ended

CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

April 17 2003

OUTCRY AS HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING IN SUDAN BY UN RAPPORTEUR IS ENDED

The world’s premier human rights body has ended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Sudan by a vote of 26 to 24, thereby freeing a country with one of the worst human rights records from one of the few vestiges of international accountability.

A resolution to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur was defeated at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva on April 16 by an alliance of states that, on the whole, are better known for curtailing rather than upholding human rights, including Libya, Saudi Arabia and Sudan itself.

The ending of the mandate comes in the wake of a report by outgoing Special Rapporteur Gerhart Baum detailing the continued abuse by the Sudanese government of the rights of its citizens in both northern and southern Sudan. These include torture, extra judicial killings, abductions, attacks on civilian targets and the impeding of humanitarian access to southern Sudan.

The failure of the resolution has come as a disappointment to western and Sudanese human rights NGOs and church groups which had all lobbied hard for the continuation of the mandate.

There is a deep sense of dismay amongst southern Sudanese sources and their supporters at what many see as their abandonment by their fellow African and, particularly, by Kenya and South Africa. Southern Sudanese continue to suffer greatly at the hands of the Sudanese government, and villagers in oil-rich Upper Nile are currently the victims of ethnic cleansing aimed at actively hindering efforts by an international monitoring team to monitor events in the area.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW said: “We are dismayed by the ending of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. The decision allows the Sudanese government to continue torturing, detaining, abducting and attacking its citizens. It is a sad day for the people of Sudan and for the cause of human rights worldwide. It is also an indictment of the UN Human Rights Commission since vulnerable populations can expect no protection if their abusers carry sufficient economic or political weight.”

For more information, please contact Richard Chilvers, Communications Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8949 0587 or email

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The resolution had the support of Western nations, Japan, South Korea and most of Latin American. However, Russia, China, India, Malaysia and member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) combined with African countries and various others to defeat the resolution, while Venezuela, Uganda and Thailand abstained from voting.

The OIC vote came as no surprise, while the Russian, Chinese, Indian and Malaysian votes were determined by their substantial investments in Sudanese oil. Although in their statement on their decision the African contingent asserted its belief that the resolution was being used by western states for political purposes, the regional bloc vote is itself a testament to the success of Libyan political lobbying and regional economic muscle, since the North African nation is the largest funder of the African Union. As one Sudanese observer put it: “Libya is the USA of Africa.” Libya is also the current chair of the Human Rights Commission.

It had been hoped that Kenya would at the very least abstain from the vote given the nation’s mediating role in the Sudanese peace talks which has given Kenya a unique insight into the suffering in marginalized areas of Sudan. It had also been hoped that the suffering of Africans under apartheid would have rendered the African National Congress (ANC) government of South Africa more sympathetic to the plight of southern Sudanese. Another African source stated: “This cannot be excused on the grounds that the Europeans were being inflexible. What is occurring in southern Sudan is a crime against humanity and we had hoped South Africa would take a moral lead and acknowledge this. It just seems as if racism is OK as long as rich North African states are doing it. Southern Sudanese can die so long as cheap oil is available.”

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