EU draft human rights resolution over Darfur

Excerpts from the European Union draft resolution on Darfur to the human rights commission in Geneva.

The Commission on Human Rights...

Expresses deep concern at the grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur, in particular, reports of systematic attacks on civilians, targeting of villages and centres for internally displaced persons and of civilians by Janjaweed militia groups; the removal by force of, inter alia, Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit communities from their villages; the lack of adequate protection of and assistance to civilians by the Government of the Sudan and the widespread recourse to rape and other forms of sexual violence, including against children, as a means of warfare in violation of both human rights law and international humanitarian law;

Also expresses deep concern at:

(a) Violations of the rights of women and girls, inter alia through sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault, female genital mutilation, as well as through discrimination both in law, including customary law, and in practice;

(b) Continuing restrictions on freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, whilst noting some improvements over the last two years;

(c) Restrictions on freedom of association, assembly, opinion and expression and political freedom;

(d) Occurrences of arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of rule of law, the occurrence of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of treatment or punishment, such as cross amputation;

(e) The abduction of men, women and children in the Sudan, including the abduction of children for use as child soldiers;

Urges all the parties to declare an immediate ceasefire in Darfur and to allow immediate humanitarian access to internally displaced persons and ensure that all attacks against civilians are stopped with immediate effect and to reach a political settlement to the dispute;

Calls upon the Government of the Sudan:

(a) To actively promote and protect human rights and international humanitarian law throughout the Sudan, within and outside the framework of the ongoing peace talks in Naivasha;

(b) To ensure that all attacks against civilians in Darfur are stopped with immediate effect, these attacks having led to grave violations of human rights and to the forced depopulation of entire areas in the region, and to cease all support, including the provision of supplies, to the Janjaweed militia, further aggravating the most precarious situation of internally displaced persons in the region;

(c) To provide the necessary support to all international agencies and humanitarian organizations in order to ensure immediate, full, safe and unhindered access in Darfur and elsewhere in the Sudan aimed at delivering humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need and to cooperate closely with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Operation Lifeline Sudan, as a further sign of consolidation of the progress already achieved in many regions;

(d) To take measures to prevent the occurrence of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of treatment or punishment, including ratifying the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and to promote the rule of law throughout the Sudan;

(e) To respect and promote the full enjoyment of all human rights by women and to take special measures to protect women and children from sexual and all other forms of violence...

Calls upon the international community:

(a) To expand its support for the activities aimed at improving respect for human rights and humanitarian law and to continue its support for the peace process in the Sudan;

(b) To expand the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Khartoum to include a monitoring role aimed at improving respect for human rights and humanitarian law and assisting in national capacity-building in the area of the promotion and protection of human rights;

Decides:

(a) To appoint a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan for one year and requests the Special Rapporteur to submit an interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and to report to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first session on the situation of human rights in the Sudan...