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Sudan: UN Group of Experts on Darfur presents final report to Human Rights Council

The Group of Experts on Darfur, established by the Human Rights Council in March 2007 to ensure the effective follow-up and implementation of existing resolutions and recommendations on Darfur, presented its final report to the Council today.

In drafting its final report, the Group cooperated and worked in a transparent manner with the Government of Sudan and other relevant partners within the international community to identify obstacles to implementation of the recommendations and to differentiate short from medium term recommendations with a view to assisting the Government of Sudan to implement fully the recommendations set forth in the annex to its first report (A/HRC/5/6). The Group was pleased to continue working with the Government of Sudan at a very good level of cooperation.

To assess the current status of the Government's implementation of the recommendations, the Group considered whether there was actual improvement in the human rights situation in Darfur, using the indicators it put forward in its first report of June 2007. This assessment was made on the basis of information received from the Government in written and oral form, and information from other sources, including UN and African Union (AU) agencies, bodies and programmes with operational competence in Darfur as well as human rights and humanitarian NGOs.

The Group found that as of late November 2007, few recommendations had been fully implemented or had made a tangible impact. Several recommendations that had been prioritized to be implemented over the short term had not been implemented, even though, in the group's estimation, these particular recommendations could have been implemented within three months without lengthy administrative processes or additional resources. The Government took first steps on a number of recommendations, but these steps had not yet yielded much impact according to information that the group received. A significant number of other recommendations were not addressed by the Government at all and, with very few exceptions, no tangible improvement in the human rights situation has been felt in Darfur.

The Group of Experts recalls the Council's consensus on the seriousness of the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and the urgent need to focus on the implementation of existing recommendations to enhance the human rights situation in Darfur, and urges the Government to implement fully the prioritized recommendations without further delay. For this reason, the Group recommends that the Human Rights Council continue the process of review in accordance with the time frames and indicators envisaged for a full assessment of the Government's implementation. The Group suggests that a renewed mandate should envisage the possibility of an assessment mission to the Sudan, including its Darfur region, and sufficient time for analysis of the implementation of medium-term recommendations following their expiry on 20 June 2008.

The Group of Experts reiterates its previous recommendations to the Human Rights Council:

(a) To urge the Government of Sudan to continue and intensify, to the extent that recommendations have not yet been fully implemented, its efforts to implement, without delay, the recommendations compiled by the Group of Experts in accordance with the specified time frames and indicators (A/HRC/5/6, annex I);

(b) To call upon the Government of Sudan to address impunity and ensure that all allegations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are duly investigated and that the perpetrators are promptly brought to justice;

(c) To reiterate its call upon the Government of Sudan and all other parties to the conflict to put an end to all acts of violence against civilians, with special focus on women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and internally displaced persons, as well as human rights defenders and humanitarian workers;

(d) To invite relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to provide Sudan with support and technical assistance, in accordance with assessed needs, for the implementation of these recommendations; and

(e) To call upon donors to provide, on the basis of needs assessment, funds for this support and technical assistance.

For further information, contact:

Yvon Edoumou, Information Officer
Media Unit, OHCHR
+41 78 82 63 552 / yedoumou@ohchr.org
or
Lyal Sunga,
Coordinator for the Group of Experts on Darfur
OHCHR
lsunga@ohchr.org

For use of the information media; not an official record