Faisal Elbagir
Faisal Elbagir is a prominent Sudanese journalist and human rights defender. He is a writer, poet, translator, and interpreter. He is the founder and Coordinator General of Journalists for Human Rights – JHR Sudan. This organisation monitors the freedom of expression and media, with a special concern for the safety and protection of Journalists. He first began his career as an activist in Sudan in the mid-1980s, and went on to co-found several Sudanese civil society initiatives and human rights organisations, including the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development (KCHRED). Faisal served as the Secretary General of KCHRED and Project Coordinator of the Media and Freedom of Expression Programme until KCHRED was forced to close in 2009 by Sudanese authorities arbitrarily after the indictment of President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court.
Faisal Elbagir is the founder and CEO of Africa Initiative for Media Development and Journalists' Safety. He has worked as a journalist for several Sudanese newspapers and provided training on human rights and the media to countless Sudanese and South Sudanese journalists. He is a co-founder of the Sudan Media Forum and member of its board of directors. He is an advocate for human rights journalism and ethical journalism. He is among the early founders of Sudan Defenders Coalition. He is the founder and Chief Editor of Sudan's Reporters. Faisal holds a BA in political science and MA in politics from the University of Poona, India, and is a fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. Currently, he is a PhD student at the University of Nairobi's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The ongoing violence by government forces, pro-government militia groups and anti-government armed group forms the backdrop to continued harassment, arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and alleged torture of human rights defenders (HRDs) by Sudanese military and security forces. Freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly have been increasingly curtailed. In particular, NGO members, journalists and student activists have been targeted.
Human rights defenders are vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and detention by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). The 2010 National Security Act grants the NISS extensive powers to arrest and detain people up to four and a half months without judicial review, and with complete impunity when the detention is arbitrary. Human rights defenders have been held incommunicado, without access to legal representation, and family visits have been refused without reasons. Detained HRDs have been often held in NISS cells that fall outside the jurisdiction of prisons laws and regulations, where they have also suffered ill-treatment and torture.
