Tag el-Sir el-Hibir | |
|---|---|
| Attorney-General of Sudan [1] | |
| Assumed office 10 October 2019 [1] | |
| Prime Minister | Abdalla Hamdok |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1948 (age 74–75) [2] |
| Alma mater | University of Khartoum [2] |
| Occupation | lawyer [1] |
 |
|---|
|
Tag el-Sir el-Hibir (also: Taj, El Sir, Alsir, El Hibir, Alhibir, [3] [2] born in 1948 [2] ) is a Sudanese lawyer who became the Attorney-General of Sudan on 10 October 2019 during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy. [1]
El-Hibir was born in 1948 in Khilaila, a village north of Khartoum, to a family that runs local Islamic seminaries. He studied law at the University of Khartoum. [2]
El-Hibir worked in the Attorney-General's Office, in the General Attorney Council and the Laws Committee. [2] In the 1970s, el-Hibir was an assistant legal counsel. He helped the Law Commission of Sudan prepare Volume 4 of an updated compendium of Sudanese law. [4] He worked in other lawyers' cabinets and then open his own office. [2]
El-Hibir was a member of an indictment council preparing a case in June 2019 against members of the previous government involved in the 1989 Sudanese coup d'état. Lawyers filed the case in May 2019, shortly after the April 2019 coup d'état that overthrew president Omar al-Bashir and prior to the Transitional Military Council transferring power to a mixed civilian–military Sovereignty Council several months later. The indictment council consisted of el-Hibir, Kamal el-Jazouli and Mohamed el-Hafiz. On 24 June 2019, the council questioned Sadiq al-Mahdi, the former prime minister overthrown by Omar al-Bashir in the 1989 coup, retired Lt-Generals Mahdi Babu Nimer and Fadlallah Burma. [5]
El-Hibir is seen by lawyer Kamal Jizouli as broadly supporting democracy with no specific political preferences. Jizouli says that el-Hibir was an active member of the Lawyers' Trade Union during the 1985 protests that led to the 1985 Sudanese coup d'état that overthrew president Gaafar Nimeiry, "fight[ing] for what is right, [but with] no partisan affiliations of any sort". [2]
On 10 October 2019 el-Hibir became Attorney-General of Sudan by decree, together with Nemat Abdullah Khair who became the Chief Justice of Sudan. [1]
On 30 October, el-Hibir held a press conference with Hurriya Ismail, the head of the National Human Rights Commission. El-Hibir and Ismail promised that prosecutions would be carried out for the killing of peaceful protestors during the September–October 2013 protests, for the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre (investigated in the Khartoum massacre investigation), and for any other human rights violations during the Omar al-Bashir era. El-Hibir called for Sudan to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture [6] which it signed on 4 June 1986. [7]
Currently, the politics of Sudan takes place in the framework of a federal provisional government. Previously, a president was head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces in a de jure multi-party system. Legislative power was officially vested in both the government and in the two chambers, the National Assembly (lower) and the Council of States (higher), of the bicameral National Legislature. The judiciary is independent and obtained by the Constitutional Court. However, following a deadly civil war and the still ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan was widely recognized as a totalitarian state where all effective political power was held by President Omar al-Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP). However, al-Bashir and the NCP were ousted in a military coup which occurred on April 11, 2019. The government of Sudan was then led by the Transitional Military Council or TMC. On 20 August 2019, the TMC dissolved giving its authority over to the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, who were planned to govern for 39 months until 2022, in the process of transitioning to democracy. However, the Sovereignty Council and the Sudanese government were dissolved in October 2021.
Jaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry was a Sudanese politician who served as the president of Sudan from 1969 to 1985.
Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur is the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement faction.
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.
