Sudan: Guarantee Post-Referendum Citizenship Rights

Sudan: Guarantee Post-Referendum Citizenship Rights
Parties Should Protect Minority Communities, Allay Public Fears of Mistreatment
(New York, December 16, 2010) – Sudan’s ruling political parties should
guarantee protection of national minorities and allay public fears of
discrimination following the January 9, 2011 referendum on southern succession,
Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch research in Sudan over the past month indicated that the
absence of a clear agreement on citizenship has contributed to heightened
anxiety that minority communities in both the North and the South will suffer
from mistreatment and targeted reprisals in the event of the South’s secession.
That fear is especially pronounced among the estimated 1.5 million southerners
living in northern states. The often hostile rhetoric and cross-allegations by
political parties has made an already tense situation worse, Human Rights Watch
found.
“With less than a month to the referendum vote, political parties and governing
authorities need to reassure the public that they will not expel anyone and will
fulfill their duty to protect all minorities within their jurisdiction during
and after the referendum,” said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights
Watch. “This acknowledgment will help promote a peaceful, free, and fair voting
environment.”
Human Rights Watch urged both the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the
southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), as they negotiate the terms
of future citizenship and residency, to adopt a progressive and inclusive
framework for addressing citizenship in the event of secession. Although the
parties have reportedly rejected dual citizenship, they should agree to an
arrangement whereby minority nationals living in both northern and southern
jurisdictions may choose to continue to live there with basic civil, political,
economic, social, and cultural rights on an equal footing as citizens, Human
Rights Watch said. A similar arrangement already exists between Sudan and Egypt.
“Many people displaced from Southern Sudan have lived in northern states for
decades and many northerners have lived in the South for just as long, and they
need to know they won’t be forced out,” Peligal said. “The referendum may change
the existing boundaries of Sudan, but it does not change the human rights
standards in force.”
International law prohibits mass expulsions, forced evictions, statelessness,
and discriminatory rules of citizenship. Sudan should consider becoming a party
to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, or at a minimum make a
commitment to respect the standards contained therein. Sudan is already a party
to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which
guarantees equality between citizens and non-citizens in all core human rights
recognized under international law. These guarantees will continue to exist
regardless of the referendum outcome.
Hostile Statements and Political Manipulation
In the absence of a formal agreement, the political parties have played on
public fears to further their own political agendas, Human Rights Watch found.
Officials in the ruling NCP, which is openly in favor of Sudan’s continued
unity, have made hostile statements threatening to strip southerners of their
rights should the South vote to secede.
The information minister said in September, for example, that southerners would
not receive treatment in hospitals – “not even … a needle” – in the event of
southern secession. Other party officials subsequently repeated the threats that
southerners will lose their property, residence rights, civil service jobs,
benefits, and access to social services. On December 7, the deputy head of the
party for Khartoum state, Mandour al-Mahdi, said that only southerners who are
members of the ruling party will be able to retain their citizenship rights if
the South votes to secede.
The December 15 statement of Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, delivered at
a sports tournament in Omdurman, that southern Sudanese living in northern Sudan
would be protected, regardless of the outcome of the referendum, is a positive
example of the message the parties should be giving. Human Rights Watch called
on the ruling party to go further and issue a more definitive statement, and to
continue to allay public concerns of targeted violence and mistreatment.
“The NCP should firmly and immediately denounce all threats made by its
officials, and should adopt definitive and consistent messages that reflect
Sudan’s human rights commitments,” Peligal said. “Both ruling political parties
need to refrain from any form of coercion of voters and respect their right to
participate in this historic process.”
The parties accused each other of manipulation during voter registration, from
November 15 to December 8, exacerbating the climate of suspicion and fear. Human
Rights Watch received credible reports of what appeared to be
politically-motivated arrests of several party agents in both the NCP and the
SPLM. In addition, officials from both parties pressured registrants. SPLM
officials urged southerners living in the North not to register, while officials
linked to the NCP reportedly forced thousands of southern prisoners and southern
employees in the police security forces to register to vote and retained their
registration cards. Such steps suggest efforts to control their votes.
Fears Prompting Southerners to Return
Southerners’ fears about post-referendum conditions in the North appear to have
influenced the decision of many southerners to move south in recent weeks,
particularly during the voter registration period.
“The situation is no good in Khartoum,” said one woman, who left after seven
years and decided to return to her village in Unity state. “We are beaten in the
night and we are taken to prison if we make beer,” she said, referring to
searches and arrests by public order courts, which apply discriminatory and
vaguely worded morality laws that have a disproportionate impact on womenand
southerners. “We are better off here.”
A chief in a way-station for returnees in Malakal, Upper Nile said, “I lived for
35 years in Khartoum and always faced problems there. The situation is not going
to get any better for us.”
In October the Southern Sudan government began a program to transport
southerners from northern towns to various locations in Southern Sudan.
According to UN sources, more than 55,000 southerners returned to the South in
October and November.
Many who returned also cited fears of ethnic violence in the North if the South
votes to secede. One woman who arrived to Aweil, Southern Sudan, in early
November told Human Rights Watch that she feared a repeat of the ethnic violence
that erupted in Khartoum after the SPLM leader John Garang died in 2005. “My
relatives were killed and injured after Garang died,” she said. “We are safer
here.”
Background
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement calls for a referendum on southern
self-determination on January 9, 2011, and provides for a six-month interim
period following the vote. In November the parties agreed in principle to
resolve all outstanding issues, including post-referendum arrangements according
to a framework proposed by the African Union, but they have yet to formally
agree on the details. Voter registration for the referendum began November 15
and, following a one-week extension, ended on December 8.
For more information, please contact:
In New York, Jehanne Henry (English, French): +1-212-216-1291; or
+1-917-443-2724 (mobile)
In London, Tom Porteous (English) +44-207-7713-2766; +44-73-8398-4982 (mobile);
[email protected]
In Brussels, Lotte Leicht (English, French, German, Danish): +32-2-737-1482; or
32-47-568-1708 (mobile)
In Jerusalem, Tiseke Kasambala (English): +27-79-220-5254 (mobile)