The News
United Nations human rights experts on Friday said an “independent and impartial” force dedicated to civilian protection should be deployed to Sudan “without delay” following the release of a report that details rights violations by both warring parties since the beginning of the conflict in April last year.
The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan said that both the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were responsible for “harrowing” attacks on civilians, including sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and torture, accusing them of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It also called for the expansion of the existing arms embargo in Darfur to all of Sudan, and warned those supplying arms “may be complicit in grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law.”
SIGNALS
Sudan’s judiciary no longer holds legitimacy
The UN mission called for the creation of a separate international judicial mechanism tasked with investigating those allegedly responsible for human rights violations. That’s necessary, a member of the mission said, because “[Sudan’s] judiciary has become so politicized and so divided that there’s no confidence in it at this stage.” The member suggested that the mechanism could take the form of a “hybrid” court involving both Sudanese and international groups, or resemble the Special Court for Sierra Leone set up in 2002.
‘Neglect and fatalism’ may have normalized the conflict among Westerners
The UN-mandated Sudan mission urged the international community to take equal action in response to all worldwide conflicts. The problem isn’t necessarily lack of coverage, but the way in which “neglect and fatalism” have normalized the conflict among Westerners, The Economist argued. “While the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are regarded as existential moral and strategic conflicts, it has been harder to get exercised about where justice lies on the Burhan-Hemeti divide,” a columnist wrote in the Financial Times.