The Centre for Human Rights Consultancy works closely with the Sudanese Human Rights Initiative for the promotion of access to justice, legal representation, the right to a fair trial, women’s and children’s rights and the prohibition against torture in Sudan.
Researchers
Consultancy background
SHRI was founded by Mr Elshareef Ali Mohammed, an alumnus of the BCU LLM in International Human Rights, for his work on human rights in Sudan, he was the winner of the Dean’s Award in 2015, and the BCU Alumni of the Year Award in 2015. The CHR members work with SHRI to provide advice and representation in criminal cases and in providing international human rights protections for the people of Sudan.
Consultancy aims
To promote access to justice, legal representation, the right to a fair trial, women’s and children’s rights and the prohibition against torture in Sudan.
Consultancy process
For a Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human Rights and Democracy Program funded project (2014-2015), and in Development Grants in 2019-2020, we provided training in Khartoum for members of Sudan’s judiciary, prosecution and defence lawyers, and members of the media and civil society, on human rights and criminal justice issues. These projects build upon the 2014 work of SHRI and the CHR in helping save Meriam Ibrahim from the conviction of the crimes of sexual immortality and apostasy, and the resultant ordered punishment of 100 lashes and then the death penalty.
In a key project case in December 2015, SHRI worked with the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), to represent a group of 27 people charged with apostasy under article 126 of the Sudanese Penal Code (1991), and they faced the prospect of the death penalty. SHRI and ACJPS successfully argued the case and the charges were dropped by the Ministry of Justice in Sudan. See the ACJPS and SHRI Press Release.
In March 2016, we worked with SHRI on the submission of the stakeholder reports for Sudan in the UPR. During the presession of the 25th Session of the UPR in Geneva, March 2016 we worked with UPRinfo, the International Federation for Human Rights, and ACJPS, in forming a cross-regional statement bringing to the attention of the presession the actions of the governmental prevented civil society organisations from attending.
The actions of the Sudanese government were noted by the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, in his report, Human Rights Council, 33rd Session, 14 August 2016.
In March 2021, the UPR Project at BCU and Sudanese Human Rights Initiative submitted a joint report to Sudan’s third cycle UPR. This Stakeholder Report focused on four themes: (1) capital punishment; (2) unlawful detention and torture; (3) freedom of religion or belief; and, (4) impunity for state actors. We made specific recommendations on these key human rights issues and our report was cited by the OHCHR in its summary stakeholder report. You can view our submission here.