IV
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 82
Regarding the human rights situation in the Republic of the Sudan, including
the practice of chattel slavery and all other forms of booty and related
practices.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 22, 2001
Mr. PAYNE (for himself and Mr. TANCREDO) submitted the following concur-
rent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Re-
lations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Regarding the human rights situation in the Republic of
the Sudan, including the practice of chattel slavery and
all other forms of booty and related practices.
Whereas the Government of the Republic of the Sudan has
perpetrated a prolonged campaign of human rights
abuses and discrimination, including the facilitation of
slavery in Sudan;
Whereas slavery is defined in international law as a crime
against humanity;
Whereas the 2000 Department of State Country Reports on
Human Rights has documented numerous instances of
the facilitation of slavery by the Government of Sudan;
•HCON 82 IH
Whereas since Sudan’s independence in 1956, the Govern-
ment of Sudan, which has been dominated by northern
Arabs, has been fighting against the Christian and
animist South;
Whereas the Government of Sudan is not able to pay their
militias and has encouraged the militias to take slaves as
compensation;
Whereas Christian Solidarity International (CSI) estimates
that tens of thousands of black slaves are owned by
Arabs in northern Sudan;
Whereas on November 30, 1997, the Government of Sudan’s
Popular Defense Force (PDF) enslaved 18 women and
children during a slave raid on four villages—Tiomthet,
Mabior Nyang, and Ajok and Achorou—in northeastern
Bahr El Ghazal;
Whereas Aluel Mangong Deng and numerous other freed
slaves have recounted to rescuers from Christian Soli-
darity International and other rescuers that they were
systematically gang raped by members of Sudan’s Pop-
ular Defense Force following their enslavement;
Whereas in a January 2001 report of Christian Solidarity
International, later confirmed by the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), states that more than 175
black African women and children were abducted in slave
raids by militia forces of the Government of Sudan in
Southern Sudan during a two week period;
Whereas the United Nations High Commission for Human
Rights and successive United Nations special rapporteurs
have identified slavery as a grave human rights problem
in Sudan;
•HCON 82 IH
Whereas the NAACP’s Executive Board passed an anti-slav-
ery resolution in 1995;
Whereas a slave raid undertaken as part of the ruling Na-
tional Islam Front (NIF) regime’s self-declared jihad
(holy war) against the predominantly Christian and
animist South in Sudan is the most recent of a long se-
ries of such raids; and
Whereas Sudan is a party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human
and People’s Rights, the Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
however, despite being a party to these agreements, slav-
ery still exists in Sudan: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That the Congress—
(1) calls upon the Government of the Republic
of the Sudan to honor its obligations under the Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights and the Con-
vention on the Abolition of Slavery to prosecute
slave owners to the fullest extent under the anti-
slavery laws of Sudan and to educate individuals
being held as slaves concerning their legal rights;
(2) calls upon the Government of Sudan to sur-
render and release all slaves and return them to
their homes;
(3) urges in the strongest terms that the Gov-
ernment of Sudan investigate abuses relating to
slavery;