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Sudan has received a special paragraph from the ILO Committee on
the Application of Standards (Conference Committee) for non-compliance
with ILO Convention No. 29 on forced labour in 1997, 1998, 2000,
2001 and 2002.
The Committee of Experts noted in its 2004 report, that evidence
before the Conference Committee in 2002 "demonstrated the persistence
of forced labour in Sudan and the inadequacy of the measures taken
by the Government to combat the situation".
Despite this strong and repeated censure by the ILO's supervisory
mechanisms, abductions and forced labour remain a reality in Sudan.
Thousands of people are still awaiting release and new abductions
have taken place in both 2003 and 2004.
Abductions continue
The Government has claimed "that abductions have stopped completely"
1 . However, information compiled from various
sources provides evidence that abductions continue to be used as
part of the government forces' strategy in the civil war. In 2003,
the UN Special Rapporteur noted that government offensives from
December 2002 to February 2003 involved indiscriminate attacks on
civilians, including the abduction of women and children. The Special
Rapporteur also received reports which indicate that 667 school
pupils were forcibly recruited by government allied militias in
Unity State. 2
NGO sources confirmed that abductions continued to take place in
and around the oilfields in the Western Upper Nile and Bahr El Ghazal
regions between January and March 2003.
On 2 January 2004, at least 13 people, the majority of whom were
children, were reportedly abducted by Janjaweed militia from
Ma'un village near Kornoy, according to Amnesty International. Amnesty
International received reports of other abductions of children in
West Darfur in the weeks prior to this.
In March 2004, seven UN Special Rapporteurs along with the Secretary
General's representative on internally displaced persons issued
a joint statement expressing concern over widespread human rights
abuses, including reports of abductions, in the Darfur region of
Sudan. The UN estimates that since 2003, nearly one million people
have been displaced by fighting between the Government and its militias
and two armed opposition groups (the Sudan Liberation Army and the
Justice and Equality Movement).
In an interview on 2 April 2004, the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator,
Jan Egeland, noted that large numbers of civilians have been killed
and "scores of women and children have been abducted, raped
and tortured." The UN Co-ordinator said that the Janjaweed
militia were primarily responsible for carrying out these attacks
and that there was a consistent pattern of grave human violations
against the civilian population, which he considered to be ethnic
cleansing.
The report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Situation
of human rights in the Darfur region of the Sudan, issued on
7 May 2004, also refers to "some specific reports of abductions,
particularly by the Janjaweed". In one case an internally
displaced women alleged that her nine-month old twins had been abducted.
This information clearly shows that the raids and abductions, which
have been well documented in previous years, have continued in 2003
and 2004 and that the Government has failed to take adequate steps
to prevent them or punish those responsible. It should be stressed
that the practice of abductions and forced labour is, as underlined
by the Eminent Persons Group 3 , "the
product of a counter-insurgency strategy pursued by successive governments
in Khartoum". Furthermore, the Sudanese Government "has
failed to acknowledge its own responsibility for acts committed
by militias and other forces under its authority. The lack of judicial
control and appropriate structures of military accountability means
that militia members are able to act with impunity".
CEAWC's progress remains slow
A report by the Rift Valley Institute's (RVI) Slavery and Abduction
Project, issued in July 2003, noted that the RVI research had so
far individually identified more than 12,000 people who had been
violently abducted from Southern Sudan between 1983 and 2002. 4
Over half the abductees were under 18 when abducted and, contrary
to expectation, preliminary analysis indicated that the majority
of abductees were male.
Interviews with returnees indicate that those abducted are routinely
subjected to forced labour and other human rights abuse and RVI
confirms the conclusion of the International Eminent Persons Group
that "in a significant number of cases, abduction is the first
stage in a pattern of abuse that falls under the definition of slavery."
The RVI project estimates that over 11,000 of those abducted have
still not been accounted for.
A report published in January 2003 by Dr Ahmed El Mufti, Chairman
of the Committee for the Eradication of Adduction of Women and Children
(CEAWC), states that approximately 2,000 cases of abductions have
been documented since 1999. Of these 900 have been reunited with
their families and nearly 1,100 are either in CEAWC centres or with
hosting families. 5 The Government reported
to the ILO in October 2003 that CEAWC had retrieved and documented
a further 506 abductees in South Darfur and West Kordofan.
