22 February, 2016
H.E. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
President of Sudan
Office of the President
People's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Via e-mail:
Your Excellency,
The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) is
committed to the promotion and protection of freedom of thought, conscience and religion or
belief for all people. As such, we are writing to express our deep concern regarding the
imprisonment of two Sudanese Christian men, Mr. Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata and Reverend
Hassan Abduraheem Kodi Taour, by Sudanese authorities.
Mr. Rata and Rev. Taour were detained by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services
(NISS) on December 13
th
and December 18
th
, respectively, and remain in custody. According to
information IPPFoRB has received,
these men have been detained on the grounds of merely
exercising their right to manifest their religious beliefs. As you are aware, infringements upon
these men’s religious beliefs constitutes a violation of Sudan’s international legal obligations
under Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights,
to which Sudan is a
State party. Among additional clauses, Article 18 states that, “everyone shall have the right to
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion,” including the right to “have or adopt a religion or
belief of choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.” We also
note that the detainment of these men violates Article 38 of
The Interim National Constitution of
the Republic of Sudan
(2005), which states that “every person shall have the right to the freedom
of religious creed and worship, and to declare his/her religion or creed and manifest the same, by
way of worship, education, and practice.”
The cases of Mr. Rata and Rev. Taour closely mirror the past arrest of other Sudanese Christians,
including Reverend Kwa Shamal and Reverend Hassan Abduraheem in 2014, whose cases
reached global levels of attention and placed Sudan in the spotlight for failing to protect the
rights of members of Sudan’s different religious communities. As with last year’s arrest of
Pastors Yat Michael and Peter Yen Reith, Sudanese authorities have attempted to distance
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