Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1994, publiée 81ème session CIT (1994)

The Committee notes the report of the Government submitted during the 1993 Conference. It also notes the information provided by the Government to the Conference Committee in 1993 and the discussion which took place in the Committee.

In previous comments the Committee took note of several documents of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities referring to allegations of slavery practices (in particular documents E/CN.4/Sub/AC2/1988/7/Add.1; E/CN.4/Sub.2/1988/32; E/CN.4/1992/55).

The Committee noted that under section 163 of the 1991 Criminal Act, "whoever commits forced labour on any person by unlawfully compelling him to work against his will shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or with a fine or with both". The Committee also noted the statement of the Government representative to the Conference Committee in 1992 that all Sudanese were totally free and had equal rights and duties, that the law prohibited any form of exercise of the slave trade and that he did not feel obliged to provide any information since no allegations had ever been brought to a tribunal and that such practices did not exist in the first place.

The Committee further noted that in a document submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Anti-Slavery International referred to continued allegations of forced labour in relation not only to the Dinka populations but also to the Nuba and that in its report of January 1993 the Committee on the Rights of the Child had expressed its concern regarding the issues of forced labour and slavery and had requested additional information on these concerns (document CRC/C19, 2 March 1993).

The Committee requested the Government to provide detailed information on measures taken to ensure the practical application of Article 25 of the Convention.

The Committee notes the indications by the Government to the Conference Committee, as well as in its report, that the problems raised were related to conflicts of a tribal nature, such as conflicts over water sources and pasture, and had increased as a result of drought and desertification. Such conflicts were resolved through conciliation councils headed by wise men and tribal chiefs, operating according to customs and whose decisions were enforceable. The nature of the rules of customary law did not permit the establishment of precedents corresponding to those of an ordinary tribunal or court, which made it difficult to gather information. As concerned ordinary courts the Attorney General had advised that no case of this nature existed as shown from their records. A committee responsible for investigating the allegations referred to had made several visits to the region involved without noticing any evidence of the truth of the allegations.

The Committee notes that in its written reply to the preliminary observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child the Government likewise states that "situations which are completely different from slavery have been wrongly depicted as enslavement. In reality however they involve tribal disputes and arguments over pasture and water resources in some areas where there is an overlap between tribes. As a result each tribe involved in the dispute captures members of the tribe or tribes while waiting for the conflict to be settled according to tribal conditions and customs" (CRC/C/3/Add.20).

In its report the Government rejects all allegations of forced labour as unfounded and not corroborated by reliable sources or precise data, identity and residence of the persons concerned.

The Committee has also taken note of the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, who visited the country in September and December 1993. (Commission on Human Rights, 50th session, 1994; document E/CN.4/1994/48 of 1 February 1994). In the report the Special Rapporteur, referring to slavery, servitude, slave trade, forced labour, and similar institutions and practices, declares that reports and eye-witness accounts reveal a great deal of consistency with regard to the circumstances of abduction, the locations of destination, the names of locations, where children and women are said to be kept in special camps, and where people from the Northern Sudan, or even from abroad, reportedly come to buy some of these people. The report refers for instance to the case of an abducted boy forced to work on a farm guarded by armed men. Sale or traffic of children seems to be an organized and politically motivated activity of mass character, on the level of non-regular armed forces, like the Popular Defence Forces and contingents of Mujahedin in the conflict zones in southern Kordofan and Bahr Al-Ghazal. The Special Rapporteur has received persistent reports and testimonies of abductions of children such as the abduction in summer 1993 of some 217 children, mainly Dinka. The report refers to the fear of the population that these children have been sold as slaves in Darfur and northern Kordofan and states that the Government has taken no measure to investigate this case either at federal or at local level. Taking into consideration the oral and written testimonies received, the Special Rapporteur considers that the explanations of the Government are not satisfactory.

The Committee further notes the indications in the report that in September 1992 the authorities in Khartoum State launched a campaign of "cleaning" the city of vagrant children, considered as a threat to public order. It is reported that children are collected in a systematic way from all over the city and in some locations of the State, and taken to camps. While the authorities claim that children receive vocational training, the Special Rapporteur concludes that the fear is well-founded that the practice of collecting up street children is in fact mostly a case of arbitrary arrest and detention without due process of law. The treatment in the camps is very harsh. The purpose of the vocational training is in fact rigid disciplining of the children, in majority southerners, mainly from Dinka, Shilluk and Nuer tribes, or from families displaced from the Nuba mountains. Non-governmental sources told the Special Rapporteur that a large number of children were receiving military training and sent to the front.

The Committee recalls that Article 25 of the Convention requires that the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour be punishable as a penal offence, and moreover makes it an obligation on any Member ratifying the Convention to ensure that penalties imposed by law are really adequate and are strictly enforced.

The Committee requests the Government to provide full information on measures taken or envisaged to ensure the practical application of Article 25 of the Convention, and on measures taken to protect the Dinka and Nuba populations against practices contrary to the Convention.

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1994.]