An Independent Judicary and Legal Profession

An independent judiciary and legal profession is a necessity for a society respecting human rights in the modern world. The Alliance urges the government of Sudan to strengthen the judiciary by ensuring that it retains independence from the executive. The Alliance urges the government to all the legal profession to freely electly its leader in a vote that is monitored by outside observers chosen by the two parties involved.

There are many ways to ensure an independent judiciary, the NARD suggests:

• Providing for their independent appointment for life, except for removal for on grounds of gross misbehaviour.
• Providing for the nominating and naming of judges by different bodies.
• Providing for the nominating and naming of judges based on their experience on the bench and their legal knowledge.
• Providing for an independent body to decide allegations against judges.

To ensure an independent legal profession , the NARD suggests:

• Providing for fair and free elections of memebrs to the leadership of the Sudanese Bar Association.
• Providing for an independent body to oversee the work of lawyers--not the Ministry of Labour as is currently the case.
• Providing lawyers complete rights of client-lawyer confidentiality and protection against unwarranted searches of their premises.
• Ceasing all harassment of lawyers, for example, by detaining them on clearly unfound charges and calling them repeatedly to security officies.

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