At a press conference today in Cairo, Human Rights First, together with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, is issuing a new statement calling for the immediate referral of the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.
The statement is made in the name of the Darfur Consortium, an umbrella group of more than forty mainly African civil society organizations from more than twenty African countries, which carried out a research mission to Darfur and Chad earlier this month.
“The restoration of peace in Darfur is not possible unless those responsible for the grave crimes committed there are brought to justice and the damage done to the victims is satisfactorily repaired,” the statement declares. “As a first step, the ICC must be permitted to investigate and prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility for these crimes.”
The current draft of a Security Council resolution on Darfur, which is sponsored by the United States, fails to refer the Darfur situation to the ICC – or indeed to provide for any acceptable mechanism for expeditiously holding accountable those responsible for what the U.N. Secretary General has described as a “hell on earth” for the people of Darfur.
“It is unacceptable to delay justice for victims in Darfur,” said John Stompor, Senior Associate in the International Justice program of Human Rights First. “A vague promise of future accountability is an inadequate substitute for immediate referral to the ICC.”
In western Sudan and Chad, members of the Darfur Consortium observed firsthand how Darfurians continue to suffer under Khartoum’s defiance of the international community and the ineffectiveness of existing Security Council resolutions. More than 2.1 million people have been cast out of their homes and are living in fear in precarious conditions as internally displaced persons in Sudan or as refugees in Chad. As many as 300,000 people may have already died as consequence of government policies in Darfur.
People from Darfur who fled their homes are enduring a desperate lack of adequate food and medical care. They also express fear at returning to their villages until there is a process for holding accountable those responsible for the grave crimes committed in Darfur.
Given the need to move rapidly to hold human rights violators accountable,” added Stompor, “we need to clear the way for ICC action without any further delay.
Read Joint Statement ARABIC ENGLISH
