Republic of Sudan: Human Rights

Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, who relentlessly and courageously supports those denied fundamental freedoms, who are excluded and marginalised, and who are too often forgotten. The noble Baroness earns the respect of us all.

The first six months of 2014 have brought devastation, death and destruction to Sudan on a scale not seen since the height of the genocide in Darfur from 2003 to 2005. In 2013, violence caused a further 460,000 new internally displaced people. So far in 2014, another 215,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and 3.5 million people in Darfur—half the population—are in need of humanitarian assistance. There are still 300,000 Darfuri refugees in camps in Chad.

Sudan faces a terrible humanitarian disaster but, tragically, it has slipped off the international agenda. Political freedoms, religious freedom and freedom of speech are under attack, newspapers are censored and banned. Access to justice is rare. There is evidence that torture, beatings, rape and other inhuman punishments are routinely used. Sudan, as the FCO report says, is the country that makes most use of the death penalty. In Darfur, reports of human rights abuses have considerably increased. Sexual, gender-based violence almost doubled in the last quarter of last year. The chief prosecutor of the ICC has described reports of “disturbing” abuses in Darfur to the Security Council. There are also very grave concerns about the denial of children’s rights to education, to nutrition and to the freedom to be children and not to be forced into the army. LGBT rights are routinely denied. Anyone identified by the authorities is fined, flogged, stoned or imprisoned, and can even face the death penalty. Human Rights Watch says that human rights abuses,

“are intensifying in Darfur, making accurate, timely public reporting on human rights abuses more important than ever”.

Does the Minister agree that it is shocking to learn that, in Darfur, public reporting of abuse has all but ceased and that the latest report by the UN human rights commission was as long ago as in January 2009? In 2004, the United Nations Security Council mandated the Sudanese Government to disarm their Janjaweed militias. They never did, denying any close connection with the violent Arab militia. Now, in 2014, as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has said, the Janjaweed have been trained and rebranded as the Rapid Support Forces and are attacking unarmed civilians in Darfur, and North and South Kordofan, with impunity.

Far from distancing themselves from the destruction caused by the RSF, the Sudanese Government admit that it is a vital part of their campaign to eliminate what they describe as a “rebellion” or “insurgency” in the marginalised areas of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The behaviour of the Sudanese RSF has been so ruthless that several Sudanese politicians who usually in the past have supported the regime obediently have spoken out and been jailed as a consequence. At the start of the year, President Bashir warned that 2014 would witness,

“the end of all tribal and ethnic conflicts and insurgency”,

through a military campaign called the “Decisive Summer” mobilisation. He meant it, and he has pursued that objective remorselessly.

Recently, the UN Secretary-General ordered a commission of inquiry into the poor performance of UNAMID, the peacekeeping force in Darfur, following evidence that human rights abuses are extraordinarily frequent and that it is sending misleading reports to the United Nations and to the African Union. In addition, UNAMID is failing to protect vulnerable civilians, which leads to serious abuses of human rights as women who face violence and rape are denied protection, as has been the case in Darfur, and more generally in Sudan, for far too many years. Meanwhile, the Sudanese authorities continue to place daily restrictions on the activities and movements of UNAMID, other UN agencies and humanitarian aid groups.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported that Sudan is among the least free and tolerant countries on earth, ranking it with Iran, North Korea, Burma and Saudi Arabia. Freedom House gives Sudan its worst ranking, as does Transparency International. None of this augurs well for a genuine national dialogue. For these reasons, the UK must surely not fund any part of the forthcoming 2015 election process due to take place in Sudan, because there is absolutely no basis for us to believe that those elections will be free, fair or credible.

Meanwhile, the Doha peace process has stalled, lacking credibility in the eyes of many in Darfur. The UK has invested time and effort in Doha, but most civil society groups are calling for a more comprehensive dialogue that includes all marginalised areas, considers devolution of power to the regions and provides a fully revised constitution that guarantees the rights of minorities.

Against that background, I must ask the Minister what the UK’s position is on demands being made by civil society organisations. Is she aware that 60 of Sudan’s laws violate its own constitution? Will the Minister assure the House that the UK is strongly pressing Sudan to respect the many international and regional conventions and treaties it has signed guaranteeing the human rights of its citizens irrespective of ethnic background or faith?

My final point relates to the engagement of the UK in the negotiations taking place on dropping Sudan’s external debts. Will the Minister confirm that UK officials participated in the technical working group on Sudan’s external debt, which met most recently in Washington in April? Will she agree that, as long as these talks go on, Sudan will have no pressing reason to respect its obligations under international human rights law or, indeed, its own promises to the African Union and the UN? Surely the Minister will recognise and agree that UK actions count for much more than our occasional words of condemnation of the regime in Khartoum.

It is almost 10 years since the UN Security Council first reported the situation in Darfur to the chief prosecutor of the ICC. Last month, the ICC urged the Security Council to support efforts to ensure that the individuals indicted in war crimes cases in Sudan’s Darfur region are delivered to The Hague for prosecution. What has been the Government’s and the Security Council’s reaction to this ICC demand for urgent support at this time? Does the Minister agree with the chief prosecutor that there has now to be a dramatic shift in the council’s approach to arresting Darfur suspects? Is it not starkly clear that the regime in Khartoum will change only when our pressure includes the enforcement of outstanding Security Council resolutions imposing targeted smart sanctions on the architects of the continuing suffering and misery of the people of Sudan? If we delay, they prevail—and millions suffer horrifically.