ICC Prosecutor Requests Arrest Warrant for Sudan’s President

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested that the ICC judges issue an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for grave crimes committed in Sudan's Darfur region. This dramatic development sparked an immediate effort by Sudan's allies, including South Africa, Libya, Russia and China, to suspend court proceedings for one year, as the UN Security Council is empowered to do. As members of the Security Council, these governments threatened not to renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Darfur unless the case against Bashir was suspended. Human Rights Watch played a critical role in beating back this effort to stop the wheels of justice. Our advocates worked furiously in UN missions in New York and in key capitals to resist this blackmail. Over countless lunches, dinners, receptions, and meetings, and by phone and email, we pressed the other Security Council members to let justice run its course. We found strong allies in Costa Rica and Belgium, which worked with us to stiffen the spines of the other members. We even found an unlikely ally in the United States, which in the past has been notoriously antagonistic to the ICC but this time was willing to put its antipathy aside in the interest of bringing Bashir to justice. In the end, the Security Council approved the peacekeeper mandate without suspending the case against Bashir-a major victory. But the fight has only begun. We expect that the friends of Bashir will move again within a month. Having spent the last five years documenting and highlighting crimes in Darfur, Human Rights Watch will continue the fight to ensure that their alleged authors have their day in court.