Tag Archives: Law Reform

(April 2012) The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP), and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) submitted this shadow report to the Republic of Sudan’s Fourth and Fifth periodic reports (2008 – 2012) to the African Commission …

(January 2012) In the months immediately preceding and following South Sudan’s referendum on independence, the Sudanese authorities launched a renewed campaign of systematic repression of freedom of expression featuring new tactics to intimidate and silence independent media in the country. Historically, the Sudanese government’s main method of silencing media was …

In October 2010, a group of nine individuals, alleged to be affiliated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels in Darfur were sentenced to death by a judge in Nyala, South Darfur. They were found guilty of at least four charges (armed robbery, criminal damage, fomenting war against the state and offences against the state) in relation to a carjacking which had occurred in Khour Baskawit the previous May. The group included four minors: Ibrahim Shrief Yousef (17 years old, Birged Tribe), Altyeb Mohamed Yagoup, (16 years old, Zagawa Tribe), Abdalla Abdalla Doud, (16 years old, Gimr Tribe), and Abdarazig Daoud Abdelseed (15 years, Birged Tribe). The four minors sentenced to death had given their actual ages to the registry, but the court tried them as adults pursuant to medical examinations while they were in custody that determined they were over 18. There are no standardised procedures for determining age, and assessment is based on physical appearance. A fifth minor, Idriss Adam Abaker, was confirmed as a child on a second examination and his sentence commuted, but the court did not allow Ibrahim Shrief Yousef and Abdarazig Daoud Abdelseed to undergo the same examination. The group was tried by a Special Court established in 2 1997 to prosecute cases of hijacking and robbery; notably, the Court has significantly less judicial monitoring and oversight than other courts in Nyala.

On 1 November 2009, registration for national elections slated to be held in April 2010 began throughout Sudan. Originally intended to end on 30 November, the process was extended one week until 7 December as many election stakeholders requested the National Elections Commission (NEC) to extend the registration period. The registration – a critical first step in the electoral process – occurred against the backdrop of a contentious political environment marked by political obstruction of peaceful political activities and human rights abuses, and an overall tightening of restrictions on civil and political freedoms. According to the NEC, at least 75.8% of eligible Sudanese were registered, which was quite close to the national target of 80%. This aggregate figure represents a 71% rate of registration of the eligible electorate in the North, and 98% in the South, respectively.1 The accuracy of these statistics, however, is thrown into doubt by dispute over the results of the 2008 census, which forms the basis of the estimation of potential voters. In South Sudan, there was particular pressure to register as a means of compensating for, or disputing, census figures which were felt to grossly underestimate the population of the South. Some of the states in the South have exceeded in registering over 100 % of eligible voters, according to the census.