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For Immediate Release

Human Rights Advocates Detained in Sudan

Cambridge, Mass - 11/26/2008


Mr. Osman Hummaida

UPDATE: On November 28, PHR received confirmation that both Osman Hummaida and Abdel Monim Elgak have been released from detention. They expressed their gratitude for the efforts of human rights advocates on their behalf. The text of the original press release remains below.

Physicians for Human Rights is deeply concerned about the arrest and incommunicado detention of human rights defenders Osman Hummaida and Abdel Monim Elgak. Both men were reportedly stopped on the streets of Khartoum on Monday, November 24, and interrogated for hours by officers of the Sudanese National Security Intelligence Services. Mr. Hummaida is the former director of the Sudanese Organization Against Torture (SOAT) and a citizen of the United Kingdom.


PHR has no information on the two mens’ location or conditions of confinement, but is concerned for their safety and for the health of Mr. Hummaida, who suffers from high blood pressure and asthma. He reportedly has not been given access to a doctor. A family member who asked to visit Mr. Hummaida was refused access to him. Mr. Hommaida was previously arrested by Sudanese authorities in 1990 and spent 18 months in secret detention locations where he was subjected to torture.

PHR calls on the Sudanese government to release these men from incommunicado detention, and to respect their rights to immediately contact UK Consular representation and/or legal counsel and to receive medical care as well as family visits.

Since its founding in 1986, PHR’s Colleagues at Risk Program has defended the rights of our colleagues whose rights are threatened due to their medical, humanitarian and human rights work.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Investigated the epidemic of violence spread by Burma’s military junta
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring
  • 2012 — Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic Republic of
                  the Congo, Kenya, and Syria on the proper collection of evidence in
                  sexual violence cases
  • 2013 — Won first prize in the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention with MediCapt,
                  our mobile app that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence

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