Subject: URGENT APPEAL
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997>
Please forward to the list - thank you
URGENT INFORMATION
4 women sentenced to death for December 10 in Sudan. Please endorse the
following letter and address your solidarity message to:
1. His Excellency Lieutenant General
Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
Fax No. 249-11-71-724
2. Ambassador Mahdi Ibrahim Mohamed,
Embassador of the Republic of Sudan
Washington D.C
Fax No. : 1-202-667-2406
Your Excellency,
The Women's Caucus for Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court, presently in session at the UN in New York is shocked to receive news regarding the death sentence passed on four women in a Sharia Court in Khartoum, Sudan on November 25, 1997.
According to the information received, the four women have only been given fifteen days to appeal against the sentence. It has been reported that the four would be executed on December 10, unless the Supreme Court reverses the sentence. Sudan's Minister of Justice, Abdel Basit Sabdrat, who is also the country's Attorney General has confirmed that the women's case is before the Supreme Court.
Your Excellency, as you are aware, December 10 is World Human Rights Day and we would urge you to take the opportunity to mark this occasion in a fitting manner by granting a pardon for these women. This would not only reaffirm Sudan's commitments to the rights set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which your country has ratified, but also be a munificent gesture on your part.
Yours faithfully,
Alda Facio
Director
Members of the Women's Caucus, including:
INFORM, Sri Lanka
CIMA (Inter-American Coalition of Women's Human Rights Activists)
FEMPRESS, Latin American Feminist Press
LA MORADA, Chile
CAFRA (Caribeean Association for Feminist research and Action)
Association of Women Journalists, Nigeria
Women's Human Rights Clinic, City University of New York, USA
WLUML (Network of Women Living under Muslim Laws)
Centre for Women's Global Leadership, USA
FIDA (Association of Women Lawyers) Kenya
NEEW (Network of East-West Women)
Eleanor Conda, Lawyer, the Philippines
Eleanora Zielinska, Lawyer, Poland.
Ruth Philips, Lawyer, USA
Mary Winston Marrow, US
