A/HRC/39/71 Habani, a woman journalist and human rights activist, was subjected to ill-treatment amounting to torture during her arrest. 33. According to information received by the Independent Expert, reporting on the demonstrations had been deemed a “red-line issue” by the Government. Confiscating newspapers severely circumscribes the availability of information in the public sphere and hinders freedom of expression and access to information. 34. In May 2018, the National Intelligence and Security Service imposed a “red line” on chief editors of Sudanese publications and ordered them not to publish any news related to the death of a businessman who had died in custody. The chief editors were also prohibited from reporting on the prevailing fuel crisis in the country. More specifically, on 22 May, four Sudanese journalists were prohibited, without any justification, from travelling to Saudi Arabia to attend a regional conference for journalists. 35. On 14 June 2018, the Sudanese foreign media department revoked the licence of Qatari journalist Ahmed Yousif. 36. The Independent Expert reiterates his call on the Government of the Sudan to amend the Press and Publication Act in order to provide protection to journalists and newspaper publishers. D. Women’s rights 37. Prior to his mission, the Independent Expert had received information that security forces use violence, intimidation and other forms of abuse to silence women across the country. These abuses are made worse by the wider context of gender inequality in the Sudanese society and the legal framework that institutionalizes it. Public morality offences, including “indecent dress”, discriminate against women and are limiting their movement and role in public life. Humiliating corporal punishments of lashing violate international human rights norms. More specifically, the Independent Expert calls on the Sudanese authorities to put an end to a practice which appears to be harassment by public order security police targeting women in Khartoum for alleged indecent dress or street trading. 38. More broadly, discrimination and violence, including sexual violence, against women and girls in the Sudan have been brought into stark focus by the case of Noura Hussein Hammad Daoud, who was sentenced to death by a Sudanese court on 10 May 2018. Hussein was convicted of fatally stabbing the man she was forced to marry, who subsequently allegedly raped her. The Independent Expert had received information that Hussein’s forced marriage, rape and other forms of gender-based violence against her were not taken into account by the court as evidence to mitigate the sentence and that the most stringent guarantees of a fair trial and due process were not fulfilled in this case. 39. Nevertheless, the Independent Expert welcomed the decision on 26 June 2018 by the Court of Appeal in Khartoum to quash Noura Hussein’s death sentence. While the Independent Expert does not have full details of the Court’s decision, he was made aware of the fact that the death sentence was replaced by a five-year prison term. The Independent Expert took the opportunity of this case to reiterate his appeal to the Government to bring its legislation into line with international human rights standards. 40. During the Independent Expert’s meeting with the Unit on Combating Violence against Women, he was made aware of a series of initiatives undertaken to address violence against women. These include the submission to parliament of an amendment to the Criminal Act aimed at criminalizing female genital mutilation and the development of a five-year national plan (2018−2023) focusing on access to justice for women in Darfur. The Independent Expert would like to see these initiatives transformed into concrete steps to address violence against women in the Sudan. 7