Amnesty International has documented in recent years a wide range of human rights violations committed by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, as well as violations to the right to freedom of expression.

The extensive powers provided to NISS agents under the 1999 National Security Forces Act and the 2010 National Security Act, as well as the immunities provided under both acts, have allowed NISS agents to commit human rights violations with impunity in Sudan.

Journalists are regularly arrested and detained for carrying out their work and the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) often control the press through strict pre-print censorship. Journalists can be prosecuted for their work under several broad and imprecise provisions of Sudanese law. Defying the censorship rules places journalists and editors at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. One journalist told Amnesty International that it was almost impossible to publish articles on human rights in national newspapers, because of self-imposed censorship.