UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC 62 - Human Rights in Sudan

[Other language spoken]

President, distinguished participants, global attention is being pulled in many directions by escalating crises.

[Other language spoken]

Sudan cannot be forgotten.

The conflict has deepened and expanded, marked by a sharp increase in the use of armed drones by the warring parties.

Civilians are enduring devastating new levels of suffering.

Between January and May 2026, our office documented more than 1000 civilians killed by drone strikes.

These account for some 80% of all conflict related civilian deaths recorded by our office This year.

Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have launched drone attacks across the country, repeatedly hitting civilian infrastructure, including in areas where there had not been active hostilities in the past.

In the first five months of this year, our office documented at least 16 drone strikes on health facilities and 33 on markets.

In one of the deadliest attacks, a strike on on Ed Diane Teaching Hospital in East Darfur in March killed more than 60 civilians.

In January, a drone attack on a market in Dealing in South Kordofan killed at least 12 civilians.

Attacks have taken place mainly in Kordofan and Darfur and are also spreading to Blue Nile, White Nile and Khartoum.

Patterns of repeated aerial strikes, including by drones on markets, health facilities and water and energy infrastructure raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law and undermine the rights to health, food and water.

Drone warfare is terrifying for civilians who do not know whether the next strike will hit their neighbourhoods, markets, health centres or vehicles as they flee.

As hostilities escalate in border areas including N Darfur and Blue Nile states, the risk of regional spillover and destabilising rises.

[Other language spoken]

President, sexual violence has reached unprecedented levels in scale and brutality, including gang rape, sexual torture and sexual enslavement.

Sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war, to terrorise and to punish based on perceived affiliation and ethnic identity.

We will issue a report in the coming days.

The document and analysis the systematic use of sexual violence in this conflict.

Since the start of the war, our office documented more than 830 victims of sexual violence, mostly women and girls, but also men and boys, in 16 out of the 18 states of Sudan.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Given what we know about the obstacles to reporting these attacks, accountability for these horrific crimes is virtually absent.

This impunity fuels repeated cycles of sexual violence and deepens trauma.

It will scar communities and societies for generations.

Grave human rights violations and abuses by all parties are compounding.

Compounding what is already the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

Some 34 million people need aid.

Since the start of the war, more than 14 million people have been displaced from their homes within and outside of Sudan.

Fleeing violence by no means guarantees safety, it adds.

It often adds another layer of risk.

On their journeys, civilians face arbitrary detention, abduction for ransom, sexual and gender based violence and summary executions.

Our office has also documented numerous drone strikes on vehicles transporting civilians.

Survival for millions of Sudanese largely depends on the courage and solidarity of their communities and local humanitarian responders.

Networks of volunteers are doing what they can to fill gaps, including distributing food through community kitchens and supporting displaced people and vulnerable families, often at great personal risk.

These local humanitarian responders must be protected from attacks and arbitrary detention.

Those who might provide scrutiny and promote accountability must also be protected.

Our office has received credible reports that warring parties have abducted and threatened journalists, media workers and other members of civil society.

Hundreds of journalists have fled the country since the start of the war, which creates an information vacuum in which propaganda and conspiracy can thrive.

Parties to the conflict are weaponizing information against this backdrop, the work of our office to document, verify, and bring to light violations and abuses and to stand with civil society is crucial.

[Other language spoken]

President, this litany of violations and the rampant impunity are not random.

This war is sustained by its own terrifying rationale.

Domestic and foreign players are exploiting Sudan's vast natural resources, including gum Arabic and gold.

Global exports of gum Arabic have long been an important source of income for Sudan's people, as this product is widely used in candy, medicine and cosmetics.

Today, the parties to the conflict are fighting for control of this resin as well as gold and livestock.

They are enriching themselves and bankrolling war crimes at the expense of the Sudanese people.

In parallel, foreign powers and suppliers are providing drones and other advanced weapons which Sudan itself cannot manufacture, reaping gains of all sorts whilst further entrenching this senseless war.

