Sudan

Iran, Sudan, Libya, Egypt: Social Media Helps Give Women a Voice

A young woman is speaking to the camera, her face obscured to prevent her being identified.

Women’s rights to property and inheritance of land, a project with Mutawinat Benevolent Company, Sudan

This project, implemented by Mutawinat Benevolent Company(Mutawinat), sought to secure inheritance rights of Muslim women, which are generally denied in customary practice, even though their rights are recognised in Muslim laws. The project addressed the lack of public awareness of such rights and the stigmatisation of women who demand their inheritance.

Mutawinat adopted a strategy that included the following aspects:

Sudan National Committee on Traditional Practices (SNCTP)

Address: P.O. Box 10418, Khartoum

Tel: (+249) 122 50 51 30; (+249) 155 13 92 19

Fax: (+249) 155 13 43 91

Contact: Dr. Amna Abdel Rahman Hassan

REDRESS

The mission of REDRESS is to obtain justice for survivors of torture; hold accountable governments and individuals who perpetrate torture; and develop a means of ensuring compliance with international standards and securing remedies for victims. They pursue their mission through casework, advocacy, and capacity building. REDRESS has been actively documenting and acting upon the situation in Sudan since 2003. They have a wealth of resources on issues of sexual violence and are part of a joint initiative on criminal law reform in Sudan. They are based in London.

Zenab for Women in Development (ZWD)

ZWD is a community-based organization working to create sustainable agriculture initiatives for women farmers; prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS; eliminate the practice of FGM; and respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. A special focus of the organization is promoting girls’ education, especially in poor communities, and to provide capacity-building workshops for women leaders. ZWD has offices in Khartoum, Darfur, and El Gedarif as well as in the United States and has UN consultative status.

Office No.1:

Salmmah Women’s Resource Centre, Khartoum

Founded in 1997, Salmmah’s goals are the establishment of a women's resource centre working on gender related issues and feminist theory in relation to the practices of women today. Salmmah also hopes to create a just society through spreading ideas of feminism, enhancing Women's Human Rights and Gender Equality. Salmmah's target group is women and youth, and it's programmes includes training, documentation and research. The centre provides information skills to women and conducts education on domestic violence and sexuality.

Tel office: +249 1 83 578 902

Al-Mutawinat Group

An organisation established to provide legal aid to women and paralegal training program for community leaders. Mutawinat also runs literacy, human rights, and legal rights awareness campaigns; fosters communication between women’s groups in Africa; works to eradicate FGM by developing and implementing new legal and educational strategies; and assists displaced and rural women. The organization also conducts and publishes studies and research concerning women’s development. Samia El-Hashmi is also a WRRC Programme's Women, Inheritance, and Property Rights working group member.

Recent Developments in the Land Law of the Sudan: A Legislative Analysis

Sudan Women's Access to Land and Property Rights Workshop: Workshop Report May 2010

This is a report of a workshop organized by the USAID which sought to highlight the discrepancies between women’s land rights under the law and popular perceptions of those rights, as identified during consultations with the State, outline policy and legal trends related to women’s land rights in other countries in the region and elicit policy recommendations for the draft GOSS land policy intended to expand and strengthen women’s land rights.

US AID Sudan Property Rights Programme

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Sudan Property Rights Programme (SPRP) is working with Southern Sudan Land Commission (SSLC) to develop a land policy for the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). The policy will be based upon an extensive programme of public consultation and research. Throughout consultations in each southern Sudan’s 10 states, women’s land rights were a contentious subject, particularly related to land ownership by women in rural areas. Further, women were not always adequately represented in some State consultations.