SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the burgeoning literature on Sudanese history, politics and the economy, as well as a substantial body of human rights reports and cases. It examines both structural and ideational factors that have contributed to a legacy of human rights violations and weak rule of law. Sudan’s dismal human rights record, particularly since 1989, and its role in a series of armed conflicts is common knowledge, as a result of decades of monitoring, documentation and litigation. South Sudan has, notwithstanding some marked differences, inherited a number of Sudan’s problems, exacerbated by decades of conflict and neglect. The African Union High Level Panel on Darfur aptly described what is ­happening in that region as ‘Sudan’s crisis in Darfur’. As highlighted in a number of studies and by various actors, Sudan’s society is marked by a considerable focus on status-based factors such as race, ethnicity, religion and gender.