African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(30 September 2021) Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate the alleged ill-treatment of Mr. Al-Fateh Hussein, 57-year-old male living in Khartoum and two females aged 27 and 30 years-old who requested ACJPS to withhold their identites. Mr Al- Fateh is a human rights activist and a member of the Democratic Alliance of Sudanese Lawyers.
On 27 September 2021, at 11:00PM in the Riyadh neighborhood of Khartoum, Mr Al- Fateh witnessed members of the community police forces (previously known as the Public Order Police) on the main road beating two women for “indecent dressing”. Mr Al-Fateh intervened and tried to stop the police from beating the women. Instead, the police beat the activist and took him to the Public Order Police Station in the Al-Dim neighborhood along with the two women. The police arrested and detained all three of them until the next day on 28 September when they were released at about 5:00AM.
Upon their release, the activist and the two women went to the Khartoum East police station and filed a complaint against the community police, and they were taken to the hospital for medical check up at 2:00PM. The medical report mentioned that there are injuries in the body Mr Al-Fateh, specifically there are signs of beating and injury in the head, right eye, and swelling in the knee. As for two women, the medical report indicated that one of them had signs of beating in the face, an injury in the ear and the right hand, as well as wounds in the abdomen and back whilst the other had signs of beating in the face, right eye, left hand, and wounds on her sides and back. According to the testimonies of the victims, they were beaten with sticks, water hoses, and they were kicked with feet and whipped.
The public order police was created under Public Order Law of 1998. This law was widely used to discriminate against women as it prescribed their manner of dressing, limited their movement and role in public life, and imposed humiliating corporal punishments of lashing and stoning. The public order Law gave public order police extensive powers to arrest any person, particularly targeting women for wearing trousers, dancing at parties, vending on the streets, and being in the company of men who are not relatives. This law violated several human rights and failed to comply with Sudan’s regional and international obligations. Despite the repeal of the Public Order Laws in July 2020, the Public order courts and police still function under the auspices of the Criminal Act 1991.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls on the Government of Sudan to ensure that the reported allegations of ill-treatment against Mr Al- Fateh and the two women is subjected to a thorough, impartial, and effective investigation. Such investigation should ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.
Taking note of ratification of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN CAT) and the on-going law reform process, particularly criminal justice reforms, ACJPS further urges that Transitional Government to adopt a comprehensive reform process to ensure legislation adequately defines torture and ill-treatment along with appropriate punishments in line with international standards; provide effective access to justice and adequate reparation to victims of torture and ill-treatment, and ensure impartial and thorough investigations of allegations of torture and ill-treatment by state authorities. The Government should expressly denounce the use of torture and ill-treatment by state authorities to intimidate or extract confessions from persons in their custody.
Background
Sudanese authorities have continued to act with impunity, subjecting detainees to torture and ill-treatment in complete disregard of the Constitutional Charter of 2019, which provides for the prohibition of torture, cruel and inhumane treatment and punishment. Most recently on 21 January 2021, ACJPS documented the alleged torture of Ezz El-Din Hamid Ali in Omdurman. He had serious injuries on his body after he was released from detention and had to be taken to hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, he did not make it out of hospital alive. On 2 June 2021, ACJPS also documented the the reported abduction, torture, and extra-judicial killing of Mr. Mohamed Ismail Abaker, popularly known as “Wad Akair”, a youth activist and a member of a resistance committee in Al-Jeraif Sharq neighborhood in Khartoum.
The government of Sudan has repeatedly failed to ensure prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations into these allegations of torture, ill-treatment and has failed to ensure effective remedies or provide reparation to the victims.
In Februaray 2021, Sovereign Council and Council of Ministers approved the ratification of the Convention Against Torture, meaning that the Sudanese government made a legally binding commitment to prevent, prosecute and remedy cases of torture and ill-treatment. Sudan is also party to other international treaties, such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that prohibit torture and other ill-treatment.
For further information, contact Mossaad Mohamed Ali at: mossaad.ali@acjps.org
