Attachments
Human Rights Council
Fifty-Seventh session
9 September–9 October 2024
Agenda item 2
Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the
High Commissioner and the Secretary-General
Summary
In the present report, submitted pursuant to resolution 54/2, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan outlines the findings of its investigations into violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and related crimes, committed in Sudan in the context of the conflict that erupted in mid-April 2023. The report also contains recommendations, including on accountability and support for victims.
I. Introduction
1. In its resolution 54/2 of 11 October 2023, the Human Rights Council established the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan composed of three experts, for an initial period of one year. The Fact-Finding Mission is mandated inter alia to investigate and establish the facts, circumstances and root causes of all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law, and related crimes, in the context of the ongoing armed conflict that began on 15 April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as other warring parties.[1] The Council requested the Fact-Finding Mission to present a comprehensive report of its findings at its fifty-seventh session.
2. On 18 December 2023, the President of the Human Rights Council appointed Mohamed Chande Othman (Tanzania) (Chairperson), Mona Rishmawi (Jordan/Switzerland) and Joy Ngozi Ezeilo (Nigeria) to serve as the three independent experts. Due to the liquidity crisis faced by the United Nations Secretariat, the Fact-Finding Mission’s Secretariat was only established in May 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, and composed of approximately two-thirds of the allocated staff. Prior to its establishment, a small start-up team was provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), for which the Fact-Finding Mission is grateful.
3. The present report outlines the findings of the Fact-Finding Mission since the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan in mid-April 2023. The Fact-Finding Mission is also producing a conference room paper containing detailed information and analysis. The draft report was sent to the Government of Sudan on 23 August 2024 for its views on factual inaccuracies by 1 September 2024. The Fact-Finding mission did not receive a response.