Sudan's history regarding women's rights and human rights is a mixed one. Important advances were made by indigenous activists in the post-independence period after 1956; international pressure on the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) has yielded some positive results; however, since 1989 Sudan has been cited by human rights groups as a “human rights disaster” for its longstanding civil war affecting its southern citizens, and also for its treatment of women in the north.

The Sudanese constitution of 1973 provides for equal rights of all citizens irrespective of gender, and w…