by Kace | Dec 20, 2020 | Articles
His excellency Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, Chairperson of the IGAD,
CC. Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu, CC. Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed
Dec. 16, 2020
Your Excellency,
We, in the Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum (HOA-SCF), write to you with great concern regarding the crisis in Ethiopia. We value and support your attempt, as the chair of IGAD, to mediate between the Ethiopian Federal Government (EFG) and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). However, we are saddened and extremely disappointed that Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, rejected the offer for mediation and opted for a military solution.
We commend the Sudanese Government, under your leadership, for its efforts in receiving and hosting more than forty-six thousand Ethiopian refugees, with more continuing to arrive, despite the economic constraints and the challenges of the recent flood. We urge the international community to support the humanitarian efforts of your Government in responding to the humanitarian emergency and protecting the refugees.
On the 28th of November 2020, the Ethiopian Federal Government (EFG) declared that the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle, was under the full control of the Federal capital, marking the completion of its military law-and-order campaign. The Ethiopian Government has also designated the TPLF as a terrorist organization.
In addition to instituting a military solution, the Ethiopian government has been arresting and harassing journalists and human rights activists reporting on the humanitarian crisis, and effectively rapidly shrinking the Civil Society space of Ethiopia, as well as ignoring court bail orders, an alarming and dangerous development. This is especially disheartening given the wide steps Ethiopia has taken in the recent past, via changes to the laws and added governmental support, to expand the Civil Society space.
We are troubled by the fact that the Ethiopian Government’s law and order campaign is becoming increasingly ethnicized, targeting Tigrayans not only in Ethiopia, but also in neighboring country including those serving in peace keeping missions in Somalia and South Sudan.
We are disturbed by the shutdown of media and internet access to the Tigray region and the restriction of access to any independent media.
We are distressed at the report that 100,000 Eritrean refugees are running out of food and that thousands have been forcibly deported to Eritrea.
We are pleased that PM Abiy has, on the 30th of November, received the AU delegation of former Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; Joachim Chissano of Mozambique and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa. We are, however, extremely disappointed that the delegation was not allowed to travel to Tigray or meet with the TPLF leaders.
We are horrified by the killing in Mai Kadra and are appalled by the fact that killings are ongoing and that there is no possibility to follow up and verify.
We note the announcement by the UN on December 2, 2020, confirming that the Ethiopian Government has agreed to a humanitarian corridor to those parts of Tigray that are under its control. This is a positive step that should be expanded to all parts of the country.
We are concerned that irrespective of the Ethiopian Government’s assertions, fighting continues in Tigray, and that it is transforming into guerrilla warfare as the TPLF leaders vowed to continue the struggle.
With all this in mind and taking into consideration the history of protracted conflicts in the Horn of Africa, we have every reason to be extremely concerned as to the future stability of the region.
We note that from the 30th of November to the 2nd of December 2020 the IGAD Peace and Security Division concluded an annual meeting with member states. We hope that the opportunity of this meeting was used to engage the Ethiopian Government further on ‘stopping the guns’ in Tigray Region and engage in dialogue.
We appeal to you, as the chair of the IGAD, not to be discouraged by PM Abiy’s refusal to engage in mediation, and to use all efforts and all diplomatic avenues to bring all parties of this conflict to the negotiating table as has been done in South Sudan and Somalia.
IGAD’s peace and security mandate, and the IGAD strategy for peace and security require that maximum effort must be exerted to ensure any breakout violence in the region is immediately mediated.
We urge your effort as Chair of IGAD, and IGAD to take action in:
● Achieving a cease fire;
● An Agreement by the parties to this conflict to negotiate in good faith;
● A Humanitarian corridor accessing all Tigray region; will ensure regional stability
promote cooperation, development, and economic integration.
We urge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to accept IGAD as the mediator. We remind the PM of his great work when he, as the IGAD Chair, mediated the talks between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the Forces of Freedom and Changes (FFC) in Sudan. In the same spirit in which the Sudanese parties accepted his mediation, we urge PM Abiy the Ethiopian parties to accept your mediation as Chair of IGAD.
Albaqir A Mukhtar (PhD)
Chairperson of the Forum
by Kace | Nov 26, 2020 | غير مصنف
بقلم: ريم شوكت
لا تزال سيدة شابة مسجونة في سجن النساء بأم درمان لقتل صديقها السابق. كانت الجريمة مع سبق الإصرار والترصد ورأت أنها الملاذ الأخير لها بعد شهور من الابتزاز. التقط الصديق صورًا تدينها دون موافقتها خلال الوقت الحميم الذي أمضاه معًا. مرارًا وتكرارًا ، كان يرسل لها الصور ويبتز المال. مع العلم أن عائلتها ستدمر إذا تم تسريب الصور ، واصلت دفع الأصول وبيعها حيث ظل يطلب المزيد من المال. وقع القتل بعد أن باعت قطعة أرض ورثتها عن والدتها.
