Press Statement

Media Contacts:     

Adetokunbo Mumuni ([email protected])
Gbenga Ogundare ([email protected])

Groups petition African Commission on Darfur

(LAGOS, 17 October 2023) The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Independent Advocacy Project (IAP) have called on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to urgently visit Darfur, Sudan, to assess the dire human rights and humanitarian situation and to collect direct evidence on the extent to which the Government of Sudan (GoS) has complied with the Commission’s recommendations, following the Commission’s fact finding mission to Darfur, Sudan, between 8 and 18 July 2004.

The call was contained in a petition sent to Madame Salamata Sawadogo, the chairperson of the Commission in Banjul, The Gambia, and made available to newsmen in Lagos.

The two Nigerian non-governmental human rights organizations are members of Globe for Darfur, an international group of non-governmental organisations committed to promoting respect for international human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur.

‘We believe that the failure and/or deliberate refusal by the government of Sudan to implement the recommendations of the African Commission is an affront to the authority of the African Commission, and if not addressed may undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the Commission,’ says SERAP’s Adetokunbo Mumuni.

‘SERAP and IAP are concerned that contrary to the African Commission’s recommendation that those who are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity should be brought to justice, the government of Sudan is shielding criminal suspects away from justice,’ adds IAP spokes person Gbenga Ogundare.

Specifically, SERAP and IAP are asking the African Commission to:

• Publicly condemn the government of Sudan for non-compliance with the Commission’s recommendations, and for lack of good faith of the government to fully implement its obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Conduct a special hearing on Darfur at its 42nd ordinary session in Congo-Brazzaville in November 2007 in order to consider the extent of Sudan’s compliance with the Commission’s recommendations, highlighted above
• Invite the government of Sudan to address the Commission on the steps it has taken to implement the Commission’s recommendations
• Draw the attention of the Assembly of the African Union to the fact that the government of Sudan is refusing, failing and or neglecting to faithfully and fully implement the Commission’s recommendations, and ask the Assembly to take appropriate measures to put pressure on Sudan to comply with those recommendations