UN human rights review of Sudan

On 4th May 2016, representatives of the government of #Sudan will attend a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva to discuss the human rights situation in Sudan. For a few hours, diplomats from UN Member States will ask the Government of Sudan questions about its human rights record and make recommendations on steps Sudan should take to improve the protection of human rights. Sudan will be assessed for its compliance with commitments it has already made under international human rights law. Sudan will have to then go on public record to say whether or not it accepts the recommendations made.

This is called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council. The human rights record of each country in the world is reviewed in this way every four years. This year is Sudan’s turn, during the 25^th Session of the UPR (#UPR25).

What do we want to achieve?

• Draw as much attention as possible to the human rights situation in Sudan to make sure Sudan is on the minds of UN diplomats in the run-up to the human rights review

• Ensure that strong and specific recommendations are made by UN Member states to the Government of Sudan on key human rights issues on 4^th May

• Create as much publicity as possible about the recommendations made to Sudan on 4^th May to hold the Government of Sudan accountable to them

Join our campaign!

Join our coalition of Sudanese activists and Sudanese and international human rights groups that have come together to tell UN member states attending the 25^th Session of the UPR (UPR25) that #Sudan must improve its human rights record in a number of vital areas.

For 10 days from 25th April to 4th May 2016 we will be tweeting about key human rights concerns in Sudan using the hashtags #Sudan and #UPR25.

Over 10 days, we will be tweeting about a range of important human rights concerns in Sudan including torture, arbitrary detention, freedom of expression, association and assembly, women’s rights, freedom of religion, attacks on civilians in conflict zones and access to justice.

What can I do?

• Follow the hashtags #UPR25 and #Sudan from 25 April – 4 May for campaign information and updates. We will be sharing lots of information about key human rights concerns and suggested recommendations for states to make to Sudan during the review

• Re-tweet campaign messages about key human rights concerns in Sudan regularly and encourage others to tweet them too

• Engage in the conversation by sharing your key concerns for Sudan’s human rights review using the hashtags #UPR25 and #Sudan

This is our opportunity to encourage UN Member States to speak out on human rights violations in Sudan and hold the Government of Sudan to account for the commitments it makes on public record.

Don’t forget to use the hashtags: #Sudan and #UPR25.

Key dates

• On 25 April – 4 May follow the hashtags #Sudan and #UPR25 for updates on Sudan’s human rights review and the twitter campaign
• On 4 May the Sudan review will take place at 9:00am -12:30pm in Geneva / 8am – 11.30am in Khartoum and Nairobi. You can watch a live stream review during this time online at: webtv.un.org
• Watch out for tweets on #Sudan #UPR25 on 4 May to see the recommendations made by each UN Member State

Campaign team

The following organisations will be coordinating this campaign (with the support of many more):

• African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), Kampala: @africancentre
• International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) : @FIDH_UN
• International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) : @IntRefRights

More information about the UPR

The international NGO, UPR-Info, has published lots of useful information on the UPR process.

You can find out more about the UPR process on UPR-Info’s website here.

This post is also available in: Arabic