2010: a critical year for Sudan
The Reporter - Ethiopia, January 23
By Dismas Nkunda

January 9 had marked the fifth anniversary of the signing of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The agreement was a milestone achievement lauded by the international community. The CPA laid out a roadmap not only for ending a devastating civil war pitting North against South that killed an estimated two million people and displaced millions more. The agreement did not stop there, however, It also called for democratic transformation in Sudan.

Unfortunately, over the past five years, the peace in Sudan has been anything but comprehensive. War has raged in Sudan's western Darfur region, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and displacing another 2.5 million people. Although the scale of violence has declined in recent months, there is no comprehensive political solution and violence could reignite at any time. At the same time, critical elements of the CPA were stalled or frustrated, and the promise of democratic transformation has all but evaporated.

Read the article here.

Global Day of Action for Sudan: 9 January 2010

On the 9 January 2010, thousands of people will gather around the world to call on world leaders to prevent a return to conflict in Sudan.  

The effort comes with one year remaining until a referendum that will decide the future unity of Sudan, and falls on the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. With growing violence in the South, the agreement is in danger of collapsing. 

The global initiative is being supported by artists around the world, including Egyptian star Mohamed Mounir and Mr. Yahia Khalil, who will be featured in a film released to coincide with the launch of the campaign. The film features drummers from six continents, all following a beat for peace led by drummers in North and South Sudan.

Read what the Arab Coalition for Darfur organized in Egypt here. Pictures can be viewed here.

A short synopsis of an event in Senegal can be read here.

Statement of support by Sudanese human rights defenders.

November 20: Urge Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGV) Programming and Prevention as Essential Elements of Humanitarian Relief in Darfur and Eastern Chad

Read the letter addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and signed by 60+ NGOs here.

On 31 October and 1 November, the Darfur Consortium and the East African Law Society co-hosted a meeting of 23 experts acting in their individual capacities in international and transitional justice and human rights in Nairobi, Kenya to review the agenda of the Preparatory Meeting of African State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Please find the positions, conclusions, positions and recommendations for consideration by African states parties here.

September 22: President Obama must address Sudan at the UN General Assembly

Huffington Post - by Jerry Fowler and signed on by Dismas Nkunda on behalf of the Darfur Consortium

While President Barack Obama will speak to a number of pressing global issues when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow, one topic he cannot neglect is Sudan. The President should seize the opportunity to build international support for policies to protect the human rights of all Sudanese and promote lasting peace in the country.

The stakes are significant. Sudan is the largest country in Africa, surrounded by nine other states which are, in one way or another, affected by its instability and insecurity. It is a bridge between the African and Arab worlds and a key to the balance of both. As leaders of advocacy coalitions in the United States, Africa and the Arab World, we see Sudan as a test of the Obama administration's strategy of multilateralism and America's ability to use its influence to champion human rights, resolve conflicts, and prevent mass atrocities.

Read the op-ed here.

September 20: I plead guilty to Mwenda's attack

It is not so often that I lock horns with my good friend Andrew Mwenda, who needs no introduction. That was not until the last issue of his magazine (The Independent). I did not know that I was actually and literary in his Last Words, until a friend called to ask whether I had any problems with Mwenda.
So I bought the magazine. And Indeed I was there for a bashing.

On August 25, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani and I were discussing the good professor’s new book, Saviours and Survivor, at Makerere University. I had been invited by Prof. Joe Oloka Onyango to be a respondent to Mamdani’s lecture. What was under review was a book that demonised the campaign that has brought into public domain the war that has claimed many in Darfur, the western region of Sudan.

Read the article here.

September 7:

ICC must consider the security of war victims

The EastAfrican - Kenya

At the conclusion of its Summit in Sirte, Libya, on July 1, 2009, the assembly of heads of state and government of the African Union (AU) decided that “AU member states shall not co-operate... in the arrest and surrender of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.”

In a press release issued two weeks later, on July 14, the organisation explained that this decision “bears testimony to the glaring reality that the situation in Darfur is too serious and complex an issue to be resolved without recourse to a harmonised approach to justice and peace, neither of which should be pursued at the expense of the other.”

Read the article here.

August 27: ICC should not try Bashir - Mamdani

The Monitor - Uganda

Prof. Mahmood Mamdani crossed intellectual swords with Mr Dismas Nkunda at Makerere University on Tuesday, where the two renowned academics clashed over the solution to ending violence in Darfur.

Mr Nkunda, the co-chair of the Darfur Consortium, insisted Sudan President Gen. Omar al-Bashir should be punished by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes. But Prof.  Mamdani argued that the  best way to move forward after 21 years of violence in Darfur is by propping up political and social institutions, not by demonising perpetrators.

