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8290th Security Council Meeting: Sudan and South Sudan
Exclusive Focus on Africa Shows Clear Bias, Says Sudan’s Representative, as Others Stress Immunity of Sitting Presidents
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court pressed the Security Council today to play a more active role in supporting the arrest and transfer of those suspected of mass-atrocity crimes in Darfur, a situation it had referred to The Hague-based tribunal more than 13 years ago.
“How many more years and how many more reports will be required for this Council to be galvanized into taking tangible action?” asked Fatou Bensouda, emphasizing that the victims were owed accountability through the Court’s independent judicial process for the Rome Statute crimes committed in Darfur.
She said Government leaders Omer al-Bashir, Ahmad Harun and Abdel Hussein, as well as militia leader Ali Kushayb and rebel leader Abdallah Banda — who were all presently at large — stood accused of multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes. Stressing that the Office of the Prosecutor sought to advance its investigations, and the Court to arrest and surrender those suspects, she said “the support of the Council is critical to each if we are to move the Darfur situation forward”.
While more than 20 States parties had cooperated with the investigations, Sudan continued to refuse, she continued, and the Council must help to facilitate dialogue in that regard. It must also follow up on the Court’s notification of non‑compliance, particularly by Uganda and Chad, after their failure to arrest and surrender Mr. Al‑Bashir during official visits in 2017, she said, underlining that the status quo would not only erode public confidence in the cause of international criminal justice, but in the Council itself.
In the ensuing dialogue, some delegates pressed the Council to act resolutely to combat impunity, Côte d’Ivoire’s delegate encouraged Sudan to respond to the Court’s concerns, including by shedding light on allegations of human rights violations and bringing to justice those accused of committing crimes.
The representative of the United States, meanwhile, decried the prevalence of sexual violence by people wearing Rapid Support Forces uniforms, abuse that Sudan denied. The United States would use all tools available to persuade Sudan to improve its human rights practices and protect fundamental freedoms, he added.
Others, however, took a different view, with Ethiopia’s delegate stressing that his country had repeatedly called for the suspension of proceedings against Mr. Al‑Bashir and urging the Council to with draw its referral. “We still think that the case is so weak that its continuation makes no sense,” he said. Sudan had played a constructive role in fighting terrorism, human trafficking and illicit migration, having enhanced its multilateral engagement on all those issues.
The representative of Equatorial Guinea, likewise, said the Court lacked the jurisdiction to accuse a sitting President. Many States had not collaborated in the detention or arrest of the President of Sudan because they did not share the Court’s interpretation of the principle of immunity, he noted.
On that point, the representative of the Russian Federation said the referral of a situation to the Court did not automatically lead to an end of immunity for the officials of the State in question. Immunity to criminal jurisdiction was a key international legal norm and an element of stability in international relations. Personal immunity had no exceptions under customary law, he said. All other officials had functional immunity.
Sudan’s delegate said his Government was fully committed to upholding customary international law. Chief among those commitments was the fight against impunity. Calling attention to the Court’s almost exclusive focus on African States, he noted that attempts to arrest a Head of State had not been made in any other world region, which demonstrated a clear bias. Sudan had always sought to be “above board” regarding the need for a decisive ruling on the issue of immunity for Heads of State, and it was regrettable that the former and current Prosecutors had come up against difficulties due to their inability to define their own mission.
Also speaking today were representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Peru, China, Sweden, Bolivia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Poland and the Netherlands.
The meeting began at 10:06 a.m. and ended at 12:11 p.m.
