Participants of the Civil Society Forum held in in Addis Ababa from 20 to 22 January have called for an immediate end to the human rights violations and the suffering of civilians in Sudan and South Sudan. Their resolutions will be presented before the African Union’s assembly on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver 100 civil society activists and ambassadors from Sudan, South Sudan, and the rest of the world, attended the third session in Ethiopia\u201d, the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre said in a press statement last week. The three-day forum consisted of panel discussions and presentations on the various problems in Sudan and South Sudan.<\/p>\n
At the end, ten resolutions were adopted, to be presented before the African Union’s (AU) assembly of heads of governments on 30 and 31 January.<\/p>\n
The participants of the Forum made, among other, resolutions on the situations in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile and the \u201cgrave violations of human rights\u201d in these areas. Regarding Darfur, they particularly cited \u201csystematic attacks on civilians\u201d and villages, \u201cand abuses against internally displaced people\u201d. As for South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the participants are deeply concerned about the \u201cindiscriminate aerial bombardments in civilian areas, and massive displacement\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Forum participants are \u201cutterly outraged by reports of widespread rape\u201d against women as a means of warfare in Darfur, and the fact that women in Sudan face discriminatory laws. They condemn the reports of sexual violence \u201ccommitted by Border Guards and Central Reserve Police (Abu Tira)\u201d.<\/p>\n
They are furthermore alarmed by the deteriorating situation of fundamental freedoms in both countries, in particular by \u201cthe reports of forced disappearances and ill-treatment of detained activists\u201d.<\/p>\n
The resolutions from the Civil Society Forum participants, also on the situation of refugees and internally displaced people in both Sudans, call upon the upcoming AU assembly to put pressure on Sudan and South Sudan to halt human rights violations.<\/p>\n
File photo: Conference Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (UN)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n