Press Release

A Practical Step to End the Human Suffering of Darfur by Resolution 1591

March 31, 2005

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office welcomes the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1591 (2005), as issued in the Council’s meeting 5153 (dated 29 March 2005) on the situation in Darfur.

The Council’s Resolution imposes “a travel ban and assets freeze on those impeding the peace process, committing human rights violations and violating measures.” The resolution also “expanded the arms embargo established in its resolution 1556 (2004) to all the parties to the N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement and any other belligerents in the states of Darfur.”

The Council’s concerns for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur have been repeatedly expressed in resolutions 1547 (11 June 2004), 1556 (30 Jun 2004), 1564 (18 September 2004), 1574 (19 November 2004), 1585 (10 March 2005), 1588 (17 March 2005), and 1590 (24 March 2005). SHRO-Cairo welcomes the Council’s recent decision, issued in accordance with Article 28 of the Council procedures “to establish a committee consisting of all Council members to designate those individuals subject to the measures, and to monitor their implementation.”

SHRO-Cairo believes that these decisions constitute a practical step in the direction of ending the humanitarian crisis of Darfur. The Organization hopes the Council will take another practical step to transfer to trial members of the armed forces or the militia who are suspects of human rights violations in Darfur in order to ensure the due process of justice, which guarantees indiscriminate, public fair trials for all suspects before the law.

The Organization is gravely concerned with the increased humanitarian disaster that warranted the Council’s Resolution 1591. Strongly condemning all violations committed against the International Humanitarian Law in the region of Darfur, especially the unabated violence against civilians and the horrifying rapes of women and girls, SHRO-Cairo urges all parties to the conflict to take immediate measures to stop these heinous violations.

The organization appreciates the important role that the African Union has been playing to stop the suffering of people in Darfur and the active presence of the Union forces, despite their limited size and resources.