/ 15 January 2001

SUDAN WON?T SIGN WOMEN?S RIGHTS TREATY

SUDAN?S Islamist government refuses to ratify an international treaty on women’s rights as it contradicts national traditions, President Omar al-Beshir said in remarks published on Sunday. Beshir told a rally held near here Friday to celebrate his re-election as president last month that he found parts of the treaty “contradicted Sudanese values and traditions,” the official SUNA news agency reported. SUNA gave no other details on Beshir’s announcement regarding the Convention of Eradication of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Beshir’s remarks came almost five months after UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Karin Sham Poo urged him to sign the convention which she said “seeks to remove harmful practices and maintain equality between men and women.”