Sudan: End enforced disappearances and account for hundreds of political dissidents disappeared since December 2018
Published by Annet Ajok Opimo, human rights
lawyer
19 June 2019
The recent wave of enforced disappearances that
have taken place in Sudan over the past seven months, particularly of peaceful
protesters is deeply concerning and, calls for urgent action by both Sudanese
authorities and the international community to end such acts and ensure
accountability for victims and families.
Article 2 of the International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED) defines
enforced disappearance as “[…] the arrest, detention, abduction or any other
form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups
of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State,
followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by
concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place
such a person outside the protection of the law.”
Since 19 December 2018, following the outbreak
of a nation-wide anti-government protests that led to the ousting of President
Omar al Bashir on 11 April 2019, the practice of enforced disappearances has
increasingly been used by Sudanese national security forces and
government-backed paramilitaries, purportedly to “preserve national security”.
From 3 June 2019 alone, hundreds of
pro-democracy protesters have been reported to have disappeared after national
security forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces violently broke up a
sit-in outside the Army headquarters in Khartoum, killing at least 100 and
injuring hundreds. According to the Central Committee of Doctors, more than 40
bodies were recovered from the waters after security forces tried to camouflage
the extent of their crimes, by throwing bodies into the Nile, weighing them
down with bricks.
While some of the people who were reported to have been disappeared have returned home over recent days, there are credible reports that several still remain missing. Human rights watch has reported that hundreds of protesters arrested by security forces were still missing by end of the day. Several political prisoners are being detained incommunicado in unknown locations. Activists and families have since then embarked on a social media campaign to locate missing persons and/or relatives believed to be detained and/or killed by security forces. However, the ongoing internet blackout by authorities has narrowed the reach of the campaign.
The crime of enforced disappearance is one of
the gross human rights violations that has been committed with impunity for
decades in Sudan, in a variety of context including; civil war, internal
conflicts and quelling political dissents. It is regularly used not only to
silence political opponents, journalists and human rights defenders, but also
used as a tool to intimidate citizens. Lack of accountability by the government
has left thousands of families unaware of the fate of their relatives to date.
In the recent years, there has been increased
use of “short-term” disappearances where victims are detained incommunicado for
a period of time and, eventually freed. Between 19 December 2018 and 12 April
2019, hundreds of peaceful protesters, students, human rights defenders,
political opponents, journalist and doctors were allegedly subjected to torture
and inhumane conditions while detained incommunicado for months by the National
Intelligence Security Services(NISS) in NISS detention centres, NISS controlled
sections of prisons and in unknown locations. Although many were released on 13
April 2019 by the head of the Transitionary Military Council(TMC), Lieutenant
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, credible sources have reported that some are
still missing even after the TMC stated that all political prisoners were
released. Many families have continued the search for family members, relatives
and friends previously detained by NISS on social media.
In 2016, the Committee on Enforced
Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
noted that “There is no time limit, no matter how short, for an enforced
disappearance to occur. Every minute counts when a person is put outside the
protection of the law. And when a person is disappeared, every anguished minute
spent by his or her relatives without news of that person is a minute too long”.
Enforced Disappearances in Sudan are often
coupled with other gross human rights violations, such as the practice of
arbitrary arrests and/or detention, torture, rape and in some cases death,
particularly by the NISS and government-backed militias. This is facilitated by
the fact that victims are often detained incommunicado, in “inaccessible” NISS
detention centres, NISS controlled prison sections and, in unknown locations,
thus placing them outside of protection of the law with no access to legal
remedies.
Unfortunately for victims, lack of
accountability has impacted their rights to remedy and redress, as well as the
right to truth of the families. Sudan has not ratified the ICPPED or UN
Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment. While the Interim National Constitution of 2005 outlaws torture, it
is silent on enforced disappearances. Further, although Article 161(1) and 162
of the Sudanese Criminal Law 1991 criminalises abduction and kidnapping
respectively, it does not contain an explicit provision on enforced
disappearance. Therefore, neither the totality of the crime of enforced
disappearance, nor the crucial role of the state are embodied.
Another factor that has contributed to impunity
are laws that provide perpetrators, specifically Security agents with
wide-ranging immunities. The 2007 Armed Forces Act, 2008 Police Act, and 2010
National Security Act each grant immunities to state actors. Even in cases
where the immunities mentioned above have been lifted, victims face various
barriers that make it extremely hard to report cases of enforced disappearances.
For example, reported acts of threats,
intimidation and reprisals against victims, family members, witnesses and human
rights defenders working on cases of enforced disappearances has frustrated
efforts to obtain justice. To date, not a single perpetrator of the crime of
enforced disappearance has been brought to justice in Sudan. Sudan has not
compensated either victims or families of victims of disappearances either
materially and/or through social benefits.
It is therefore imperative that Sudan must
uphold its international obligations under relevant regional and international
treaties which it ratified by immediately carrying out independent, transparent
and effective investigations with a view to determining the fate and
whereabouts of all missing peaceful protesters disappeared since 19 December
2018. Where victims are in the custody of the state, authorities should either
release them, or charge them before the courts of law. For those who have died,
graves must be shown to families/relatives and bodies released for proper
burial. Perpetrators must be held to account through fair trials.
Sudan must also ratify and domesticate the
ICPPED as a fundamental step towards the prevention, and the ultimate
elimination, of the inadmissible practice of enforced disappearances. Laws that
grant immunity to perpetrators must be amended, NISS detention centres and
controlled sections of prisons outside the normal custodial system, where
victims are frequently held incommunicado must be closed.
Regional and International human rights bodies
should collectively and strongly demand that Sudan must end all enforced
disappearances and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable. An
independent international fact-finding mission, must be dispatched to establish
the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent crime of enforced
disappearance committed in the Sudan.