U.N. Rates Sudan 'Favorable' on Human Rights; 'Laughable,' Group Says

by Allie Martin

(AgapePress) The government of Sudan recently received a favorable report at the U. N. Human Rights Convention in Geneva. The favorable U.N. report will benefit Sudan by making the country eligible for more U.N. aid. They will also be able to do more business with firms eager to expand into the oil rich nation.

But the U.N.'s decision is being blasted by Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), an organization that assists the persecuted church worldwide. Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for VOM, says the United States needs to put pressure on the U.N. to quit rewarding Sudan for human rights violations.

According to Nettleton, a 20-year civil war has meant there are virtually no human rights for Christians in Sudan.

"The government there is not a protector of human rights. The Christian people in [southern] Sudan would tell you they have no human rights," Nettleton says. "For any organization, especially one as well thought of as the United Nations, to suggest that Sudan has made dramatic improvements in the area of human rights, is really laughable."

Nettleton says concerned Christians first need to pray for believers in the Sudan then contact their congressman and other government officials and encourage them to pressure the U.N. to take a second look at the brutal Sudanese government. He believes only then will U.S. government officials press the U.N. to take a second look at Sudan's human rights record.

Nettleton emphatically states that Sudan hasn't improved their human rights [and] . . . is not protecting the rights of Christians in [southern] Sudan. And nobody should be allowed to stand up and say that they are."

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