Read the article here.

August 5: ISS Seminar, Sudan at the Crossroads: Elections, Abyei and the Darfur Conflict - hosted by the African Security Analysis Programme in Pretoria, South Africa

With less than two years remaining of the 6-year interim period of the transitional arrangements under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Government of National Unity, the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army are likely facing some of the most difficult choices and challenges to the stability and transformation of Sudan.

Important challenges include the holding in 2010 of the first national elections in over 20 years, the fate of the oil-rich Abyei area and the Transitional States, and the Darfur conflict. Whether the South decides to stay united with the North or to secede will depend on how the process leading up to 2011 is managed.

Read the event outline and RSVP here.

July 31: Building a Better UNAMID - A joint NGO statement

Two years ago, the UN Security Council passed Security Council Resolution 1769 authorizing the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). Since then, different actors within the international community – including the UN Secretary-General, various government officials, and global advocacy coalitions – have outlined innumerable deficiencies, struggles, and failures of UNAMID. These criticisms were intended to generate a sense of urgency and incite action.

Many of the present signatories have come together over the last two years to warn that UNAMID was on the brink of failure, outlining Sudanese government obstruction and highlighting unfulfilled international commitments and needed resources, not the least of them helicopters. Although nearly 70 percent of UNAMID has been deployed, the international community still has an enormous amount of work to do in order to ensure that UNAMID can fulfill its mandate in Darfur.

Read statement here.

July 29: Why Uganda would arrest President Bashir - The Observer, Uganda

By Dismas Nkunda, Chair of the Darfur Consortium

Time and again I hear and read that Uganda is inviting President Omar Bashir to Uganda. While that might sound good in the ears of the diplomats; it’s sour in the ears of the legal experts.

Here is why Bashir cannot and should not be invited in Uganda. First, when diplomacy and legal obligation clash then we need to take the latter much more seriously. Bashir, even if he is a seating head of state, he has a warrant of arrest issued on him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Rome statute  to which Uganda is a party obligates all state parties to cooperate with matters relating to the court including arresting an individual whether head of state or not. That is precisely what Uganda has been wanting all this time when we referred the case of Lord’s Resistance Army to the ICC.

Read the article here.
En francais.

July 13: Letter to UN Member States and Permanent Missions to encourage support for the Responsibility to Protect through words and actions in the upcoming 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. 

The conviction that states have a responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity received global support in the adoption of the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 UN World Summit.  The norm is based on the recognition that the failure of states and the international community to prevent international crimes must not be allowed to continue anywhere in the world.

Read the letter, signed by many Darfur Consortium members, here.

June 25: African civic leaders, Nobel Laureates and justice experts urge
African Union leaders to support International Criminal Court process in Sudan

African civil society leaders, Nobel Laureates, and justice experts from across the
continent are uniting ahead of the African Union summit, to call for action on the crisis in
Sudan.  In particular, the leaders are supporting the work of the International Criminal
Court (ICC), and calling for humanitarian access.

The statement, signed by Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai (Peace, 2004), Archbishop
Desmond Tutu (Peace, 1984), and Wole Soyinka (Literature, 1986), as well as 39 other
prominent African experts, emphasizes that the ICC plays a critical role in achieving the
objectives of “justice and accountability for the peoples of Sudan.” 

“The people of Darfur deserve more than negotiating warlords forgiving  each other for the violence – including brutal sexual violence – they have  perpetrated primarily against women, children and other non-combatants.”

The signatories call for accountability and urge African political leaders to dramatically
step up efforts to negotiate an end to the violence in Darfur, and ensure that all parties to
the conflict, including the government, armed groups, and especially women who have
been building the path to peace, are at the peace table.

The statement comes on the heels of an Opinion Editorial piece penned by Maathai,
Soyinka, and Archbishop Tutu, which was published in Jeune Afrique and other African
media.

Read the statement in English here.
In French.

On June 6, African experts on international criminal justice met in Nairobi to exchange views on the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to Africa.

The initiative by the African Union Assembly to encourage State Parties to the ICC to conduct a stocktaking of the impact of the ICC in Africa was applauded in a letter to the African States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The letter outlines the challenges the ICC faces in relation to its work in Africa, and opportunities for the Court are highlighted.

Read the letter here.

Read the summary of the workshop proceedings here.

June 4: Open letter to African States Parties to the Rome Statute

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member and partner organisations which are signatories of this letter (1) call on African states parties to the Rome Statute which are to meet in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 8 and 9, to support the action of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a judicial body complementary to national jurisdictions and in charge of trying the perpetrators of the most serious crimes that affect the international community as a whole.

