Statement in support of Sudan's women.. Justice Has Not Been Achieved Yet

Statement

15 Mar 2020

Sudan witnessed a revolution in December 2018 and succeeded in overthrowing Al Bashir's regime in April 2019. During the revolution, Sudanese women firmly and bravely stood against repression and injustice which they suffered from for decades. And amid the regime militias' efforts to break the protesters' will, many violations took place against women including the crimes committed during the dispersal of the sit-in infront of the Military HQ. Killings, injuries, rape, and systematic sexual assault against Sudanese women and WHRDs. Those crimes remind the world how Sudan's women have been subjected to rape for years such as the crimes that were committed in Darfour and left the survivors with deep traumas yet they have not stopped their activism and struggle towards freedom and change.

With the new phase of democratic transition in Sudan, the Sudanese feminist movement and WHRDs worked on achieving gains for women and insisting on delivering justice to women victims and survivors of those sexual crimes and violations. In addition, they confronted the systematic violence against women that is socially accepted and accompanied by women blaming. Those confrontations were manifested in proposing mechanisms and plans countering those crimes and improving women's situation generally. Thus, the Sudanese feminist movement, like other feminist ones, is facing many challenges and obstacles and we have to support them and their efforts and stand beside them to achieve better reality to Sudan's women.

In a country that wtinessed crimes of rape and systematic sexual assaults against women, and has a record of violence against them, controlling their personal freedoms and their ability to move and even prosecute them sometimes for practicing their very basic rights or for protecting themselves from violence, it is certain that history did not only leave traumas for the survivors, but it also left a societal environment that witnessed such violence and reacted to it, which propose a threat that is a return of different forms of violence against women whether from society members or State actors.

Sudanese women deserve mechanisms and legislations for bringing those involved in violence crimes against them to be held accountable, through impartial and just accountability committees that are gender-sensitive. They deserve the right to be protected in the Constitution and legislations that supports women rights and bind all parties to protect them from violence both in the public and private spheres. Moreover, to work on guaranteeing and enforcing those laws through means that fulfill its objectives and guarantee women's safety and their access to justice.

Nazra pays tribute to Sudanese women's struggles, and to the Sudanese feminist movement and WHRDs. All the support and solidarity to you.

Permalinkhttp://nazra.org/en/node/684