Human Rights and Religious Minorities: Sudan

Kirsten Oswald Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Westminster Hall

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Robert. I am grateful to the previous contributors to this debate on an important topic. I am glad to be a member of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief, because it helps to break things down into the fundamentals. People’s right to worship as they see fit, and to participate in religion, or no religion, as they wish, are fundamental human rights, so it is important that we shine a light on what is happening in Sudan. I appreciate the briefing information that has winged its way to me, and, I am sure, to other colleagues, from groups such as Open Doors, which does extremely important work to ensure continued awareness of the plight of Christians and other religious minorities worldwide. It is worth putting on record the work that Open Doors and others do.

The situation in Sudan is complex, and has arisen from the complex history of freedom of religion or belief, and violations of it, in that area of the world. There is a history of tensions and challenges between different groups, and this situation clearly demonstrates that those tensions have not gone away. Between April 2019 and October 2021, the transitional Government took significant steps to improve freedom of religion or belief in Sudan, but a lot of that progress has been rolled back and has dissipated since the military coup in October 2021. We might see some small positives, but we must be realistic: the overall picture is not positive, and we should focus on that. For instance, it is understood that by September 2022, at least 117 people had been killed and nearly 6,000 injured by state security forces. We therefore need to monitor things closely. It is important to be aware, so that we can try to take steps to prevent future atrocities.

There is no doubt that in the past two years, there have been significant increases in attacks targeting religious minorities. Let me go into that in a little detail, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) did so eloquently. The dominant religion in Sudan is Sunni Islam. All other religious groups face significant restrictions on the practice of their faith. The largest minority religions are Christianity and Shi’a Islam. There is widespread discrimination against both those groups, and it has escalated over the past couple of years. People find it challenging to practise their faith, including people in the very small Jewish community, which has faced serious challenges, as we have heard, and hate speech. That includes hate speech broadcast on state television, which is deeply concerning. The Baha’i community is not recognised at all. As a small, minority religion, it is put in a difficult position. There are also challenges to do with security forces unlawfully detaining or forcibly disappearing people, and committing violence against those who are perceived to be active in any protest on the issue.

Obviously, we can consider the situation pre and post- coup. The hon. Member for Strangford set out pretty clearly that post-coup, about a third of the population needs humanitarian assistance; that is a pretty stark. It is absolutely vital that we think carefully about UK aid. What is the situation with UK aid? Is it doing what it needs to? Plainly, the answer is no.

The state of emergency was lifted in May 2022, but that does not mean that problems have been fixed. We must be clear about that. Regrettably, the abuses that justified the state of emergency continue. That includes the arbitrary arrest of protesters.

The situation of women and girls is of deep concern to me. The hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) spoke about that, as I was sure she would. It should be of deep and significant concern to us all. Some groups are doubly marginalised. Women and girls in Sudan fall into that category, particularly Christian women and girls and those who are converts. They are vulnerable to rape, forced marriage and domestic violence. There are reports of extremists kidnapping Sudanese girls for marriage or sexual slavery. Inside the home, converts have been isolated to reduce the family’s embarrassment and worry about the consequences. The hon. Member for Strangford spoke forcefully about the fact that women are second-class citizens. That should be of deep concern to us all.

Church leaders are particularly targeted and endangered. There are reports of drugs being falsely planted on them. Christian men and boys are vulnerable to beatings or worse. People may be shunned or face intense persecution in the workplace. Whatever angle one looks at it from, the situation is of grave concern. The hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier) hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that the problem is not just on the ground; it is being encouraged and driven by online and social media activity as well. It is not a straightforward situation, which makes it all the more important that we make ourselves as aware of it as possible, so that we can act.

Plainly, things are moving in the wrong direction. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Darfur, the situation in that area of the world is still deeply concerning. The hon. Member for Congleton was sensible in her focus on the work that should and can be done with civil society and NGOs. I am keen to hear from the Minister on that. It would be helpful to hear what more the UK Government intend to do to engage with others in the international community on freedom of religion and belief in Sudan. There is a responsibility to play a full part in promoting inter-community peace and establishing a more stable situation. The UK aid situation should be focused on. Aid to Sudan in 2021 was cut by 74%. We have talked about the profoundly difficult situation on the ground. It is very difficult to justify that statistic in the context of what is happening there.