This meeting is convened by the African Union to reflect on the relationships between the ICC and Africa, and comes within a context of criticism expressed by some African leaders towards international justice, since the arrest warrant issued on March, 4, 2009 by the ICC against the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, for crimes committed in Darfur.

Read the letter here.

May 12: Institute for Security Studies hosts workshop on international justice

The ISS’s International Crime in Africa Programme (ICAP) hosted a closed meeting constituting the first in the initiative – endorsed by African law society leaders and NGOs at a workshop in Pretoria in December 2008 – to establish an African Action Network on International Criminal Justice.

Read more here.

May 11: African NGO Forum passes resolution on strengthening international justice in Africa

(Banjul) NGOs gathered for the 45th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Gambia passed a resolution, which was subsequently presented to the Commission called for ratification of the Rome Statute by African States and the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Fighting Impunity in Africa.

Read the full resolution here.

April 28: Briefing note from the Darfur Consortium to the African Union

Following the expulsion and suspension of international and national humanitarian and human rights organizations in Darfur and Sudan one month ago, the Darfur Consortium released a briefing note to the African Union.

Consortium members are extremely concerned about the adverse effects the suspension of assistance has on the protection of civilians, the humanitarian situation in Darfur, the protection of human rights in Sudan and the indigenous Sudanese human rights movement in general.

The note calls for the AU to urge the government of Sudan to reconsider its decision to expel foreign aid groups and to facilitate humanitarian efforts, including by appointing a humanitarian envoy. The note also urges the AU to take on the situation of human rights defenders by calling on the government of Sudan to honor its commitments under international law on this issue, and to call on both the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, its Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders to monitor and report on the issue. In addition, it urges fuller support for UNAMID.

Read the briefing note here.
In French.

April 14: International Refugee Rights Initiative - New York organized a brown bag lunch

The African Union, Darfur and the Question of Justice

Since 2004, the African Union has played a critical role in efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis in Darfur. From facilitating peace negotiations in Abuja to deploying the region’s first peacekeepers, the regional institution took a strong early lead in the international response. Although the United Nations has taken on an increasing role in recent years, the African Union remains a key partner in peacekeeping and mediation efforts.

More recently, the question of justice has come to the fore of this engagement, with the African Union reacting with consternation to the presentation of charges against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. Dismas Nkunda, Co-Chair of the Darfur Consortium and Co-Director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative, presented his perspectives on the role that the African Union has played in mediating the crisis so far and the impact that debates over international justice have had in its recent engagement.

In conjunction, we presented the report In the Interests of Justice? Prospects and Challenges for International Justice in Africa, which provides an overview of how international justice concepts, mechanisms and strategies have been deployed in Africa since the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It documents important developments, highlights opportunities and gaps and articulates areas of policy concern for a more effective deployment of international justice in Africa. The report provides a starting point for the building of an informed constituency for international justice on the continent that will serve to monitor and hold international justice to account in Africa. 

View the invite here.

Press release

“Seizing the final opportunity”: Leading members of Sudanese civil society call for national conference

(Khartoum, February 4, 2009) Representatives of independent Sudanese civil society organizations, media and rights activists called on Sudanese government, political actors and civil society members to urgently convene a conference to discuss the crisis brought on by the Sudanese government’s reaction to the charges brought by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against the President of Sudan.

In a statement presented at a press conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, civil society, media and rights activists said reactions within Sudan to the possible indictment of President Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had “generated confusion and uncertainty” forcing the Government into confrontation with both its own people and the international community.  There was an urgent need as a result for all political forces within Sudan to come together to discuss the situation “holistically” with the support of those “regional and international stakeholders directly contributing to peace, justice and democracy.”   

Read the press release here.

An Open Letter from Monim Elgak to Salah Goush: regarding my arrest, torture and the International Criminal Court (ICC)

December 19, 2008

Dear Sir Salah Abdullah (Gosh), Director General of Sudanese Security and Intelligence,

I am writing to you a little later than would be expected. The torture and interrogation by your officers at the national security service has left me weak. This is an open letter, addressed to you personally equally as it is addressed to your colleagues, both  at the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and your ruling party, the National Congress Party (NCP). Although the letter recounts my own personal experience it also echoes I believe the reactions of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people who were horrified at my arrest and torture.

Read the letter here.
In Arabic.

Statement of the Sudan Human Rights Defenders Forum (SHRD - Forum)

(Khartoum, December 16, 2008) Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, ending more than 20 years of conflict in South Sudan, the peace building processes in Sudan remains challenging. In addition, this is in contrast to the expectations and hopes invested in the 2005 Sudan National Interim Constitution.

Individuals and organizations working and advocating for human rights across the
country continue to face multiple risks to their activities and lives.

Read the statement here.