Sudan: Human Rights, War and Humanitarian Assistance

Welcome to my home page on Human Rights, War and Humanitarian Assistance in Sudan.

This site is linked to the upcoming publication by Dr. Curtis F. Doebbler, entitled Sudan: Human Rights, War and Humanitarian Assistance

This book will be available by the end of 2000 and can be ordered in advance by e-mailing me at human_rights_lawyer@writeme.com

This page is maintained by Dr. Curtis Francis Deobbler, you can vist my home page to find out more about me at My Homepage.

Sudan and Human Rights Today

In November 1999, at its Kagali meeting, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found for the first time that Sudan had violated the human rights of its citizens. The finding was significant although it involved violations from the period between 1989 and 1993 for several reasons. First, the Commission found widespread and gross violations. It held that the government of Sudan was aware of these violations and took woefully inadequate steps to remedy them. Second, the case concerns the same government that is currently in power in Sudan. And third, many--if not all--of the practices condemned in the Commission's decision are reoccuring regularly.

As a consequence of the last situation, numerous other cases have been filed with the Commission complaining about torture, inhumane and degrading punishment, infringements on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association, violation of the right to a fair trial and violations of the right to education when the government closed the universities to encourgae students to go to the war front.

The Commission has taken up six of these cases and the government has responded that in each case domestic remedies were not exhausted. The petitioners, represented by the Law Office of Ghazi Suleiman and international human rights lawyer Dr. Curtis Doebbler, have responded by arguing that in some case domestic remedies have been clearly exhausted and in all the cases the peititoners take the position that domestic remedies are inadequate and thus need not be exahuasted. To support their position the petitioners have made the Commission aware of the decision of the highest court in Sudan dismissing an appeal based on international human rights law with the claim that these rights were irrelevant and numerous cases where individuals or their lawyers were subjected to threats or actual mistreatment for attempting to petition the Sudanese courts in human rights cases. The government has responded by pointing to a few cases where the constitutional court ruled against the government, although these cases involved commercial matter and not human rights.

The Commission is now faced with holding another hearing on the issue of the adequacy of domestic remedies or deciding upon the admissibility of the cases on the facts before them.

Concerning the 1998 Constitution

The comment below is written by Dr. Curtis Doebbler who is an American and Dutch internationalhuman rights lawyer. For two years, I advised the government of Sudan on human rights. Among his tasks was serving as an advisor to the National Constitutional Committee that produced the first draft of the Sudanese Constitution. I also followed this process very closely through the presentation to Presidency and utlimately to the National Assembly.

Nevertheless, I am an outsider as the Constitution must be the property and reflect the values of the Sudanese people. It must reflect their values and aspirations, their will and their preferred form of government.
It is from my limited perspective of an outsider that I offer the below summary notes on my views:

1. The proposed Constitution was not a bad Constitution. It has some strong and some weak points. The weak points might validly lead people to vote against the Constitution, but it is not a bad constitution per se. By this I mean that it can serve as a bridge to a transition to democracy and peaceful co-exitence in Sudan. How it is implemented is the important issue for me concerning a successful transition. And in this regards, there is a heavy burden on the Government of Sudan to ensure that the Constitution is implemented in a way that provides the greatest protection of the human rigths of all Sudanese under its jurisdiction.

2. The proposed Constitution is also not a Islamic Constitution. Yes, there is some (in my eyes) unfortunately ambiguous Islamic phraseology in it, but no credible Islamic scholar, or for that matter, anyone who knows anything about Islam and Islamic Constitutions, could call this Constitution an Islamic Constitution. It is instead a Constitution that has tried to please many different Sudanese views that range from Islamic fundamentalism to liberal secular social democracy. There is the legitimate fear that in doing so it has got the balance wrong and perhaps is should be rejected and/or revised for this reason, but not because it is an Islamic Constitution.

3. The proposed Constitution contains numerous human rights provisions. These are good and are an encouraging (abet small) sign that the government will improve its respect for human rights in Sudan. If these human rights are really upheld by the Sudanese courts in a way that alligns with their international obligations Sudan should be strongly encouraged to continue down this path with close cooperation from the international community. At the same time there are some unfortunate things about the human rights in the proposed Constitution: (a) all reference to economic, social and cultural rights were removed when the National Committee's draft was revised by the Presidency. This is very unfortunate. It indicates the executive's intention--the same executive that ratifies human rights treaties such as the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights--not to give as much attention to these rights. Indeed, to the contrary, these rights are prehaps the most important to the majority of Sudanese people who live on three figure annual incomes, (b) the human rights of refugees and internally displaced people do not have special mention, although they are the largest vulnerable groups in Sudan, (c) the human rights of children and women are only mentioned in the section on general principles, which intimates that the state has to do less to implement them, (d) the right to association, including the right to form political parties is imfamously vague, and (e) the provisions allowing for derrogation from the human rights have been drafted overly broad. Again, however, the human rights provisions are a step in the right direction and Sudanese voters have to decide, in my opinion, whether they are enough or whether more needs to be settled in the Constitution to ensure that their human rights will be respected.

4. The creation of a Constitution Court should also be welcome. There are however, problems with this Court. The President names all the judges, but there are no provisions on who dismisses them or for what reasons. There is also ambiguity about its jurisdiction. These are matters that could be satisfactorily dealt with in legislation, but is it that good enough for the Sudanese people?