The final thing I want to hear from the Minister on is atrocity prevention. All this comes back to our worries about people’s wellbeing and continued ability to live freely in Sudan. An atrocity prevention strategy becomes all the more pressing in the light of that. I am keen to hear what the Minister has to say.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Robert. I congratulate the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing the debate. That is a phrase heard quite frequently in Westminster Hall these days. It is a pity that there is not more interest in Westminster Hall. I am not entirely sure what is going on; perhaps some colleagues who were elected in 2019, from all parts of the House, do not realise the value of these debates and the opportunity that they present to hold Ministers to account and raise issues that are of importance to constituents. I certainly regularly hear from constituents in Glasgow North about the importance of freedom of religion and belief, and protection of human rights around the world. The hon. Gentleman has given us a very important opportunity to shine a light on the situation in Sudan.

Like my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald), I thank the many organisations that provided briefings and background information for the debate, both for that and for their ongoing work protecting and defending human rights, particularly the rights of those persecuted for their religion or belief in Sudan and around the world. Those organisations include Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Waging Peace and Open Doors. We should acknowledge the excellent work that the Library has done for us on this topic. I also thank our teams, and the team that supports the APPG; the hon. Member for Strangford deserves recognition, too.

As others have said, in 2011, when South Sudan gained its independence, there was much hope that in Sudan and South Sudan there would be a new era of peace, perhaps even leading to prosperity, but instead the cycle of violence and instability continues. South Sudan now ranks 191st out of the 191 countries that the UN is able to rank in its Human Development Index. The Republic of the Sudan is only slightly further up, at 172. As all Members have said, the situation continues to deteriorate.

The coup in 2021 was followed by the detention of several civilian Government officials, including the then Prime Minister. It was met with large-scale, pro-democracy, anti-military demonstrations, but they were repressed on a scale that led to scores of deaths and thousands of injuries among civilians. It is not dissimilar to what we are seeing play out right now in Iran and even, to some extent, Afghanistan. The Sudanese security forces are accused of unlawfully detaining, forcibly disappearing, and committing sexual and gender-based violence against individuals who are perceived to have been active in that protest movement.

Although the state of emergency that followed the coup was lifted in May 2022, abuses that had been justified under it have continued, including regular arbitrary arrests of protesters. In December, an agreement was entered into by the pro-democracy side and the country’s top miliary leaders, but progress still needs to be made. Even though the general principles for the formation of a transitional institution and the promotion of freedom and rights have been outlined, there is no clear timeframe and no benchmarks for reform of the justice and security sector.

Amidst that appalling array of human rights violations and political division, the religious minorities, and indeed minorities that do not subscribe to a religious faith, have continued to suffer from discrimination. My hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire spoke powerfully about the experience of the very small Jewish minority, and she is absolutely right: all religious minorities are feeling persecution. The Christian minority is one of the largest of the minorities, at 2 million people. That is a substantial number, but they make up only 4.3% of the country’s population.

All Members have said that the impact of all this repression is that Open Doors has now relisted Sudan in the top 10 of its world watch list, after it had dropped out and progress had been made, as the hon. Members for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) and for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier) rightly said. Regrettably, it has gone backwards. Sudan now sits alongside Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen in that list. Interestingly, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya and Yemen are all countries for which the Home Office will now apparently allow refugees to fast-track their applications through the use of a questionnaire. I think that is quite telling, and I may come back to that point towards the end.

As we have heard, the persecution that religious minorities and particularly Christians are experiencing comes in many forms. Sometimes it is brutal and violent beatings and gender-based and sexual violence, as Open Doors has reported; sometimes it is what we might call oppressive or repressive—the disappearances and arbitrary detentions and imprisonment. Waging Peace gave an example of the head of a Christian youth organisation in the Gezira state who was abducted and tortured by the country’s general intelligence service, then simply dumped in an open area of land.

Sometimes it is insidious, such as the confiscation of Church properties or selling off of Church land; CSW has reported that that is something that has happened to the Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Even in the home, we hear that converts to Christianity are being shunned or ostracised by their family members—and that is to say nothing of the examples we heard from the hon. Members for Strangford and for Congleton about the state oppression of people who have chosen to convert from Islam to Christianity or another religion. Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right, as everyone in this room recognises. We must resolve to do more to ensure that that right can be exercised by everyone, including those being persecuted in Sudan.

