Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Sudan (Ratification: 1957)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Sudan (Ratification: 2021)

1. The Committee notes the discussion which took place in the Conference Committee in June 1997, and that the Conference Committee decided to include this case in a special paragraph in its report, and to mention it as a case of continued failure to implement a ratified Convention. The Committee also notes the detailed report which the Government has submitted following this discussion. The Committee notes in addition the Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the situation in Sudan to the Commission on Human Rights at its 53rd Session (March 1997, UN document E/CN.4/1997/58), and resolution 1997/59 adopted by the Commission at that session. Finally, the Committee notes that a communication was received from the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) on 23 October 1997, and sent to the Government on 17 November 1997 for any comments it might wish to make. (This supplements the 1996 WCL comments referred to in the previous observation, a reply to which was included in the Government's report.)

Information before the Committee

2. The Committee has been referring for several years to allegations of the continued existence of slavery and slave-like practices, both in the areas under government control and in areas in the south of the country where an armed conflict is under way. Based on the information supplied by the UN Special Rapporteur, and on a great deal of independently generated information which has been forwarded by the WCL and discussed in the Commission on Human Rights and its subsidiary bodies, the Committee referred in its previous observation to "long-standing accusations of widespread illegal imposition of forced labour, tolerated or encouraged by the Government (which) have been made by the Special Rapporteur and flatly rejected by the Government". The Committee stated that it was "deeply concerned that the Government has not lived up to its renewed undertaking to "make all possible efforts to stop forced labour practices whenever it is established that they exist".

3. The information before the Committee includes detailed allegations that the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) which are allied with the Government, have conducted abductions and engaged in trafficking of women and children, in the context of the civil war in the southern part of the country; the allegations indicate that these actions are sometimes also taken by officers of the government forces. There are allegations of sexual abuse against women and child slaves. The Government itself indicates in its most recent report, as it has previously, that there are large-scale abductions carried out by the rebel forces over which it has no control, and the forcible abductions of these children into their armed forces or compulsion to act as porters for the ammunition and supplies of the rebels (see below). These allegations are placed in a general context in which, as the UN Special Rapporteur has stated, "the whole range of human rights recognized by the United Nations has continuously been violated by agents of the Government of Sudan or individuals publicly affiliated and working with it" and that "Members of different parties to the conflict in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, other than the Government of Sudan and those affiliated with it, have committed a series of abuses and atrocities against the life, liberty and personal security of Sudanese citizens in the areas under their control."

4. The report "Slavery in Sudan" published by Anti-Slavery International (May 1997) and communicated by the WCL, states that the main takers of slaves are government-armed militias from the Rezigat and Mesriya people from the neighbouring regions of Kordofan and Darfur and that other members of the PDF and some regular army officers are involved. It states that typically slaves are captured in raids by these forces on villages, and the captured slaves are then sold or bartered to smallholders who typically keep only a few slaves. It is stated that several thousand slaves are held in this fashion, but specifies that it has no indications that there is a large organized market for slaves.

The Government's report

5. The Government states in its most recent report, supplementing its communication to the Conference Committee, that a Special Investigating Commission was established by the Ministry of Justice by an Order of 4 February 1996 to investigate cases of forced and involuntary disappearance, which it states amount to 249 cases. On 5 March 1996, Decree No. 2 expanded its mandate so as to conduct investigations on cases of slavery, servitude, slave trade and similar practices; and on 21 May 1996 Decree No. 3 extended its composition to include non-governmental delegates and to entrust its presidency to the President of the Sudanese Body for Human Rights, an NGO. The report, received in September 1997, provides details of three field inspections carried out between July 1996 and January 1997, lasting from four to ten days each. The Commission also employed other methods to gather information, including advertising its availability to receive information and soliciting information from citizens. The Government states that the Commission made the following findings:

(a) Nuba mountain area:allegations of slavery and slave trading, including employing Nubian children as domestic servants of officers, and employing Nubian slaves in farms owned by those close to the Government. The Commission obtained no information which confirmed the existence of any such practices. Where there are Nubian servants, all are said to be registered employees and receive salaries. There was no information on any state or private farms in which Nubians are forced to work.

(b) Bahr el Djebel and Jungali governorate:allegations of abduction of a large number of children by forces allied to the Government from villages near the Babunasa-Wau railway in 1993, and the transfer of 27 students from this area to the El Gezira governorate in May 1996. The Commission found that the students had been transferred voluntarily for educational purposes, with the consent of their parents and under the supervision of the authorities. As for the allegations of abducted children, the Commission received no complaints from citizens, and received testimony that refuted the allegations.

6. The Government states that the problems which do occur are not related to slavery as such but rather, as it has indicated previously, result from disputes between the nomadic tribes in western Sudan and southern Kordofan, and more precisely between them and the Dinka tribe in Bahr Al-Gazal, over grazing land and water resources. It has previously indicated that there are, in such cases, instances of hostage-taking in local conflicts which do not constitute slavery. It adds that rebel groups are responsible for the disappearance of children because they abduct them and force them to join the rebel army, and sometimes children disappear temporarily because they are forced to transport the ammunition of rebel groups. The Government states that while this is not its responsibility because these areas are outside its control, it has taken many initiatives to end the civil war, and in April 1997 signed a peace treaty with some of the tribes concerned, which contains various human rights guarantees.

The Committee's comments

7. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government, and the information received from the WCL and otherwise on the kinds of forced labour and slavery practised in the country. It notes also that the Government has requested the technical assistance of the Office, following the suggestion to that effect made by the Conference Committee in June 1997, but that the assistance requested was the provision of vehicles to assist the Investigating Commission; the Office replied that other forms of assistance were envisaged, but that the kind of help requested would not be excluded in the context of a broader agreement for assistance.

8. The Committee is concerned to note the serious contradictions between the findings of the UN Special Rapporteur, several reputable non-governmental organizations, supported by submissions from the World Confederation of Labour, and the Government's own findings through the Special Investigating Commission. The finding that there are no problems of forced or compulsory labour anywhere in the part of the country controlled by the Government, is profoundly inconsistent with the other sources of information available. The Committee recalls the long-standing allegations of widespread illegal imposition of forced labour, tolerated or encouraged by the Government. It therefore encourages the Government to renew its investigations of the allegations made, and to provide detailed information on its findings in the next report. The Committee again requests the Government to take effective action to secure the observance of the Convention and to report on the concrete measures adopted, including information on any cases brought to justice, the number of convictions made and the penalties imposed.

9. As concerns instances of forced labour in the areas outside the Government's effective control, the Committee notes the information supplied concerning efforts to arrive at a peaceful settlement of the present civil war. It hopes that this will shortly come about, and that immediate and effective measures will also be taken in those areas as soon as the Government is able to do so, to apply its obligations under the present Convention.