By Hassan Shire, Executive Director of AfricanDefenders, and Nicolas Agostini, UN Representative for DefendDefenders
Translated by Majid Maali
As diplomats prepare for the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC60) in early September, civil society organizations are issuing one of the strongest calls yet for justice in Sudan. Nearly 100 organizations urge the international community to stop treating Sudan as a distant tragedy and move forward with accountability. Their message is clear: to end suffering and build lasting peace, investigations are essential. The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Sudan is the best tool available to document atrocities, identify perpetrators, and combat impunity. At HRC60, the mandate of this mission must be extended and strengthened.
Now entering its third year, Sudan’s crisis has become a catastrophe of staggering proportions. With 13 million people displaced, Sudan represents the largest displacement crisis in the world. Conservative estimates suggest 150,000 civilians have been killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in absolute terms. Millions face the threat of famine, and 30 million people require life-saving aid. As fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces remains locked in a strategic stalemate with no ceasefire in sight, human rights violations are occurring on a scale that shocks even seasoned observers.
Warring parties show utter disregard for international law and human dignity. Civilians are targeted, including in displacement camps and markets. Sexual violence and torture are rampant. Ethnically motivated attacks against the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab communities by the RSF and allied militias bear the hallmarks of genocide. Entire communities have been destroyed, and many survivors of rape—including mass rape—have died from their injuries or taken their own lives. With the social fabric unraveling, Sudan faces not just collapse but complete disintegration.
In its latest update to the Human Rights Council last June, the FFM described the conflict as “brutal, multifaceted, and increasingly complex,” with shifting dynamics that grow uglier, including retaliatory killings of those accused of “collaborating” with either side. Meanwhile, Egypt and Ethiopia are either deporting Sudanese refugees or extorting them through exorbitant visa and residency fees imposed on desperate families.
This is the backdrop for the renewed appeal—and why the Council must take bolder steps this time. A routine one-year extension of the FFM’s mandate is no longer sufficient. Instead, the upcoming session should extend it for two years. This would give investigators—and their understaffed secretariat—the time and stability needed to gather evidence and build case files against perpetrators.
Secondly, the resolution should open new, participatory avenues to spotlight Sudan, including public discussions that involve civil society, victims, and survivors. Giving them a direct voice at the UN would send a clear message: the suffering of the Sudanese people is not peripheral.
Third—and this is civil society’s boldest demand—the resolution should indirectly but unequivocally call on the UN Security Council to act. It should recommend that the General Assembly refer FFM reports to the Security Council for appropriate action. Two main pathways are available: the Council could expand the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to cover all of Sudan (currently limited to Darfur), and adopt targeted measures, including sanctions, against key perpetrators of atrocities—at the highest levels of each warring faction.
We are not naïve about the political environment in which this appeal is made. The UN faces a financial crisis, multilateralism is under threat, and the Security Council is likely to remain paralyzed by vetoes from permanent members opposing any effort to empower the ICC. But that is precisely why Sudan must serve as a wake-up call. Our message outlines a roadmap for a more humane, credible, and sustainable global response. It must not be treated as just another plea in an overflowing inbox, but as an opportunity for clarity.
Human rights organizations often say they don’t engage in politics. But we cannot ignore the political implications of calls for justice and human rights. Today, we say it plainly: those responsible for inflicting this suffering on the Sudanese people have forfeited the right to shape Sudan’s future. Their crimes must be exposed, and they must be excluded from any post-war transition. Justice is not a distraction from peace—it is a prerequisite for it.
For member states of the Human Rights Council—and for anyone who claims to oppose the collapse of the rules-based international order—the choice is clear. Sudan offers a practical opportunity to fight nihilism and defend multilateralism. They can rise to the moment with ambition, or allow Sudan’s catastrophe to continue in deafening silence.
