VI. International Response

The international response to humanitarian law and human rights violations in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile has been muted and largely eclipsed by attention to the deteriorating relations and conflict between Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan.

Neither the AU nor the UN has explicitly condemned Sudan’s indiscriminate bombing, or endorsed the August 2011 findings and recommendations of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to independently investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws in Southern Kordofan.  Governments and international organizations have urged the parties to the conflict to negotiate a ceasefire and agree to aid access, rather than insist on an end to indiscriminate bombing, attacks, and other abuses. 

In May 2, 2012, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2046, adopting an AU roadmap to address the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan, urged Sudan and SPLM-North to accept the Tripartite Proposal, submitted by the AU, UN, and League of Arab States (LAS), to permit humanitarian access in the two states, and to negotiate political and security arrangements with the help of the AU’s High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) and Chair of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD. In August 2012, the parties finally agreed to terms for access, but largely because of Sudan’s inaction, an initial assessment never occurred.  International donors and agencies have openly begun to doubt that Sudan will ever allow aid in.

International actors engaged on Sudan need to urgently re-focus attention on the serious human rights violations that underlie and co-exist with the growing humanitarian crisis and press for justice for such crimes. They should seek a UN mandate to establish an international inquiry into all alleged breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law since the conflict started in June 2011. The inquiry should include investigation into the roles of individuals responsible, in both government and rebel forces, with a view to identifying those who bear individual and command responsibility for serious crimes committed. The investigation should also seek to identify those responsible in the Sudanese government for the policy of preventing access to humanitarian aid for the civilian population in the two states.

The lack of justice for serious crimes committed during the North-South conflict and Darfur appears to have emboldened those engaged in the conflicts documented in this report, which are characterized by many of the same tactics. The AU, UN, EU, LAS, and individual states bilaterally should make clear that there will be consequences, including individual sanctions on those responsible for serious violations. They should also call for Sudan to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation into crimes in Darfur, including by ensuring that President Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and other ICC suspects appear before the court to answer the charges against them.