The Sudanese authorities use prolonged incommunicado detention as a tool of repression to create a climate of fear and to crush political opposition. Under Article 31 of the 1999 National Security Forces Act, the security forces can “preventively” detain people suspected of “crimes against the State” incommunicado without charge or trial and without access to judicial review for up to nine months. This contravenes Human Rights as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights both of which Sudan is a party. This document reports briefly on those who have been arbitrarily detained in incommunicado detention by security forces in Sudan .
