Sudan: UN Special Rapporteur must remain

Documents currently before the Human Rights Council for adoption today strongly imply the Council will end the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Sudan. At best Dr Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur, will be replaced with an Independent Expert.

Even if an Independent Expert, who is knowledgeable about the situation in Sudan, can be appointed as early as September, the gravity of the situation requires that the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is kept in place.

“The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Sudan was established to respond to a situation of gross and systematic violations of human rights in the country,” said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International’s Africa Deputy Director. “It would be a criminal act of negligence to ignore the gravity of the situation in Sudan if the Council were to terminate that mandate.”

The Human Rights Council should consider the interests of the civilian population in Sudan over any political consideration. The Special Rapporteur’s mandate must be maintained for as long as war crimes and crimes against humanity persist.