At the same time as the Government of Sudan was telling the United Nations Human Rights Council that there had been a significant improvement in human rights and rejecting accusations made by NGOs of serious human rights violations across Sudan, Sudan’s security services arrested 50 well-known human rights activists.
On 24 September the United Nations Human Rights Council debated the report of the Independendant Expert on Sudan, in which he criticised Sudan’s failure to end press censorship and other human rights violations. He also criticised the failure of Sudan to set up an independent judicial inquiry into the killings of demonstrators in September 2013.
During the debate Sudan, which has proclaimed a campaign for national dialogue and peace, asked for the mandate of the Independent Expert to be removed saying that the government was committed to preserving human rights.
However, the arrests of the last few days have shown the emptiness of the Sudan Government’s statement. Not only has there been no proper investigation of the past, but more than 50 human rights activists, including journalists, university professors, and students, have been arrested, apparently in order to prevent attempts to organize commemorations to honour those who were killed by the security forces in last year’s demonstrations.
List of some of those who were arrested
SUDO UK Calls on the government to immediately and unconditionally release all the activists detained over the past days and guarantee that all human rights defenders in Sudan are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
