The Human Rights Council is depicted in this image taken on May 11, 2023, in Geneva, during a special session devoted to Sudan.
In order to raise attention to the killings, injuries, and other violations committed against civilians since the dispute between Sudan’s two top generals broke out last month, the U.N.’s highest human rights committee conducted an extraordinary session on Sudan on Thursday.
The 47 U.N. member states that make up the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council have approved a resolution that would examine ongoing human rights abuses in Sudan in greater detail.
The motion was approved with a vote of 18 in favour, 15 against, and 14 abstentions.
It demanded that all parties pledge once more to a transition to a civilian-led administration and an immediate end to hostilities “with no pre-conditions.”
Power struggles between rival Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the potent paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan’s military, led to the outbreak of hostilities in Sudan.
During his opening remarks to the meeting, Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, charged that both parties had broken international humanitarian law.
Turk charged that the RSF had seized “many buildings in Khartoum to use as operation bases, evicted civilians, and launched operations from densely populated urban areas” while the Sudanese military had carried out attacks in heavily populated civilian areas.
Western nations were the driving force behind the call for the special session.
Chile, Costa Rica, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan are just a few of the member nations of the Council that joined the demand for the special session.
The majority of the resolution’s co-sponsors, in addition to the United States, were all from Europe.
