SUDAN: Apostasy Law Abolished

Source: Jubilee Campaign, July 2020

On July 12 it was announced that the government of Sudan has taken action to restore human rights and religious freedom for its citizens by eliminating discriminatory alcohol restrictions, abolishing apostasy laws, criminalizing female genital mutilation and cutting, and granting women travel rights. Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari stated of the landmark decisions, “we [will] drop all the laws violating the human rights in Sudan.”

These fundamental changes by the Sudanese government were made with the ratification of the Miscellaneous Amendments Act, and its most commendable achievement is the abolition of the discriminatory and problematic portion of the nation’s criminal code Article 126 which, according to Library of Congress, states that “any Muslim who declares publicly that he/she has adopted any religion other than Islam commits the crime of apostasy and is punishable with the death penalty.”

In 2014, BBC News reported on the sentencing death of pregnant Sudanese Christian woman Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who was told by the presiding judge that she had only three days to renounce Christianity and return to Islam if she wished to be acquitted. She was also sentenced to 100 lashes for marrying a Christian man. After numerous condemnations by international human rights NGOs, Ibrahim was acquitted of her charges and her case was ultimately dropped.

The abolition of Sudan’s apostasy laws under the temporary government ensures that no individual ever again has to go through the accusations, harassment, and tribulations that Meriam had gone through though she committed no crime other than being a devout Christian.

» Read full story.

» Also read about a recent update on religious freedom in Yemen, where the news is not so positive (Open Doors via Mission Network News).

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