Sudan overturns moral policing law, disbands ex-ruling party

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:11 pm

Sudan’s transitional government announced on Friday (Nov 29) that it has overturned a moral policing law and moved to dissolve the country’s former ruling party, fulfilling two major demands from the country’s pro-democracy protesters.
Rights groups say the Public Order Act targets women and is a holdover from the three-decade rule of toppled president Omar al-Bashir.
“This law is notorious for being used as a tool of exploitation, humiliation & violation of rights,” Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok tweeted in reference to the overturned law. “I pay tribute to the women and youth of my country who have endured the atrocities that resulted from the implementation of this law.”
The Public Order Act was first passed in 1992 by al-Bashir’s Islamist government and enforced only in the capital, Khartoum, before being applied nationwide four years later.
The Syariah-inspired law criminalised a wide range of individual behaviour including revealing clothing and drinking alcohol. Those convicted of violating the Act could face prison sentences, fines, lashing and confiscation of property.
For decades, human rights activists have decried the law and argued that its vague language gave the police and judges leeway to prosecute women, who later played a crucial role in the mass protests that culminated in al-Bashir’s overthrow in April.
Sudan’s sovereign council and Cabinet announced both decisions after a 14-hour long meeting that ended shortly after midnight on Thursday.
It said the law to dismantle al-Bashir’s National Congress Party would also confiscate all the ex-ruling party’s assets and funds.
The sovereign council grew out of a power-sharing agreement between the country’s ruling generals and protesters demanding sweeping political change. Under the deal, the council and the civilian-led Cabinet share legislative powers until a new Parliament is formed.

Pro-democracy groups in the country have also held fresh protests demanding the former ruling party’s disbandment and the exclusion of all its remnants from different state institutions.
Prime Minister Hamdok tweeted that the Bill dismantling al-Bashir’s party is not the outcome of “a quest of vengeance but rather to preserve and restore the dignity of our people who have grown weary of the injustice under the hands of NCP, who have looted & hindered the development of this great nation”.
Sudan’s Justice Minister Nasr-Eddin Abdul-Bari announced that the law passed by the interim government on Friday would transfer all assets and funds of al-Bashir’s party to the state treasury.
“With this law, we will be able to retrieve a lot of funds that were taken from the public treasury to create institutions that acted as a parallel state,” he said.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir, hailed the move as “an important step” towards the establishment of a civil and democratic state in Sudan.
Al-Bashir was arrested after his overthrow in April and is currently on trial for charges of corruption
and money laundering .
The National Congress Party on Friday condemned Sudan’s new “illegal government” for ordering its closure, accusing the authorities of trying to confiscate its properties and assets to tackle Sudan’s economic crisis which it said the new government had failed to tackle.
“To rely on the assets of the party, if there are any, is nothing more than a moral scandal, an act of intellectual bankruptcy and a total failure on the part of the illegal government,” the NCP said on its Facebook page. “The party is not bothered by any law or decision issued against it as the NCP is a strong party and its ideas will prevail.”