Commission on HR Oral Statement by Amnsty International on Item 19 and Sudan

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UNITED NATIONS OFFICE GENEVA

Mr Chair,

Agenda item 19 is the Commission’s vehicle for mandating advisory
services and technical assistance to help countries that are emerging from
situations marked by serious human rights violations and demonstrate a real
commitment to improve their respect for human rights. However, as we have
seen at this and previous sessions, the severe shortcomings that currently
characterize the workings of this Commission lead to the inappropriate
consideration of situations of serious human rights violations under this
agenda item. Any suggestion that the human rights situation in Darfur,
Sudan can be considered as a matter of advisory services and technical
cooperation only contributes to the Commission’s “credibility deficit”
highlighted by the UN Secretary-General.

The provisions of Sudan’s Humanitarian and Security Agreements have been
breached since the day of their signature in Abuja on 9 November 2005.
Nearly 2 million people are displaced in Darfur; their situation remains
insecure. Civilians are continuously targeted by militias in attacks
supported or condoned by the government. On 7 April 2005, militias carried
out what the African Union mission and the UN in a joint statement
described as a “senseless and premeditated attack” on Khor Abeche, South
Darfur, “burning everything in their paths and leaving in their wake total
destruction”. Before the attack, the AU force was prevented from
stationing itself in the area to protect the population, by “what can only
be inferred as deliberate official procrastination over the allocation of
land for the troops’ accommodation.” Joint Statement by the African Union
Mission in the Sudan and the United Nations Mission in Sudan on the attack
and destruction of Khor Abeche on 7 April 2005 by armed militia. After
the attack, the AU force called for the arrest of the known leader of the
raid, but the government did nothing to act on this.

Sexual violence, such as the targeting of women who leave camps to fetch
fire wood and water, continues in Darfur. In a report of 8 March, Médecins
Sans Frontières said they had treated almost 500 women who were raped
between October 2004 and February 2005. MSF also reported the arrest of
women who fell pregnant as a result of rape and who were subsequently
charged with illegal pregnancy, which is a punishable offence under the
Sudanese Penal Code.

The internally displaced continue to travel from place to place in
search of security; over the past couple of weeks more than 200 persons who
fled Khor Abeche came to Galab Camp while others fled from the insecurity
in Kass town in South Darfur to Kalma Camp near Nyala. They do not feel
safe to return home. This means that, at the beginning of the rainy season
in Darfur, the displaced will live another year in frustration and
increasing despair in camps in Darfur and Chad.

There can be no doubt that the human rights crisis in Darfur continues
and yet governments here at the Commission seem hesitant, like last year,
to deal with the primary responsibility of the Sudanese government for
these gross violations of human rights. The children, women, and men of
Darfur are not only victims of violations in their homeland; they are also
the victims of the perverse logic of this Commission that gives politics
and formalities precedence over measures to protect them. This obvious
inability of governments — all governments — to work constructively
together to address effectively the human rights crisis in Sudan does not
contribute to the credibility of this Commission.

Reform of the UN’s human rights machinery is imperative. Amnesty
International urges governments to use the opportunity created by the
reports of the High-level Panel and the Secretary-General to establish a
body capable of promoting and protecting all human rights of all persons in
all countries at all times.

Thank you, Mr. Chair