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HRC57 - UN Human Rights Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif statement on Sudan
Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy Human Rights Chief told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday that human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict in Sudan continue to spiral out of control.
“Over sixteen months on, the conflict in Sudan continues to spiral out of control. Civilians bear the brunt of hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and respective allied armed movements and militias, conducted with total disregard for international law,” she said.
Since the High Commissioner’s update to this Council in March, conflict has escalated further. Declarations by the warring parties of commitments to protect civilians remain empty, with violations continuing unabated.
The UN human rights office and the Designated Expert continue to document violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict.
“Indiscriminate attacks and the use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas have resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, destruction of vital infrastructure – including hospitals, schools and markets – and decimation of sources of livelihoods,” Al-Nashif said.
Since May, El Fasher in North Darfur has been ravaged by heavy fighting: targeting of medical facilities has deprived the population of health services. From June to August, we documented over 864 civilian deaths in attacks on residential areas across Sudan.
“Our Office is particularly alarmed by the use, since the beginning of the conflict, of sexual violence as a weapon of war. We have documented 97 incidents involving 172 victims, predominantly women and girls – which is a gross under-representation of the reality. Responsibility for 81 per cent of incidents was attributed to men in RSF uniform and affiliated armed men, we also received credible reports of sexual violence attributed to SAF troops and allied armed movements,” the deputy high commissioner said.
Nada Al-Nashif again urged the parties to issue and enforce strict command orders to prohibit and punish sexual violence, and to take other effective steps to prevent it.
“I am deeply troubled by ethnically motivated attacks and hate speech. Our Office documented multiple testimonies recounting summary executions, sexual violence and forced displacement perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia, notably targeting the Masalit community in West Darfur. Ethnically motivated violence, harassment and arrests were also documented in Darfur and Al-Jazirah,” she said.
The mobilization of civilians, including children, has intensified across Sudan, particularly along tribal lines. This poses risks of a widening civil war with further ethnic dimensions.
Arbitrary detention by both parties, and allied armed movements, continues. The UN human rights office documented increasing arrests by Military Intelligence, and imposition of death sentences, for alleged support for the RSF, often based upon real or presumed tribal identity. They also documented unlawful detention, again often based on ethnicity, by the RSF in Darfur.
“This senseless conflict has a devastating impact on economic and social rights, in particular the rights to food, housing, and education. As a result, Over 20 per cent of the population is displaced – 10.7 million people internally and 2.1 million in neighbouring countries. Sudan faces critical levels of food insecurity, with imminent risk of famine and more than half of its population – 25.6 million people – in acute hunger,” the deputy high commissioner said.
وفي الختام او ان أشير الى ما أكد عليه المفوض السامي في تحديثه العالمي قبل سنتين الى وجود أمل. لكن يواجه الشعب السوداني اليوم واحدة من اسوأ الازمات التي يغذيها الافلات من العقاب وممارسات سلطوية تتغذى على التوترات العرقية، مدفوعة بمصالح سياسية واقتصادية ضيقة. ويجب على المجتمع الدولي الا يسمح باستمرار هذه الوضعية، وعلى هذه الماساة ان تنتهي الان.
[English translation: As the High Commissioner underscored in his Global Update, almost two years ago, there was hope. Today, the Sudanese people are experiencing one of the world’s worst crises, fueled by impunity and zero-sum power struggles feeding on ethnic tensions, driven by vested political and economic interests. The international community cannot let this continue, this tragedy needs to end, now.]
ENDS
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STORY: UN Human Rights Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif speech on Sudan 57th HRC
TRT: 03:39
SOURCE: OHCHR/ UNOG
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English / Arabic / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 10 September 2024 – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior shot: Palais des Nations
- Interior shot: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Over sixteen months on, the conflict in Sudan continues to spiral out of control. Civilians bear the brunt of hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and respective allied armed movements and militias, conducted with total disregard for international law.”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Indiscriminate attacks and the use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas have resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, destruction of vital infrastructure – including hospitals, schools and markets – and decimation of sources of livelihoods.”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Our Office is particularly alarmed by the use, since the beginning of the conflict, of sexual violence as a weapon of war. We have documented 97 incidents involving 172 victims, predominantly women and girls – which is a gross under-representation of the reality. Responsibility for 81 per cent of incidents was attributed to men in RSF uniform and affiliated armed men, we also received credible reports of sexual violence attributed to SAF troops and allied armed movements.”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “I am deeply troubled by ethnically motivated attacks and hate speech. Our Office documented multiple testimonies recounting summary executions, sexual violence and forced displacement perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia, notably targeting the Masalit community in West Darfur. Ethnically motivated violence, harassment and arrests were also documented in Darfur and Al-Jazirah.”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “This senseless conflict has a devastating impact on economic and social rights, in particular the rights to food, housing, and education. As a result, Over 20 per cent of the population is displaced – 10.7 million people internally and 2.1 million in neighbouring countries. Sudan faces critical levels of food insecurity, with imminent risk of famine and more than half of its population – 25.6 million people – in acute hunger.”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
- SOUNDBITE (Arabic) — Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights: “
وفي الختام او ان أشير الى ما أكد عليه المفوض السامي في تحديثه العالمي قبل سنتين الى وجود أمل. لكن يواجه الشعب السوداني اليوم واحدة من اسوأ الازمات التي يغذيها الافلات من العقاب وممارسات سلطوية تتغذي على التوترات العرقية، مدفوعة بمصالح سياسية واقتصادية ضيقة. ويجب على المجتمع الدولي الا يسمح باستمرار هذه الوضعية، وعلى هذه الماساة ان تنتهي الان.
[English translation: As the High Commissioner underscored in his Global Update, almost two years ago, there was hope. Today, the Sudanese people are experiencing one of the world’s worst crises, fueled by impunity and zero-sum power struggles feeding on ethnic tensions, driven by vested political and economic interests. The international community cannot let this continue, this tragedy needs to end, now.].”
- Cutaway: Human Rights Council
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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