Sudan: Executive Summary

Overall Score: 4

This assessment was completed in 2025.

Sudan is a country with a rich diversity of cultures, religions, languages and ethnicities. However, successive governments have failed to honour that diversity and support groups to work together towards common goals. This has led to social and economic inequalities that fuel violent conflict. Previous governments have chosen a “unity in conformity” approach to its policies and practices. This excludes anyone who does not conform to the state-dominated narratives of the majority Arab and Sunni Muslim identities and practices, resulting in discrimination within and across forms of diversity such as gender, ethnicity and religion.

The majority of Sudan consists of rural areas with ethnically diverse farmers and pastoralists who have experienced displacement and unequal development. Local languages are threatened as cultural groups are required to speak Arabic in schools, when accessing public services or when seeking justice. Most Sudanese people work in the informal economy, facing low wages and precarious work. Women are negatively impacted, through Islamist policies, displacement, and over-representation in the informal sector. The Global Pluralism Monitor: Sudan explores the dynamics within and among these groups and how human rights for all have been in decline for decades, worsening with the most recent war beginning in April 2023.

Legal Commitments

Sudan has signed many international treaties protecting human rights and attempted to include laws prohibiting discrimination in their national constitutions.  However, the government has ignored these commitments and violated many agreements and policies. Attempts made to reform discriminatory laws like those around apostasy have been stalled due to continued conflict, especially after the 2021 military coup.

Practices and Leadership

Sustained and successive conflicts have also made policy implementation challenging. Key officials from the government, military, and armed groups face no consequences for (not) enforcing policies and are often alleged to be committing human rights violations against civilians. There is a critical lack of data collected on demographics and group inequalities. Data collected by the government remains censored and inaccessible. Sudanese do make attempts to organize and advocate for their rights to the state but are met with violence, especially women.

An elite group of wealthy Arab and Muslim men control political parties, news media and the private sector. While some parties are ethnically or regionally based and mobilize for their interests, the dominant national parties do not reflect the diversity that is characteristic of Sudan. Armed movements claim to work for the inclusion of marginalized groups. Through strict control of media, the state hides the realities of economic disparity, conflicts, violence inflicted on citizens and the experiences of displaced women working in the informal economy.

Organizations working to support human rights, especially those focused on and led by women and youth, offer new approaches for addressing the needs of groups facing marginalization.

Civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have traditionally faced hostilities in Sudan, as they experience many regulations and political monitoring. NGOs, particularly women and youth-led organizations focused on democracy and civic education, have been shut down under the accusation that their work was sabotaging Sudan’s sovereignty. However, many civil society groups remain working to reduce exclusion and marginalization, and to improve access to services for the communities they work in. While under threat of forced closure or violence, organizations working to support human rights, especially those focused on and led by women and youth, offer new approaches for addressing the needs of groups facing marginalization. In the aftermath of the conflict that commenced in April 2023, many in the civil sector have sought to re-establish offices in their countries of exile, experiencing new and significant challenges for reducing exclusion patterns.

Group-based Inequalities, Inter-group Relations and Belonging

The elites who control political parties also control economic resources in Sudan, benefitting from unequal patterns of economic growth. Sudan’s economy depends on agriculture, mining and animal husbandry, but farmers and pastoralists do not occupy leadership positions in politics and are often dispossessed of their lands. Most workers in Sudan are employed in the informal sector, lacking rights and decent wages. Many of these workers are youth and women. Businesses are centered in Khartoum and Port Sudan and require English language skills, making them inaccessible to populations living in the rest of the country that is largely rural and does not learn English (or any language other than Arabic) in public schools.

The justice system includes entrenched Sharia laws and judges who are loyal to the Islamist regime. Cases against the government, especially around human rights violations, are time consuming, costly, and are often outright dismissed. This corruption, coupled with impunity for political and military leaders, has eroded Sudanese trust in institutions. Trust among groups is also generally low: the Global Centre’s Pluralism Perceptions Survey findings show that one third of respondents do not trust other ethnic groups and the remaining two thirds said they trusted others only “a little.” However, having a common language can build trust across ethnicities and religions, which is the case for linguistically diverse or minority-language groups. In general, inclusion and acceptance in society are reserved for the majority Arab and Muslim populations.

Monitor Takeaways

Sudan has faced challenges in building a society that progresses on a pathway to pluralism. One of the major obstacles to pluralism in Sudan is that despite historical coexistence, there is currently widespread discrimination and marginalization among groups. This exclusion operates in many dimensions, such as ethnicity, gender, livelihood, religion and region. Since the diversity of its population changed after the conflict with and eventual separation of South Sudan, Sudan has maintained its exclusionary policies and attempted to redefine itself as a country without diversity. This has led to local languages and practices being threatened and continued intergroup conflict and instability. However, there are examples of ethnically, religious, and culturally diverse groups finding common ground in religious values, like solidarity, and in local common languages that diverse groups speak and wish to protect.

Continuous violence and armed conflict make it a challenging context to repeal laws limiting the rights of certain groups or pass laws to protect them. Attempts to reform restrictive laws have been made: the 2019 Constitutional Document aimed to prohibit discrimination, and the 2020 Juba peace agreement granted more authority to states to protect local culture and languages. Likewise, the Ministry of Justice has attempted to reform many repressive laws, but these efforts were stalled by the 2021 military coup. Even when Sudan has had policies in place to protect and support diverse groups, continued instability and a lack of political will and funding have resulted in gaps between policies and practice. Bodies that were entrusted with implementing reforms have not been created or fully activated, and some reforms were ignored entirely.

Sudan has maintained its exclusionary policies and attempted to redefine itself as a country without diversity. This has led to local languages and practices being threatened and continued intergroup conflict.

A cross-cutting theme across indicators and diversity types is that women face added hardship in navigating discrimination and inequality in Sudan. Women face internal displacement that leads them to working in urban areas in the informal economy or face unemployment. Their rights are especially impacted by Sharia laws, restricting their rights in comparison to men, including limiting their social and economic rights. Women experience menstrual stigma and poverty and have limited access to sexual and reproductive health services. Women also experience sexual and gender-based violence, including when they are playing leadership roles in protesting against the state.