The Human Rights Council adopted on October 1st by a narrow majority a resolution continuing the mandate of an independent expert on Sudan. Despite hostility from Sudan and many other African members of the HRC, including Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ghana, against the continuation of any monitoring mechanism to address massive human rights violations in the country, a majority of Members States have expressed their support for a mechanism that has demonstrated its crucial role as one of the last independent monitoring in Sudan.
“Despite the fact that the situation in Sudan has significantly deteriorated in the past few months, as reported by the Independent Expert himself” said Osman Hummaida, Director of the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, « some African States have decided to express an unconditional support to the Sudanese Government and to give credit to its total negation of the massive human rights violations committed, this is not acceptable» he added. “Such opposition to a monitoring mechanism was indeed unacceptable when considering the strong need for human rights assessment in the perspective of the January 2011 referendum which will decide the independence or not of South Sudan”, declared Amin Medani, Director of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor.
Our organisations want to express their disappointment, with the decision taken by some African Members States not to support the mandate of the Independent Expert, reflecting the decision taken at the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union on July 2009, where they agreed to support President Bashir who has been served a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged responsibility for atrocities committed in Darfur.