5. The powers of the President in time of a national emergency are quite broad. These powers could have been more circumscribed.

6. The powers and functions of national security officials are are quite broad and vaguely defined. These powers should be more circumscribed. The security apparatus has been the main source of human rights abuses in Sudan and the greatest embarrassment to the country internationally. If the people of Sudan accept their government why do they have to be forced not to oppose it? In my opinion, as an outside, the security officials must be brought under the control of the civil government, otherwise is will be hard to refer to Sudan as a democracy and people will continue to claim it is a repressive dictatorship. I realize that this is a very sensitive point, but a government must have the courage to expose itself to the people and not protect itself behind repressive security forces.

And finally,

7. The fact that the proposed Constitution was drafted by only a small gorup of Sudanese is a disappointment and a weakness of the text. Nevertheless, it is neither unusual nor, in my opinion, of itself a valid reason for people to reject the Constitution. Many constitutions have been drafted by small groups of people. The American Constitutional Convention was called essentially because George Washington and some other aristocrats wanted to protect their own wealth and position in a new nation. Are you going to prima facie reject every Constitution provided by people you don't like or who you don't think represent the majority opinion? If this is the case we would have hardly any constitutions in the world. To an academic, like myself, I view those who reject the proposed Constitution prima facie and without motivations, individuals who are not really concerned for the well-being of the Sudanese people or who are just to lazy to think about and share their thinking as regards their views on this very important issue.

I cannot advise you how to vote, but I do think you should vote if you are Sudanese. Sudanese anywhere in the world can vote. If you do not vote you cannot claim that the Government of Sudan has not extended an offer to you for peace and in the direction of democracy and improved respect for your human rights. If you do vote agianst the Constitution, as you are entitled to do, but you do vote, then you are entitled to say that you rejected it. Furthermore, if it is defeated, you are entitled to say "Now, let's us change it so that I and the rest of the majority will accept it." The main reason that I hope you will vote, however, is merely that this is the only real chance I see for a move towards a peaceful settlement of the problems in Sudan. Like other similar moves it is a very, very little step in the right direction, but it is for that reason that it should be encouraged.

Religion in Sudan

The outcome of the recent peace talks in Nairobi implies that one of the most important remaining issues to be resolved concerns the status of Islamic principles in Sudanese public law. I am not sure where the talks really got this far, as many would like us to believe, but if they did I think the parties are finally getting closer to the central issue of difference.
The issue of Islamic principles pits the emotional attachment of the government and its supporters against a mixture of liberal Muslims and Christians who believe that Islam is just a religion. There appears to be agreement on the following:

1. Islam is the religion of the majority in Sudan.
2. Muslims have a right to request the application of Islamic laws to them.
3. Non-Muslims have a right to practice their religion without persecution.
4. Religious freedom is in accordance with both the Muslim and Christian faith.

And disagreement on the following:
1. The application of Islamic laws in contradiction of international human rights principles.
2. The extent to which Sudan should be called an Islamic state.
3. The role of the national/public security officials in Sudan, can they be used to uphold and/or impose Islamic values.
4. The extent to which non-Muslims can practice their religion and promulgate it.
5.The state's ability to punish those who convert from Islam or request the application of hadud penalties for committing crimes.
6. The status of substantive criminal, inheritance and procedural law that violates international norms.

Suggestions for (immediate) action:
1. Much more study needs to be devoted to means of accommodating Christain, Muslim and secular values in the Constitution. While I believe that international human rights law must provide a minimum standard for what can be accommodated, others disagree.
2. The government of Sudan needs to be encouraged to enhance its respect for its international obligations (treaties and custom), especially its international human rights obligations. This should be done by continued close attantion and where necessary criticism of the laws and practices of the government as well as by cooperation on areas of technical assistance concerning human rights.
3. The alternative mechanisms for supervising a self-determination referendum need to discussed so as to detail the method that will be used.
4. How the national (internal and external) security will be controled, supervised and function.

These are just some of my thoughts and I would welcome your comments, which you can send to me on the form below.

Sudan Activities

Just a note to let those of you who care know that I am now living in Washington D.C. for two years, although I hope to make regular trips back to Sudan.
My e-mail remains that same and my contacts are:
Post:
Dr. CF Doebbler
Van Ness South, Apt. W623
3003 Van Ness Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20008

Phone: +1-202-248-1411

Now that I am no longer advising the government of Sudan on human rights I am busy on the following human rights projects concerning Sudan and welcome hearing from anyone interested in contributing to them:

1. A petition to the African Commission on Huaman and Peoples' Rights claiming gross and widespread vioaltions of numerous provisions of the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights.

2. A petition on behalf of approximately 2500 internally displaced persons whom I represent, requesting memebers of the UN Security Council to nominate a UN agnecy or programme to be responsible for contribtuing to the legal protection of these individuals in Sudan.

3. A case concerning almost 300 Congolese refugees.

4. UNHCR's action, lack thereof or incompetent action in the cases of several Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees.

5. Supporting an useful technical assistance programme in the field of human rights between the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the government of Sudan and non-governmental organisations in Sudan.

If you want to help or want more information please contact me at the above points of contact. You can help in several ways, such as, writing letters, printing letters and other documents I have written, donating a printer, donating stamps, volunteering your time if you live in the New York or Washington D.C. area, collecting information relevant to the above matters, contacting people that need to be contacted in relation to these topics, or other creative mways that you might be able to think of.

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