Citizenship within Ethnic, Cultural Diversity
29 October, 2011
Khartoum, (sudanow.info.sd)- Participants in a workshop on citizenship under the ethnic and cultural plurality in Sudan have underlined that the citizenship must be based on the rights and duties rather than cultural, religious or ethnic affiliation.
Those participants have also stressed the need for observance of the right of the different cultural groups to retaining their cultures, languages and identities in the upcoming civil state which is considered the ideal option for overcoming the Sudan problems and protecting it from tribal conflicts.
In his paper titled ‘the citizenship under universal declaration and the national constitution and law’, which he presented at the workshop, Ustaz Mohamed al-Hafez Mahmoud spoke of the citizenship in relation to the national constitution and law and the citizenship in relation to the universal declaration.
He noted that there is an interrelation between the human rights and the citizenship rights as, according to Mahmoud, some parts of the rights conventions include the citizen in his country and, for this reason, the struggle for citizenship becomes a struggle for human rights and the citizenship rights which are generally provided for in the human rights conventions. Those conventions include the 1948 Universal Declaration and the provisions of the global pact on economic, social and cultural rights issued by the United Nations in 1966. These 15-item provisions defined the rights of individuals, as citizens, as the right to life, death penalty restrictions acts of infringement of dignity such as torture, slavery, coercion, freedom and personal safety, anti-freedom acts of arrest and aggressive apprehension, the right to litigation, the defendant right and the thought, conscience, expression and faith rights, the rights of obtaining information and peaceful assembly. The provided for rights also include the political rights and rights of the minorities to practicing their cultures, religions and languages, beside the cultural, learning and other rights. Disrespecting, restricting or disavowing any one of these rights is considered a flagrant violation of the citizenship rights, Ustaz Mahmoud said.
He pointed out that the Sudan’s 2005 Interim constitution provided for the citizenship rights, starting from its introduction which began: “WE the people of Sudan”, a phrase which underlines commitment to establishing a decentralized, plural and democratic system of rule n which power is peacefully devolved with respect to the cultural and religious diversities in Sudan. Its different paragraphs also speak on respecting and promoting the human dignity, founding the state on principles of justice, equality, promotion of human rights and freedoms and respecting religions, belief, traditions, norms, cultural and social diversities and other rights. Mahmoud indicated that the rights document concords to a reasonable extent with the standards included in the international conventions, but he noted, however, that a prominent defect in the document is the phrase “in accordance with the law” which he said makes the constitutional text subordinate to the law. He said the credibility of the constitution has been tested several times since its promulgation on July 9, 2005, with respect to the constitutional practice and enacting legislations. He cited, as an example, the legislative experience which gave birth to the national security law. Article 3/151 of the constitution stipulates that the national security service must be a professional service concerned with gathering and analyzing information and offering recommendation to the concerned authorities. But, according to the paper, ignored the constitutional provisions and gave the security service wide powers of seizure and arrest for up to three months away from effective judicial or quasi-judicial control. This, Mahmoud said, undermines all constitutional guarantees against impairing personal freedom and its due requirements. He cited another example related to the press freedom and the relevant pre-print censorship and harassing the newspapers and journalists just for vicig a view-point or criticizing the policy of the state.
The researcher posed questions on the origin of the flaws and identifying the remedy. He said the crisis exists in all legal aspects in Sudan, including the legislation, the judiciary, the prosecution, the police as well as other official organs of the state. With respect to the remedy, Mahmoud referred to the rule of law which he does not only mean abidance by its provisions but implies its supremacy over the state and this should be placed under a judicial control exercised by a judiciary that is independent of totalitarian ideologies.
The paper indicated that citizenship will meaningless if it is not practiced on the ground because it is the practice that will bestow on it a recognized value.
In her paper on the citizenship interrelation with the issues of gender, nationality and general concept of citizenship, Professor Bulgees Budri indicated the existence of discrimination against the woman in the laws, policies, norms and traditions, particularly the laws of nationality, personal status, higher education, traveling visas and bank transactions.
The paper on the identity and citizenship in Sudan that was presented by Dr. Al-Bagir Afif focused on the constitutional rights in a diverse community and recalled minutes of the Constituent Assembly in which MPs Mussa al-Mubarak and Philip Abbas Ghaboush asked the technical committee for formulating the an Islamic constitution whether a non-Muslim has the right to become president of the republic. Dr. Hassan al-Turabi answered that a non-Muslim has no right to become a president. Ghaboush was the first resistance to an attempt by Turabi and hi group to lay down an Islamic constitution.
Dr. Afif said that, 20 years later, Turabi managed to establish an Islamic state through other means. In this Islamic state the citizenship issue was contested by two groups – one striving to formulate an Islamic constitution and the other, made up of non-Muslims, striving to retain their rights.
The paper reviewed the historic religious diversities in Sudan since the Christian petty states and then touched on the appearance of rival Islamic organizations, some imported from Egypt and others of indigenous roots.
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