A Joint Letter on Sudan’s ratification of the Convention of Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Date: January 2^nd 2020

The Honorable Prime Minister: Dr. Abdalla Hamdok

Subject: Ratification of The Convention of Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women – CEDAW

We, the women of Sudan participating in this parade, call upon you to support the rights of women and girls during the transitional period and urge you to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to spare the coming generations of women and girls falling again into the clutches of repression, hardship, injustice, terrorism and exploitation. We strongly believe that the international legal framework will provide a legislative umbrella for the protection of women, in their diverse backgrounds, and will allow them to effectively participate in public life in a way that ensures justice and equity.

We call upon our government, the government of our glorious revolution, with the hope that we can together, start to make the fundamental change that will lay the foundation for the respect of women in our country. We in the women and girls  groups and political and civic forces signed below, welcome the government’s progressive discourse, which reflects the belief in the importance of gender equity; as stated in your speech to the nation in August 2019 that, “women’s participation and role in public life is a right and not a gift.” This and other statements made by you and our esteemed Cabinet have made clear the importance of promoting women’s and girls’ rights to ensure their participation in political, cultural, social and economic space as they represent more than half of the population and play a central role in realizing peace, combating poverty and bringing about just and sustainable development.

The ratification of CEDAW will provide a legal framework that will enable Sudan to begin to address decades of repression and structural and systematic violence that women have been subjected to throughout the successive periods of national governments in Sudan, particularly during the reign of the recently overthrown ‘Al-Inqaz’ regime which sought through a systematic policy to demote the role of women in all fields and walks of life. These endeavors were manifested in the drafting of repressive laws, policies and programmes, including the objectification of women’s bodies as tools of war and political subjugation. The previous regime launched campaigns through its security forces to rape, torture, beat, displace and abuse women and girls in the streets, workplaces and private spaces. The former regime sought to legalize discrimination against girls and women in personal status courts, through the legislation of child marriage and by depriving women of the right to take decisions concerning their own lives. These policies are demonstrated in the personal status laws, in the discrimination embedded in laws pertaining to work and freedom of movement, in the policies related to citizenship and records of births and deaths, in the  health and economic policies, in the enrollment practices at the different educational and vocational training institutions, and in various other  discriminatory policies inherent in the structure of Sudanese state, which are still in force to this day.

Sudan is one of only three countries in the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW has been ratified by almost every country in the world, including countries with Muslim majorities and all of our neighboring countries, while Sudanese women are pioneering women rights across Africa.  CEDAW safeguards the rights of women and girls for generations to come and contributes to the promotion of the system of governance and the state’s commitment to equality and justice. Additionally, CEDAW guarantees political, economic, social and legal rights for women and girls, which, we – the masses of Sudanese women – agree is in alignment with our moral and cultural values as Sudanese citizens.

CC:
His Excellency the Minister of Justice, Dr. Nasredeen Abdulbari
His Excellency the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Nasreddine Mufreh