallah Banda and Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein. Charges against Bahar Abu Garda were dropped on the basis of insufficient evidence in 2010 and those against Saleh Jerbo were dropped following his death in 2013. In mid-April 2019, Haroun, al-Bashir and Hussein were imprisoned in Sudan as a result of the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. In early November 2019, the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stated that al-Bashir would be transferred to the ICC. One of the demands of the displaced people of Darfur visited by Hamdok prior to Hamdok's statement was that "Omar Al Bashir and the other wanted persons" had to be surrendered to the ICC.

The Rapid Support Forces are Sudanese paramilitary forces operated by the Sudanese Government. The RSF grew out of, and is primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias which fought on behalf of the Sudanese government during the War in Darfur, killing and raping civilians and burning their houses. The RSF's actions in Darfur qualify as crimes against humanity according to Human Rights Watch.

Sudanese Revolution Revolution in Sudan that started with mass protests that began in December 2018

The Sudanese Revolution was a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which the 11 April 2019 Sudanese coup d'état deposed President Omar al-Bashir after thirty years in power, 3 June Khartoum massacre took place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that replaced al-Bashir, and in July and August 2019 the TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a Political Agreement and a Draft Constitutional Declaration legally defining a planned 39-month phase of transitional state institutions and procedures to return Sudan to a civilian democracy. In August and September 2019, the TMC formally transferred executive power to a mixed military–civilian collective head of state, the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, and to a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok and a mostly civilian cabinet, while judicial power was transferred to Nemat Abdullah Khair, Sudan's first female Chief Justice. This article mainly covers this eight-month period.

Sudanese Professionals Association

The Sudanese Professionals Association is an umbrella association of 17 different Sudanese trade unions. The organisation started forming in October 2012, though was not officially registered due to government crackdowns on trade unions, and was created more formally in October 2016 by an alliance between unions of doctors, journalists and lawyers. In December 2018, the group called for the introduction of a minimum wage and participated in protests in Atbara against the rising cost of living. The SPA came to take an increasingly prominent role in the 2018–2019 Sudanese protests against the government of Omar al-Bashir during 2019.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan

Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan is a Sudanese politician and Sudanese Army general who is currently serving as Chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, the country's collective transitional head of state. Before assuming this role in August 2019, he was the de facto head of state of Sudan as Chairman of the Transitional Military Council after former Chairman Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf resigned and transferred control in April 2019.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Sudanese military officer

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to as Hemetti, Hemedti, Hemeti or Hemitte, from the Rizeigat tribe in Darfur, who was the Deputy head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) following the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. On 21 August 2019, the TMC transferred power to the civilian–military Sovereignty Council, of which Hemetti is a member. Under Article 19 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, Hemetti and the other Sovereignty Council members are ineligible to run in the 2022 Sudanese general election.

The Khartoum massacre occurred on 3 June 2019, when the armed forces of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, headed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the immediate successor organisation to the Janjaweed militia, used heavy gunfire and teargas to disperse a sit-in by protestors in Khartoum, killing more than 100 people, with difficulties in estimating the actual numbers. At least forty of the bodies had been thrown in the River Nile. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were injured, hundreds of unarmed citizens were arrested, many families were terrorised in their home estates across Sudan, and the RSF raped more than 70 women and men. The Internet was almost completely blocked in Sudan in the days following the massacre, making it difficult to estimate the number of victims.

2019–2022 Sudanese transition to democracy

The 2019–2022 Sudanese transition to democracy is an ongoing democratic transition in Sudan that began in July 2019.

The Darfur Bar Association is a Sudanese lawyers' organisation created in 1995. In 2020, the group received the Democracy Award for supporting marginalized people in advocating for their rights and providing legal assistance to vulnerable activists before and during protests in Sudan.

The Sudanese peace process consists of meetings, written agreements and actions that aim to resolve the War in Darfur, the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and armed conflicts in central, northern and eastern Sudan.

The Khartoum massacre investigation is an official investigation of the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre and other human rights violations of the Sudanese Revolution, mandated under Article 7.(16) of the Sudanese August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, to cover "violations committed on 3 June 2019, and events and incidents where violations of the rights and dignity of civilian and military citizens were committed." The men-only investigation committee of the massacre, rapes and other human rights violations is headed by human rights lawyer Nabil Adib. The No to Oppression against Women Initiative protested against the men-only composition of the commission.

2019–20 Sudanese protests

The 2019–20 Sudanese protests consisted of street protests in Sudan starting from mid-September 2019 during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy, on issues that included the nomination of a new Chief Justice of Sudan and Attorney-General, killings of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, protests against a state governor in el-Gadarif and against show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators, and for officials of the previous government to be dismissed in Red Sea, White Nile, and South Darfur. These protests followed the sustained street protests and civil disobedience of the Sudanese Revolution and the early September 2019 transfer of executive power to the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok and his cabinet of ministers. Hamdok described the 39-month transitional period as being defined by the aims of the revolution.

Tag el-Sir el-Hibir

Tag el-Sir el-Hibir is a Sudanese lawyer who became the Attorney-General of Sudan on 10 October 2019 during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.

Nabil Adib

Nabil Adib Abdalla is a Sudanese human rights lawyer who was nominated on 20 October 2019 as head of the investigation commission of the 3 June Khartoum massacre that took place during the Sudanese Revolution.

The No to Oppression against Women Initiative, also known as the No to Women's Oppression Initiative, is a Sudanese women's rights group active during the Omar al-Bashir era and played a significant role during the 2018–2019 Sudanese Revolution.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "85 people killed in 3-June bloody attack, says Sudan's rights body". Sudan Tribune . 25 September 2019. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 "First Vice – President Directs Human Rights Commission to Speed up Formulation of Report on Human Rights in Sudan". Sudan News Agency. 26 March 2018. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  3. "Situation in Darfur, Sudan – In the case of Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir ("Omar al Bashir")" (PDF). International Criminal Court. 4 March 2009. ICC-02/05-01/09. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  4. Salih in Khartoum, Zeinab Mohammed; Burke, Jason (11 June 2019). "Sudanese doctors say dozens of people raped during sit-in attack". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  5. "Complete civil disobedience, and open political strike, to avoid chaos". Sudanese Professionals Association. 4 June 2019. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  6. "Sudan A-G: 'Perpetrators of human rights violations will be held to account'". Radio Dabanga . 31 October 2019. Archived from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  7. "Sudan's Sovereign Council resolves to review cases of detained rebels". Radio Dabanga . 28 October 2019. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.