African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(26 June 2015) On the international day in support of torture survivors, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls on the Government of Sudan to take necessary steps to end its use of torture, including by reforming Sudanese laws to bring them in line with international standards for the absolute prohibition of torture, and ensuring that victims have access to effective remedies. As a priority, Sudan should repeal legislation that grants immunities to state officials and creates an enabling environment for abuses in state custodies. ACJPS commemorates the day by remembering victims of torture around the world.
The use of torture across Sudan is endemic. Sudanese authorities use torture and other forms of ill-treatment to intimidate and silence perceived political opposition to the policies of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). Human rights defenders, political and other social activists, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and students are particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment.
Human rights lawyer “K” was detained and tortured by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in March 2014 after he provided legal assistance to students and activists detained by the same agency in connection with protests over the killing of a student on the University of Khartoum campus. He was detained for almost a month without charge following his arrest on 13 March 2014 and subjected to severe physical and psychological trauma. During the first week of detention he was moved to five locations, regularly blindfolded and handcuffed, and subjected to interrogation for around 11 hours each day. Members of the NISS threatened to kill him and held him in solitary confinement for four days in an extremely cold cell known as “the refrigerator”. A blood sample was taken from him without his consent, and he was injected with an unknown substance, causing severe anxiety. He was allowed just one family visit, monitored by the NISS, and was denied access to a lawyer. After his release he received threatening phone calls and visits from the NISS and fled the country.
Members of ethnic minority groups, including Darfuris and people hailing from Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, are particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment. ACJPS has documented threats of sexual violence against male and female detainees, as well as cases of rape against female detainees in state custody. Detainees have also reported the use of racist verbal abuse.
One woman, “A”, 23 years of age, a member of the Zaghawa ethnic group, and a student at Khartoum University, was arrested by the NISS on 5 October 2014 alongside other Darfuri women from the Alzhra Students’ Hostel at Khartoum University. During the arrest, she was groped by plain-clothed security officers before being dragged from her room to a car outside the hostel. She was transferred, blindfolded, to NISS custodies near the Shande Bus Station and interrogated by three NISS officers who beat her on the floor. One officer groped her breasts and told her that, “you Darfuri people destroyed Darfur, and now you want to come and destroy Khartoum”. She was threatened with rape and further sexual assault, beaten on the head with a stick, and kicked in her stomach until she became unconscious. When she regained consciousness she discovered she had been blindfolded again, was handcuffed, and that her ankles had been shackled. She was transferred to Omdurman Women’s Prison on 6 October, where she was beaten after she refused food. She was later transferred on an unknown date to Amel Hospital, a NISS Hospital, and hospitalised until 13 October, when the NISS ordered her release, reportedly owing to concerns that she would die in state custody.
Despite the prohibition of torture in Sudan’s 2005 Interim National Constitution, other legislation, such as the 2010 National Security Act and 1994 Evidence Act, creates conditions rendering detainees extremely vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment. The 2007 Armed Forces Act, 2008 Police Act, and 2010 National Security Act each grant immunities to state actors. The 2010 National Security Act is of particular concern because it grants the NISS wide powers of arrest and detention for up to four and a half months without judicial review, permits incommunicado detention, and grants immunity from prosecution to security agents. Sudan’s 1994 Evidence Act allows judges to admit evidence obtained through torture.
ACJPS has documented cases in which torture appears to be perpetrated with the goal of extracting a confession. In one case “H”, 33 years of age and a resident of a town south of Rabak in White Nile, was arrested and tortured by police officers who accused him of being involved in a murder. He was arrested on 16 May 2014 and taken to a local police station where he was beaten with cables and sticks when he denied the accusations. He was suspended by his hands from the ceiling with his legs tied with rope and he was beaten on the soles of his feet (a practice known as falaga), on his back, legs, and knees. In the evening he was forced into a car and shown a spade, hammer, and shovel. A police Lieutenant present during interrogations threw a sack at him and asked, “do you know why we have all of these things? We will dig your grave and this sack will be your shroud, because you will not want to admit what happened”. He was then transferred to Aljezira Aba police station, 12 km outside of Almarabee Wad Allibaih near to Rabak, where he was again beaten and suspended from the ceiling for an hour. Shortly after, he was ordered to jump on and beaten when he was unable to jump because of injuries from the beatings. He later began urinating blood. H was held for around two and a half months at the Aljezira police station before being transferred to Kosti prison. He was later released on an unknown date. Throughout H’s detention he was denied medical treatment and never appeared before a court or was charged with a crime.
ACJPS has also documented cases where individuals are believed to have been tortured to death or tortured before being killed. In April and May 2014 ACJPS documented the deaths of at least four detainees in Military Intelligence custody in South Darfur and Blue Nile states. The whereabouts of their bodies are unknown.
Hundreds of Sudanese have also been subjected to flogging and corporal punishment under Sudan’s Public Order laws, legislation governing vague “indecent” and “immoral” behaviour. Sudan’s public order laws disproportionately impact women, and sentences are often handed down in summary trials without legal representation. In the case of Doebbler v Sudan, concerning the use of flogging as a punishment in Sudan, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) ruled that: “there is no right for the government of a country to apply physical violence to individuals for offences. Such a right would be tantamount to sanctioning State sponsored torture,” contrary to article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The experience of forced exile to another country for the hundreds of Sudanese who have fled Sudan after being subjected to torture and ill-treatment can cause serious mental anguish due to the separation from family, friends, livelihoods and culture.
ACJPS is not aware of a single case where an alleged perpetrator of torture has been held to account. The ACHPR found in case 379/09 against Sudan that remedies are not available to people tortured by the NISS because the power to lift immunities is at the discretion of the director of the NISS and is not subject to judicial oversight.
In its decision published on 13 February 2015, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) called on Sudan to effectively investigate and prosecute the security and intelligence officers alleged to be responsible for the arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment of three prominent human rights defenders in 2008; to reopen and unfreeze the bank accounts of a human rights organisation shut down in connection with the case, and to pay them compensation. Monim El Jak, Amir Suliman and the late Osman Hummaida were subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the NISS for three days in November 2008 in connection with their supposed cooperation with the International Criminal Court in a pending case against President Omar Al Bashir, arising from international crimes committed in Sudan’s Darfur region. Sudan was given 180 days to inform the African Commission of steps taken to implement the recommendations.
Today, International Day in Support of Survivors of Torture, ACJPS calls on the Government of Sudan to uphold its commitment to an absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, as set out in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both treaties to which Sudan is a state party, as well as Sudan’s own Interim National Constitution of 2005. Sudan should also ratify the UN Convention against Torture, which the government signed in 1986.
The Government of Sudan should reform domestic legislation in line with its international commitments. International bodies such as the African Commission, African Union and United Nations bodies should hold Sudan to account for its failure to implement its obligations to prohibit torture, grant effective remedies for victims, and hold perpetrators to account.
Contact:
Amir Suliman, ACJPS Legal Programme Coordinator, +256 783 661 084, info@acjps.org
Katherine Perks, Programme Director, +256 775072136, info@acjps.org
