Executive summary There was a general reduction in violations and abuses in both states of South Kordufan (SK) and Blue Nile (BN) particularly BN state due to frequent announcements of cease fire by both warring parties. The period covered in this report is between January and December 2017. Some of the incidents have not been conclusively investigated and others like the court trials are still going on. The state of emergency in the two states under conflict has been on since 2011 as well as the status of insecurity. The aim of this report is to bring to light the human rights violations and abuses in SK and BN states of Sudan (government territory) and the situation of Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the two states with focus on religious rights. The information included in this report was gathered by trained monitors using well prepared instruments that were developed under the supervision of HURICAP/ AI-NL and compiled by trained reporting panel. The report does not cover all incidents that occurred due to many challenges and limitations. The violations and abuses included in this report are; arbitrary arrests and unlawful killing, Right to worship and other violations which were mainly carried out by Military Intelligence (MI), National Intelligence security Services (NISS) and Public Defense Force (PDF) and their failure to carry out investigations. This report also includes court observation notes for specific trials that have got the human rights aspect. In the report’s recommendation, both parties at war are called upon to consider and respect the international human rights laws, appealing to regional and international bodies to compel the Government of Sudan (GoS) to respect the international human rights and humanitarian laws. iv