Thank you Madame President
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues & escalates. Barely a week after its UPR, on May 21st, the GoS led an all out military campaign on Abyei. The SAF bombed four villages, conducted ground and aerial attacks, indiscriminately shooting at civilians, displacing the entire population of the town which is estimated at 60,000 people. The army and militias looted, and then destroyed a third of the homes in Abyei.
In its presentation to the UPR working group the GoS claimed that the popular consultations in South Kordofan and Blue Nile had been completed, and that these provinces now enjoyed security, stability and development. On the contrary, the popular consultation has never started in Southern Kordofan, and has not been completed in the Blue Nile.
More than that, the GoS has once more failed to respect its agreements. For instance, immediately after signing a framework agreement in Addis Ababa to end fighting in Southern Kordofan, President Bashir made orders to the SAF to carry on its operations and not to stop at Southern Kordofan. Less than three months later, the GoS declared the war in Southern Blue Nile against SPLA-N, killing, injuring and displacing scores of civilians.
In the rest of the country, Freedom of conscience and freedom of expression is severely restricted. Newspapers closed, issues confiscated, and journalists put to trials. The independence of the judiciary is deeply compromised. The courts have been used in the systematic harassment and persecution of human rights defenders. A blatant example is the trial of 19 people accused of apostasy, as well as the ongoing trial of Human Rights defender Abdelrahman Mohammed Al-Gasim and others; a trial lacking basic guarantees for due and fair process.
The government of Sudan has thus far largely ignored its UPR recommendations, as it has ignored the recommendations of the Independent Expert and Expert Group before that. Unless Sudan begin a true process of reform, atrocities and grave human rights violations are likely to continue, endangering the fragile peace process in place.
Thank you Madame President
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