Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the proportionality and compatibility with international human rights conventions of the response from the Government of Sudan towards demonstrators following protests which began on 12 January 2018 due to sharp rises in the price of bread.

The British Government remains concerned about the arbitrary arrest and continued detention without charge or trial of a number of activists involved in recent protests in Sudan. We have continually raised the issue with the Government of Sudan. While we have not seen evidence of systemic mistreatment among the general prison population in Sudan, there is considerable evidence that facilities operated by the National Intelligence and Security Services do routinely mistreat detainees. We continue to call on the Government of Sudan to release all these remaining detainees as soon as possible, and continue to make clear our expectation that all detainees will be treated in accordance with international standards. More widely, we urge the Government of Sudan to implement the recommendations of the National Dialogue that relate to limiting the powers of the National Intelligence and Security Service to arrest and detain individuals.