Sudanese lawyers slam ICC prosecutor’s report

Sudanese legal experts and rights defenders have strongly criticised the latest report by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the UN Security Council, calling it a “chronic failure” in delivering justice for victims of atrocities in Darfur over the past two decades.

In the July 10 briefing, Deputy Prosecutor Nuzhat Shameem Khan updated the Council on the situation in Sudan. However, Sudanese lawyer and legal expert Saleh Mahmoud told Radio Dabanga that the report “lacks seriousness and tangible results.” He noted that since the referral of the Darfur file to the Court in 2005 under UN Security Council Resolution 1593, only one suspect, Ali Kushayb, has been brought to trial.

“This is an institutional failure and a waste of the Court’s resources,” Mahmoud said, pointing out that prominent indictees such as ousted president Omar Al Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and Abdelrahim Hussein remain at large.

Mahmoud also questioned the absence of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan from the briefing, calling it “an evasion of responsibility” and expressing disappointment over unfulfilled promises to deliver progress on investigations in El Geneina and El Fasher. He urged the Security Council to take stronger action, including replacing the prosecutor if necessary.

Lawyer and rights activist Moez Hadra meanwhile described the report as “without teeth.” He said it recycles old pledges while failing to deliver justice. “Twenty years on, victims have lost faith in the Court’s seriousness,” Hadra told Dabanga.

Hadra called for expanding the ICC’s jurisdiction to cover atrocities committed beyond Darfur since the outbreak of the Sudan war on April 15, 2023. “The crimes now include Khartoum, Kordofan, and other areas. Why should investigations remain confined to Darfur?”

Lawyer Osman Saleh cited limited financial and human resources as reasons for the Court’s narrow focus on North and West Darfur, despite widespread violations across the region. He stressed the role of civil society in supporting documentation and investigations.

ICC report

As previously reported by Dabanga, the 41st report of the Prosecutor of the ICC to the United Nations Security Council detailed ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, warning that the scale of atrocities demands urgent international action.

The ICC said it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that such crimes “continue to be committed in Darfur” amid 27 months of devastating conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has driven Sudan into one of the most severe humanitarian crises on record.