بيلي Belsey، وهو من المدافعين البارزين عن البلطجة والتسلط عبر الإنترنت، الذي يعرف التسلط كما فعل ينطوي على “استخدام تكنولوجيا المعلومات والاتصالات لدعم المتعمد، المتكررة، وسلوك عدائي من قبل فرد أو مجموعة التي تهدف إلى إلحاق الأذى بالآخرين”.
وفي العصر الرقمي ، قد يعني هذا كل شيء بدءًا من مشاركة المحادثات والمعلومات التي يتم مشاركتها بشكل خاص في الرسائل النصية والصور ورسائل البريد الإلكتروني وإتاحتها للجمهور دون موافقة الطرف الآخر ، إلى المطاردة الإلكترونية أو ابتزاز شخص ما بسبب البيانات الخاصة التي يمكن للطرف المتسلط الوصول إليها. إنه أيضًا تحرش وانتحالعبر الإنترنت.كان
للهوية الابتزاز على البيانات الشخصية والصور التي تستهدف بشكل خاص النساء الناشطات والصريحات في مجتمعاتهن أحد الاتجاهات التي تم اكتشافها خلال البحث الذي تم إجراؤه لهذه الورقة الموجزة.
في عام 2018 ، قبل شهرين فقط من البداية للثورة في السودان ، بدأ KACE العمل في مشروع مع صندوق العمل العاجل (UAF-Africa) entitled “استخدام العنف وتعبئة القلق: قمع النشاط النسوي على الإنترنت”. كجزء من المشروع ، تم عقد طاولة مستديرة وتدريب على الأمن الرقمي للتدريب وجمع المعلومات حول التنمر الإلكتروني وتأثيره على المرأة السودانية.
نتيجة لذلك ، وُلدت هذه الورقة الموجزة كنتيجة للمحادثات مع العديد من الناشطات وغير الناشطات في السودان اللائي تعرضن للابتزاز والعنف عبر الإنترنت وغير الواقعي والتهديدات بالعنف الجسدي. واجهت امرأة شابة تمت مقابلتها احتمالات الزواج القسري من جانب من عائلتها وجرائم الشرف من جانب آخر بعد ظهور مقاطع فيديو حميمة سجلتها مع عشيقها السابق على الإنترنت وانتشرت على نطاق واسع.
في السنوات الأخيرة ، أصبح الإنترنت مجالًا مهمًا للغاية بالنسبة للنساء السودانيات لمشاركة آرائهن ، وبناء التضامن ، والدفاع عن قضايا مختلفة مثل إصلاح القانون ، وتبادل المعرفة والمعلومات الهامة ، وكذلك تنمية عملائهم أثناء قيامهم بإنشاء متاجر عبر الإنترنت لبيع المنتجات لتحسين سبل عيشهم. أثبتت وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي أنها أداة لا تقدر بثمن للتعبئة خلال الثورة ، كما أن دور المرأة في ثورة 2019 في السودان قد تم التنويه والإشادة به.
في السنوات الأخيرة ، انتقلت الحرب على النساء التي شُنت في المجالين العام والخاص من خلال إطار قانوني تمييزي وتطبيع لثقافة معادية للمرأة ، إلى صفحات الفيسبوك ووسائل الإعلام الأخرى.
أصبح الإنترنت معاديًا للنساء حيث تم غزو حياتهن الشخصية وتم فحص آرائهن الشخصية. عندما سعوا للحصول على الحماية القانونية ، أصبح الأمر أكثر إشكالية. على الرغم من أن السودان قد وضع قانون جرائم المعلومات لعام 2007 ، والذي يُعرف أيضًا باسم قانون الجرائم الإلكترونية ، إلا أن القانون لا يحمي النساء من الابتزاز والتشهير والعنف عبر الإنترنت وليس لديه تشريع واضح بشأن التنمر الإلكتروني. وجدت النساء اللواتي حاولن الإبلاغ عن الحالات أن مكتب النيابة العامة متحيز وغير متعاطف واستمر في لومهن على مشاركة الصور على الإنترنت.
تسعى ورقة الإحاطة هذه إلى تسليط الضوء على هذه القضية وتحليل الإطار الاجتماعي والقانوني بالإضافة إلى تقديم التوصيات. ومع ذلك ، نعتقد أنه ينبغي إجراء المزيد من الأبحاث مع مجموعة أكبر من النساء بالإضافة إلى دعم أكثر استدامة لضمان إصلاح قانون الجرائم الإلكترونية لحماية النساء وتأمين العدالة لهن.
