ECLJ Submits a Report on the Freedom of Religion in Sudan for the Universal Periodic Review

In August 2015, the ECLJ submitted to the Working Group for the 2015 UPR a Report on freedom of religion in Sudan.

The Report indicates that despite Constitutional provisions and international agreements guaranteeing freedom of religion, the Sudanese Government routinely favors Islam and persecutes Christians. These violations of human rights, deriving from laws, practices and public declarations of state officials, primarily stem from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s hardline commitment to transform Sudan into a fully Islamic and fully Arabic State in the wake of South Sudan’s secession.

Further, the ECLJ Report presents concrete examples of such severe violations produced since 2011 to present. For instance, apostasy is still punishable by death under the 1991 Penal Code and government applies Sharia law to non-Muslims, despite the 2011 UPR Working Group’s recommendations. The construction of Christian churches is forbidden, while new Muslim mosques can be freely built. The Government systematically confiscated and demolished several existing Christian churches and properties. Members of churches are forbidden to worship and police officers abusively beat them, arrest them, and fine them, charging them with “creating public disturbance” (for worshipping).

Suspected converts to Christianity are intimidated and sometimes tortured. Pastors were falsely imprisoned for their faith, kept for more than a year without any charge and permission to have contact with their respective family and defense attorney. Priests were kept detained in an unknown location and they were not permitted contact with relatives. Several young Christian women dressed in trousers and skirts were arrested as they left a church service and were charged under a law prohibiting “indecent dress”. One woman was sentenced to 20 lashes and an additional fine, because the judge felt that the clothing she wore to her trial was also indecent.

Finally, the ECLJ requests the Working Group for the 2015 UPR to confront the Sudanese Government’s severe and ongoing violations of religious liberty. It recalled that although in 2011, the Working Group recommended that Sudan abolish the criminalization of apostasy, protect religious minorities from discrimination, and cease to apply Sharia law to non-Muslims, Sudan has not heeded any of these recommendations.