Human Rights in the US & the International Community — Genocide & Crimes Against Humanity: Unit IV. Darfur — Response from the International Community

By October of 2004, the UN Security Council had passed three resolutions calling on the government of Sudan to stop the Janjaweed attacks. Further resolutions in March, 2005 created the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) consisting of 10,000 troops meant to support the African Union (AU) peacekeepers already in the region.

In 2006, the Security Council passed another resolution authorizing closer operation between the UN forces and the AU forces, creating a hybrid support operation.

Despite all of these efforts (which involve peacekeeping rather than enforcement), as of 2007, the government of Sudan had been less than fully cooperative in allowing the peacekeepers to operate and had also failed to take adequate steps to rein in the Janjaweed.

Ahmad Muhammad Harun

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has also become involved in Darfur, at the request of the UN Security Council, bringing cases against Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Minister of State for the Interior of the Government of Sudan, and Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Janjaweed, for 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

There are three circumstances under which a case can be brought to the ICC:

A state party to the treaty can refer a situation to the court.
The Security Council can refer a situation to the court.
The prosecutor of the ICC can initiate a case as well.

In 2005, the Security Council passed Resolution 1593 referring the situation in Darfur to the prosecutor of the ICC, who proceeded to open an investigation of possible wrongdoing. The cases brought against Harun and Kushayb covered crimes which allegedly occurred in four villages in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. The alleged crimes with which these two individuals were charged included: rape, murder, torture, attacks against the civilian population, and unlawful imprisonment and severe deprivation of liberty among others.

As of 2007, the ICC proceedings were in the earliest stages, so their eventual impact was not clear. Some hoped that ICC action would work as a deterrent for other officials in Sudan to stop their complicity in the genocide. The government in Khartoum, however, had pledged non-cooperation with the ICC.

In Darfur, Sudanese Red Crescent workers bag green split peas provided by USAID

Along with the peacekeeping efforts of the UN and African Union and the individual criminal justice efforts of the International Criminal Court, a third aspect of the genocide in Darfur has attracted significant international attention — the ongoing humanitarian crisis. One of the main actors involved in trying to manage the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.