There is much that the Government of Sudan themselves could start doing to demonstrate willingness to respect those fundamental human rights as some of their predecessor regimes have done. As the hon. Member for Strangford said, there are legitimate questions about their role and position on the UN Human Rights Council but, as the hon. Member for Congleton said, they are actually accountable through the UN Human Rights Council as well, through the universal periodic review process. Member states and parties to that process, including the UK Government, should ensure that it is effectively holding international Governments to account—just, indeed, as the UK Government are held to account through that process.

The UK Government could be doing more on their own initiative. There is widespread support, even among their own Back Benchers—not least from the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss), when she was Foreign Secretary, and the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns)—for the Government to fully commit to and properly resource an atrocity prevention strategy. As my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire said, that could focus support among embassies to be able to report and monitor the risk of atrocities in their countries, and prioritise preventative efforts that support stability and good governance in those difficult parts of the world.

Of course, all that must be resourced properly. The reality is that the impact of cuts to the aid budget is now being seen and felt in many different areas, such as this. I do not think it is good enough for the Minister to roll her eyes—that is the reality of the situation. The Conflict, Stability and Security Fund has been cut by hundreds of millions of pounds in recent years. It was supposed to be a flagship programme of the UK Government; it was going to share cross-departmental expertise and make aid work smarter and harder to prevent violence and the abuse of human rights around the world, but if the money is not there, it is all just talk and posturing. Meanwhile, it is the people in the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the world that are hit the hardest.

If the Government do not want people to come here on small boats, and if they do not want to spend money on asylum seekers in hotels, maybe they should spend money helping to build peace and stability in otherwise oppressive regimes, so that people do not feel the need to flee war and conflict. If Christians and other persecuted minorities in Sudan and elsewhere in the world could freely practice their religion and go about their daily lives in safety, perhaps fewer of them would find themselves so desperate that they need to seek a new life beyond those borders.

[Kirsten Oswald]

It is a point worth making that we have these debates about freedom of religion and belief in various countries across the world, and they are always very consensual. That is a really good thing; it is a really important subject, and I am glad that we tend to agree largely, but we cannot get away from some of the factors that have an influence on that. It is right and proper that my hon. Friend raises that, and I hope the Minister is able to see the connection between what he is saying and some of the difficulties that people face.

[Patrick Grady]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Last Tuesday, I met refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow as part of the Maryhill Integration Network. None of them were Albanians, and none of them were economic migrants; they were people who had come from difficult situations in Syria, Turkey and Iran, where they were in fear for their lives. They came here because there were established communities or because they respected the UK and understood that it could be a place of sanctuary for them, and the experience that they have had since coming to the United Kingdom makes them wonder whether it was worth while. Imagine thinking it would be better to go back to Iran and live in fear, rather than having to stay crammed into a hotel room with four other people in Glasgow city centre.

That takes us slightly away from the subject, but it speaks to the wider point that we all have a role to play. These debates are important as accountability mechanisms for the Government, so the Government need to show that they are committed to supporting persecuted Christians and other people of minority faiths and beliefs, or none, in Sudan and around the world.

--- Later in debate ---

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

My ministerial colleagues are always grateful to receive any such evidence to consider. We have obviously sought assurances recently from the OHCHR, but we should always feed in and continue to do all that we can to make sure that we speak with absolute certainty on what the realities are on the ground.

How nice to see you, Sir Graham.

A successful political deal returning a civilian-led transitional Government to Sudan is absolutely essential for the country to continue making progress on human rights challenges. The UK will continue to work closely with people in Sudan, and with international and regional partners together to support the Sudanese dialogue towards an agreement.

The UK will continue to use its position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to raise concerns about the fragile security situation, as the penholder on the resolution to renew the mandate for the UN integrated transition assistance mission in Sudan—UNITAMS—adopted last June. We continue to be at the forefront of those voices at the UN. At the same time, we will continue to press the authorities to protect human rights and hold those responsible for violations to account.

[Kirsten Oswald]

Can the Minister say a little more about the UN and where she sees the situation with Sudan and enforcement in the UN, given the challenges on the ground?