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 خطاب الى وزير الخارجية البريطانى .. أنسخ .. أطبع ... صور
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مشروع خطاب لوزير الخارجية تداولته بعض منظمات حقوق الانسان
DRAFT LETER
TO WILLIAM HAGUE, UK FOREIGN SECRETARY, TO BE SIGNED BY SUDANESE WOMEN16 December 2010
Dear Foreign Secretary,
We write to express our concern and request urgent UK action with regards to the well-publicised public flogging of a young woman in Sudan and the subsequent arrest of more than 44 people protesting the flogging and calling for reform of public order laws and mechanisms.
The flogging was filmed in November in Omdurman, but has only recently been circulated on the Internet. The young woman in question is thought to have been charged under sections 154 and 155 of Sudan‟s Criminal Act 1991. These clauses are part of the broader, infamous public order regime, which can carry a flogging sentence for a variety of „immoral acts‟ which include „indecent and immoral dress‟.
On December 14th, as the video of the flogging of the young woman was circulated widely, more than 44 people, most of them women, were arrested for holding a peaceful demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice in Khartoum. Their arrest and subsequent beating is also in direct contravention of Sudan‟s Constitution and Bill of Rights, and of the various international and African conventions signed by Sudan.
Sudan‟s failure to respect basic women‟s rights came to the fore in 2009 when Lubna Hussein, a journalist working for the UN in Khartoum, was arrested along with 12 other women and sentenced to flogging for wearing trousers in public. Ten of the women arrested pleaded guilty and consequently received ten lashes and paid fines of 250 Sudanese pounds (about US $100) each. The women were tried under Article 152 of Sudan‟s criminal law, the same article used again and again to repress women‟s rights, as well as civil and political rights. Four of the women were non-Muslim from Southern Sudan (and thus exempt from imposition of Sharia law as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement) but were nonetheless flogged.
These events, disturbing though they are, are symptomatic of how the basic civil liberties and human rights enshrined in Sudanese law are increasingly infringed in Sudan. Women in particular have been targeted by the regime‟s repressive laws. It is estimated that 43,000 women have been flogged for public order offences in Khartoum state alone in 2008. The most commonly used legislation is Article152 the Criminal Act which prohibits “indecent and immoral acts.” It is broadly applied by the police and security services to stifle any freedom of expression or association, in direct contravention of Sudan‟s own Bill of Rights and Constitution. The laws disproportionally affect women and girls and are used to harass women and girls who wear trousers or knee-length skirts, who express opinions or who have reported being raped.
Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the UK still has until July 2011 to use its leverage to require Sudan to fulfil its international obligations. We respectfully urge you to call on the Sudanese government to repeal the repressive morality laws, refrain from further arrests of peaceful protesters and end the practice of flogging, which violates Article 5 of the Africa Charter of Human and People‟s rights. The international community must be prepared to demand that Sudan complies with its obligations.
As Sudanese women living in the UK we have the highest regard for this country's long and proud history of protecting human rights and civil liberties in common law. We also admire the UK's role in fighting injustice such as the slave trade, of which you have written so eloquently in your biography of William Wilberforce. We therefore urge you to hold the government of Sudan accountable for its non-compliance with the national and international statutes to which it is a party
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
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Nazar Yousif
د.محمد بابكر
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست