GENEVA, 30 November 2006 — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday urged the world body’s Human Rights Council to hold a special session on violations in Sudan’s strife-torn region of Darfur, warning that the Council’s reputation was at stake.
He was joined by UN human rights chief Louise Arbor, who warned the assembly that “atrocities” in Darfur “continue to be a daily occurrence” and openly engaged Khartoum’s ongoing responsibility in serious violations.
“The government of Sudan and militias aligned with them...continue to be responsible for the most serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” she said.
In a message to the 47-member states of the Council delivered by Arbor, Annan said the violations there deserve at least as much if not more attention than grave violations in Palestinian territories and Israel.
“There are surely other situations, besides the one in the Middle East, which would merit scrutiny by a special session of this council. I would suggest that Darfur is a glaring case in point,” Annan said in his message to the session.
The Council formed this year has fallen prey to similar geopolitical rifts that discredited its predecessor, the Commission.
The Council has held urgent special sessions three times in recent months, but solely at the request of Arab nations to deal with the Middle East.
Annan said the Council needed to do more to “take its place as one of the paramount bodies of the United Nations.”
“There is much at stake for the Council and for human rights in the months ahead. A new atmosphere is vitally needed,” he warned, calling on the 47 member states to rise above national and regional interests to tackle abuses “wherever and whenever” they occur.
UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland on Wednesday accused sections of the international community of being in denial about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s strife torn region of Darfur.
On Tuesday, the Council rejected a bid by the European Union and Canada to place primary responsibility on the Sudanese government to prevent human rights violations in the conflict-riven Darfur.
Instead, an African resolution that made no direct reference to Khartoum’s role was passed in its unaltered form with 25 votes in favor, 11 against and 10 abstentions.
Sudan was expected yesterday to give its formal response on a tentative deal with the United Nations for deploying a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.
At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war and famine since the conflict there erupted in 2003.