The identification and release of abducted women and children has
therefore been extremely slow and only a small percentage of the
total number waiting to be released has been freed. Yet, according
to the January 2003 report referred to above, CEAWC plans "to
document and reunify the remaining 11,500 cases, according to the
estimates of the Dinka Committee, within one year from availability
of funds". Given the limited progress made by CEAWC in recent
years, the assessment that CEAWC could identify and reunite more
than 11,000 cases in one year seems entirely unrealistic.
Prosecutions have not taken place
CEAWC's chairperson has the "powers normally enjoyed by the
Minister of Justice to prosecute all cases of a criminal nature".
However, CEAWC has not pursued prosecutions against those responsible
for abductions. In the 2003 document, CEAWC states it will seek
to resolve abductions through the Joint Tribal Committees, "but
on the understanding that this amicable solution will be for a specific
period of time (till the end of the year 2003 if the necessary funds
are provided) and thereafter resort will be to legal action after
having cleared the majority of cases".
Despite this commitment Anti-Slavery International is not aware
that any prosecutions have been brought to date. The US Country
Report on Human Rights Practices (released 25 February 2004)
noted that in Sudan "The Government took no action to hold
those responsible for the abductions and continued to support tribal
militias."
Anti-Slavery International does not consider that existing punishments
for the crimes of slavery and abduction are being enforced, as witnessed
by the evidence from the Eminent Persons Report that no prosecutions
have taken place in the last 16 years. Anti-Slavery International
believes that ending the impunity, which those responsible for enslaving
people or using forced labour currently enjoy, is an important factor
in ending the continuing cycle of abductions and therefore considers
that legal action should be initiated against all those responsible
for abductions and those who refuse to co-operate with CEAWC.
Challenging this kind of impunity is made particularly difficult
when the Sudanese Justice Minister himself describes accusations
that slavery is being practiced in Sudan as "baseless"
(reported by the BBC on 21 July 2003). Statements like this 6
give the impression that the Government does not regard the practice
of abductions and forced labour as a serious problem in Sudan, let
alone a priority for action.
Anti-Slavery International strongly supports the Eminent Persons
Group's conclusion that: "Denials of the existence of slavery
and rationalizations for its existence may be interpreted by some
as indifference or, worse, license to continue these abuses."
Conclusion and recommendations
It must be stressed that the Government has not publicly acknowledged
that forces under its control continue to be responsible for abductions
and forced labour. The Government has also failed to take action
to prevent further abduction taking place and has not prosecuted
those responsible for these human rights violations. In view of
this, Anti-Slavery International urges the Government of Sudan to:
- Publicly state that abductions and all associated practices
are illegal, make the appropriate legislative amendments and fully
enforce the law. Details of those prosecuted and sentences passed
should be made publicly available.
- Disarm and control the militias that have been responsible
for abductions and other human rights violations against civilians.
- Establish a mechanism under the auspices of an international
organisation, like the UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, to review on the extent to which the recommendations
made by the Eminent Persons Group have been implemented. This
mechanism should have unrestricted access to all relevant areas.
- Accept and fully implement the recommendations from the report
of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Situation of
human rights in the Darfur region of the Sudan (E/CN.4/2005/3,
7 May 2004).
1 Committee of Experts Report, 2004, p. 166.
2 In 2003, the Special Rapporteur on Sudan reported to the UN Commission
on Human Rights that "human rights abuses have not decreased
neither in the north nor in southern Sudan and the overall human
rights situation has not improved significantly." Despite this
the Commission voted in by 26 votes to 24, not to extend the mandate
of the Special Rapporteur to Sudan beyond 2003.
3 The Report of the International Eminent Persons Group (with members
from the US, UK, Italy, Norway and France), Slavery, Abduction
and Forced Servitude in Sudan was published on 22 May 2002 after
a fact finding mission to Sudan.
4 This is in line with three estimates cited in the Report of the
International Eminent Persons Group (22 May 2002), which put the
total number of people abducted at approximately 14,000.
5 Dr. Ahmed El Mufti, The Experience of the Committee for the
Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWC) - Sudan:
Gathering information, documentation, tracing and reunification
of persons abducted during armed conflicts, January 2003, p
5.
6 Another example would be the Government of Sudan's claim that
the "figures in the report of the Committee of Experts of about
5,000 - 14,000 abducted persons were extremely exaggerated and had
no resemblance to reality". ILO Committee on the Application
of Standards, June 2002.
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