Journalists, doctors and teachers participate in the Conference of African Trade Unions
Walid Al Noor
The Congress of the Confederation of African Unions was held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, from 28 to 30 November. The Sudanese Journalists Union, the Sudanese Doctors Union Preliminary Committee and the Sudanese Teachers Committee, as well as other professional bodies and labour groups participated in the Conference, participated in the Sudan.
The conferences rejected a request by the President of the dissolved National Congress Party, Prof. Ibrahim Ghandoor, rejecting the presence of the Sudanese trade unions and entities participating in the conference, claiming to be fronts of the Sudanese Communist Party.
Because these objects were present in the Sudan in 2019 and some of them deposited their laws with the organization, Ghandours application was not accepted. Because Al-Bourouf Gendor was President of a union under the previous regime, which tastes workers scourges of injustice and deprivation of rights, he wanted the current situation to be independent to turn back the clock.
Trade union bodies, whose basic systems have not been passed and which have not begun organizing their public assemblies, must work hard to establish them and move away from small differences, which have led to many divisions in trade union bodies and benefit from the experiences of journalists and doctors.
The Sudanese Journalists Union was the first trade union in the Sudan to benefit from Sudans ratification of article 87 on freedom of association and protection of trade union organization, adopted by the International Labour Organization on 9 July 1948, at its thirty-first session, and its entry into force in 1950.
Dr. Abdullah Hamdoks transitional government ratified the agreement in March 2021.
Article 15.3 of the ILO Act provides for ratification to take effect 12 months after ratification of the request by the ILO Director-General. Article 16 states that any State that has decided to withdraw from the Organization shall deposit the request to the Director-Generals Office and, if approved, shall not apply until 10 years have passed.
The Sudanese Journalists Union, its first preliminary assembly, held on 26 March 2022, one year after Sudan ratified the Convention. The Second General Assembly was held in July of that year and held free and fair elections in which three lists participated and its results were announced at the end of August 2022 and the final results were approved by the Election Commission on September 1, 2022.
Article 8.1 of Convention 87 states that, like other persons and organized groups, workers, employers, their organizations and those in the exercise of the rights provided for in the Convention shall respect national law. Article 8/2 of the Convention states: "Neither national law nor the manner in which it is applied shall derogate from the guarantees provided for in this Convention.
In January of this year, the Sudanese Journalists Union won its complaint against the Registrar of Sudanese Labour Organizations at the International Labour Organization, and the Registrar refused to register the union on the grounds that there was no trade union law.
The Conference of African Trade Unions concluded with the election of the Executive Office and the selection of Mr. Joe Ajero as Head of Delegate and President of Nigerias Trade Unions as Chair of the current session
