Mr President,
Sweden aligns itself fully with the statement made by Portugal.
My Government commends the work of the Special Rapporteur Ms Samar, and greatly appreciates the broad attention she has given, in her report, to human rights violations in different parts of Sudan.
As this session of the Council already has covered the situation in Darfur, I’d like to raise a few questions, regarding Ms Samar’s mandate on the whole of Sudan.
• In Eastern Sudan, one of the issues of concern, as she mentions, is impunity, including what happened during the massacre at Port Sudan in January 2005. How does she assess developments in addressing impunity since she submitted her report, and what do you see as the main human rights issues in Eastern Sudan that will require the attention of her mandate and the Government in the period ahead?
• Her report covers violations the past couple of years in connection with dams being constructed in the Merowe and Kajbar areas of Northern Sudan. Since her report, what efforts has she seen, by the authorities, to bring justice in response to the reported incidents of excessive violence against demonstrators, and arbitrary arrests? And how can her mandate continue to make a difference on these particular issues?
• Violations of women’s rights are covered amply in her report. In Southern Sudan, she mentions forced marriages and violence against women. What does she see as the most effective measures to address this? Could she perhaps say how her mandate interacts with the thematic mandates of the HRC, for instance the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, or other UN mechanisms?