اقراء التقرير بكامله هنا
by Kace | Nov 26, 2020 | Uncategorized
By: Reem Shawkat
A young lady remains imprisoned in the women’s prison in Omdurman for killing her former boyfriend. The crime was premeditated and she saw it as her last resort after months of enduring blackmail. The boyfriend had incriminating pictures taken without her consent during the intimate time they’ve spent together. Time and time again, he would send her the pictures and extort money. Knowing that her family would be devastated if the pictures were leaked, she continued paying and sold assets as he kept asking for more money. The murder happened after she had sold a plot of land she had inherited from her mother.
Billy Belsey, a prominent advocate on bullying and cyberbullying, defined cyberbullying as an act that involves “the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.”
In the digital age, this could mean everything from sharing conversations and information shared privately in text messages, pictures and emails and making it available to the public without consent from the other party, to cyberstalking or blackmailing someone over private data the bullying party has access to. It is also harassment and online impersonation.
Blackmail over personal data and pictures especially targeted at women who were activists and outspoken in their communities was one of the trends discovered during the research conducted for this briefing paper.
In 2018, just two months before the beginning of the revolution in Sudan, KACE began working on a project with Urgent Action Fund (UAF-Africa) entitled “Using Violence and Mobilizing Anxiety: Repressing Feminist Activism Online”. As part of the project, a roundtable and digital security training was conducted to train and also gather information about cyber-bullying and its impact on Sudanese women.
As a result, this briefing paper was born as a result of conversations with numerous activist and non-activist women in Sudan who had to endure blackmail, online and offline violence, and threats of physical violence. One young woman interviewed faced the prospects of a forced marriage from one side of her family and honor killing from another side after intimate videos she had recorded with a former lover surfaced online and went viral.
In recent years, the internet has become a very important domain for Sudanese women to share their opinions, build solidarity, advocate on different issues such as law reform, share knowledge and critical information and also grow their clientele as they establish online shops to sell products to improve their livelihoods. Social media outlets proved to be an invaluable tool for mobilization during the revolution and the role of women in the 2019 revolution in Sudan is very much noted and commended.
In recent years, the war on women that was waged in the public and private domains through a discriminatory legal framework and the normalization of misogynistic culture has moved online to the pages of Facebook and other outlets.
The internet had become hostile for women as their personal lives were invaded and their personal opinions were scrutinized. When they sought to seek legal protection, it became even more problematic. Even though Sudan has installed the Information Crime Law of 2007, also called the cybercrimes law, the law falls short to protect women from blackmail, defamation, and online violence and does not have clear legislation on cyber-bullying. Women who had tried to report cases found that the responsible prosecution office to be biased, unsympathetic and continued to blame them for sharing pictures online.
This briefing paper seeks to highlight this issue, analyze the social and legal framework as well as provide recommendations. However, we believe that more research should be conducted with a larger group of women as well as more sustained advocacy to ensure that the cybercrimes law is reformed to protect women and secure justice for them.
Read the full report here
by Kace | Nov 26, 2020 | Uncategorized
A Painful Obituary Mourning
the Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment and Human Development mourns the passing of the leader of the National Umma Party, before the Ansar sect, and the former Prime Minister of Sudan; Imam Al-Sadiq Al-Siddiq Abdul Rahman Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi.
The imam passed away at the age of eighty-five, and with his passing, the country lacks one of its leaders in various fields of politics, thought and writing.
We in Al-Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment, and in these sad moments, miss his benevolent spirit, goodness, democratic behavior, and great humility.
We extend our deepest condolences to his family, the young and the old, the Ansar sect, the Umma Party, and all his friends and loved ones and the general Sudanese people at home and abroad for their great loss.
We ask God to cover him with his mercy.
We belong to God and to him we return.
family of Al-Khatim Center, Adlan
by Kace | Nov 26, 2020 | غير مصنف
الخميس ٢٦ نوفمبر ٢٠٢٠
نعي أليم
ينعى مركز الخاتم عدلان للاستنارة والتنمية البشرية، زعيم حزب الأمة القومي، وأمام طائفة الأنصار، ورئيس وزراء السودان السابق؛ الإمام الصادق الصديق عبدالرحمن محمد أحمد المهدي.
رحل الإمام في الخامسة والثمانين من عمره، وبرحيله تفتقد البلاد علماً من أعلامها في مختلف مجالات السياسة والفكر والكتابة.
إننا في مركز الخاتم عدلان للاستنارة، وفي هذه اللحظات الحزينة، نفتقد روحه الخيّرة، وحسن معشره، وسلوكه الديمقراطي، وتواضعه الجم، كما نستحضر مشاركاته القيّمة، وتلبيته لدعواتنا في عدد من الفعاليات التي نظمناها.
نتقدم بعميق التعازي لأسرته الصغيرة والكبيرة، ولطائفة الأنصار، ولحزب الأمة، ولجميع أصدقائه ومحبيه وعموم الشعب السوداني في الداخل والخارج على فقدهم الكبير.
نسأل الله أن يتغمده بواسع رحمته
إنّا لله وإنّا إليه راجعون
أسرة مركز الخاتم عدلان