The Cabinet of Sudan usually refers to the chief executive body of the Republic of the Sudan. The Cabinet was dissolved following the 11 April 2019 Sudanese coup d'état. Chapter 5 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration defines the procedures which led to the nomination of Abdalla Hamdok as Prime Minister, and up to 20 Ministers in the Cabinet, during late August 2019, for the 39-month democratic transition. The Sudanese Women's Union protested against this. Under Article 19 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, the ministers of the Transitional Cabinet are ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the transition period.
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 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 2019 Sudanese coup d'état deposed President Omar al-Bashir on 11 April 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.
Amin Mekki Medani was a Sudanese lawyer, diplomat, human rights and political activist. He was the president of the Confederation of Sudanese Civil Society, Vice President of Civil Society Initiative, and President of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor (SHRM). He served as head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) office in the West Bank and Gaza, Chief of Mission of the OHCHR in Zagreb, Croatia, legal advisor to the Special Representative of the U.N Secretary-General in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a Regional Representative for the OHCHR in Beirut, Lebanon. He was the 1991 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Award for Human Rights Monitoring and 1991 Recipient of the American Bar Association Human Rights Award, as well as the 2013 recipient for the European Union Human Rights award.
The 2019–2026 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.
Abdalla Hamdok Al-Kinani is a Sudanese public administrator who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Sudan from 2019 to 2021, and again from 2021 to 2022. Prior to his appointment, Hamdok served in numerous national and international administrative positions. From November 2011 to October 2018, he was Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). UNECA staff described Hamdok as "[a] diplomat, a humble man and a brilliant and disciplined mind". In August 2019, Hamdok was suggested as a likely candidate for Prime Minister of Sudan for the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
The eleven-member Sovereignty Council of Sudan was the collective head of state of Sudan from 20 August 2019, when it was created by the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, until 25 October 2021, when it was dissolved following the October 2021 Sudanese coup d'état. The Council was to have been the head of state for a 39-month transitional period, scheduled to end in November 2022.
Nemat Abdullah Mohamed Khair is a Sudanese judge of the Sudanese Supreme Court who became Chief Justice of Sudan on 10 October 2019. As such, under Article 29.(3) of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, she is also the president of the Supreme Court of Sudan and is "responsible for administering the judicial authority before the Supreme Judicial Council." Khair is the first woman Chief Justice of Sudan.
Walaa Issam ElBoushi is a Sudanese activist who became the Sudanese Minister of Youth and Sport in early September 2019 in the Transitional Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
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.
The 2019–2022 Sudanese protests were street protests in Sudan which began in mid-September 2019, during Sudan's transition to democracy, about issues which included the nomination of a new Chief Justice and Attorney General, the killing of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, opposition to a state governor in el-Gadarif and to show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators, and advocating the dismissal of previous-government officials in Red Sea, White Nile, and South Darfur. The protests follow the Sudanese Revolution's street protests and civil disobedience of the early September 2019 transfer of executive power to the country's Sovereignty Council, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, and his cabinet of ministers. Hamdok described the 39-month transition period as defined by the aims of the 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. The group was active during the Omar al-Bashir era and played a significant role during the 2018–2019 Sudanese Revolution.
Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman is a Sudanese politician who was the youngest member of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan. Under Article 19 of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, al-Faki, as is the case for the other members of the Sovereignty Council, is ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the 39-month transition to democracy period. The Sovereignty Council was later dissolved in October 2021.
The Sudanese National Human Rights Commission has been headed by Hurriya Ismail, appointed by former president Omar al-Bashir, since March 2018 or earlier and continued under her leadership during the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.
On 25 October 2021, the Sudanese military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, took control of the government in a military coup. At least five senior government figures were initially detained. Civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok refused to declare support for the coup and on 25 October called for popular resistance; he was moved to house arrest on 26 October. Internet outages were reported. Later the same day, the Sovereignty Council was dissolved, a state of emergency was put in place, and a majority of the Hamdok Cabinet and a number of pro-government supporters were arrested. As of 5 November 2021, the list of those detained included "government ministers, members of political parties, lawyers, civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and protest leaders", who were held in secret locations, without access to their families or lawyers.
