U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS BODY ACCUSES SUDAN OF DARFUR ATROCITIES

An independent team of investigators commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council delivered their report on the current situation in Darfur to the Council in Geneva on March 12th. Although the Sudanese government prohibited the High-Level Mission from entering Darfur to conduct its investigation, the concluding report includes information about massive human rights violations in the western region of Sudan. The report also reflects a scathing condemnation of the government of Sudan for its involvement with the atrocities in Darfur, and a shaming of the international community for its “pathetic” response.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams led the five-member mission, which conducted its investigations in Khartoum and neighboring eastern Chad. In an attempt to highlight the importance of civilian protection in Darfur, the High-Level Mission framed their report in terms of the international community's "responsibility to protect" the people of Darfur. The report states that the Sudanese government had accepted the responsibility to protect by signing on to the 2005 World Summit Outcome document, but has failed to live up to its responsibility to protect Darfurians due to its cooperation with the janjaweed militia in human rights violations. In a BBC news article, Williams is quoted as saying, "There are gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and the government is complicit in those crimes with the Janjaweed militia that it arms and trains."

The Human Rights Council commissioned the High-Level Mission at a special session in December 2006 to assess the human rights situation in Darfur. Sudan responded to the report by accusing the panel of investigators of bias and demanded that the Human Rights Council refuse to consider the report. Speaking to the Council in Geneva, Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammad Ali al-Mardi questioned the legitimacy of the mission and its concluding report, stating that the report jeopardizes the legitimacy of the new Human Rights Council.

It is estimated that over 400,000 have been killed in the four years of current conflict in Darfur, with over 2.5 million displaced. The U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1706 in August 2006, calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force to deploy in Darfur. Due to Sudanese obstruction of the forces’ deployment since August, the international community has been supporting the deployment of a hybrid African Union-U.N. force to deploy in Darfur to protect innocent civilians. The hybrid force has yet to deploy due to the Sudanese government’s continued obstruction.

The Council opened their fourth session on Monday, March 12th in Geneva with the presentation of the Darfur report.  U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-Moon warned the Human Rights Council that the "world is watching" what the Council does in its current session as a test of its effectiveness as a human rights body. Some have accused the Council of being overly-politicized for its focus on Israel's actions in Lebanon and Gaza in the past year. To date, Israel is the only country to be censured by the Council.

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Updated March 15, 2007