[Other language spoken]

President, this war is already spilling over Sudan's borders.

Any further escalation would be dangerous for the region and beyond.

All attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop immediately.

All countries need to ensure full compliance with the UN Security Council's arms embargo in Darfur.

Across the entire territory of Sudan, all countries need to prevent the transfer of arms, including drones that are being used with manifest regard for the protection of civilians.

Stronger diplomatic and political pressure is crucial to push parties towards a humanitarian truce that leads to a permanent ceasefire followed by a transition to inclusive civilian rule.

The High Commissioner has shared human rights based confidence building measures with the parties and those involved in media mediation efforts.

They reinforce protection and accountability as core components of any pathway pathway to peace.

The international community needs to do everything it can to break the cycle of impunity.

This includes States supporting the work of the International Criminal Court with respects to crimes in Darfur and making full use of universal jurisdiction to ensure justice for victims.

We also urge States to advocate for the Security Council to refer the situation in the whole of Sudan to the International Criminal Court.

Governments must strengthen oversight and traceability of resources that are being used to fuel the conflict.

Companies need to ensure their supply chains do not contribute to violations and abuses.

Sudan is built on the diversity of its people.

The leaders of the warring parties are cynically shredding the social fabric with consequences that will echo through generations.

The international community needs to act urgently to protect the the Sudanese people and to avert an even wider crisis.

[Other language spoken]

I now give the floor to the Fact Finding Mission for their introductory remarks and I give the floor to Mr Mohammed Ahmed.

You have the floor, Sir.

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President, now in its fourth year, the conflict of Sudan continues to be characterised by persistent and widespread violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as international crimes committed by the Sudan Armed Forces, SAF and the Rapid Support Forces, RSF and their allied forces.

Today, the Mission wishes to update the Council on its increasing concerns regarding the use of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance by both parties as instruments of control over civilian populations.

Civilians perceived to be supporting the opposing side are routinely ill treated and detained without legal basis, due process guarantees or judicial oversight.

The RSF has engaged in patterns of coercion and extortion, including ransom demands placed on families for the release of detained relatives.

These practises have imposed devastating burdens on families already struggling to survive.

Particularly alarming are the arrests by RSF intelligence of at least 70 individuals in Elginina in May 2026, including humanitarian workers.

Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

Such disappearance undermine humanitarian operations and endanger life saving assistance.

SAFF has also arrested civilian leaders, political opponents, lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and humanitarian workers suspected of collaborating with the RSF.

Many face proceedings marked by serious due process guarantees and some have been sentenced to death.

Detention conditions on the both parties raise grave concern.

Thousands of detainees are held in overcrowded facilities with inadequate access to food, water, sanitation and medical care.

Torture and I'll treat I'll treatment, including beatings, an electrocution, are frequently used by both parties.

Victims reported sexual violence in RSF facilities and sexualized torture of men detained by SAF.

Death in custody have also been often reported.

Nyala Prison in South Darfur, where thousands of detainees are reportedly held by RSF, remains A cause of serious concern.

Severe overcrowding, violence, inadequate food and medical care, and denial of family or or lawyers visits appear to be the norm, creating risks of enforced disappearances.

[Other language spoken]

President, we urge parties to all parties to immediately seize arbitrary arrest and detention, release those held without legal basis, ensure humane treatment and due process, disclose the fate, whereabouts and legal status of all detained persons, and grant independent humanitarian workers and human right entities unimpeded access to all places of detention.

Impunity for international crimes must end.

Accountability and concerted international action remain urgently needed to reverse these trends and prevent future atrocities.

My colleagues Mona Reshmaami and Joingoze Zelo will answer questions.

[Other language spoken]

President, thank you.

The list of all of speakers is now closed.

I now give the floor to Mr Mohad Ahmed, Mr.

President, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.

This is an important dialogue and exchange and I'm grateful for the work of the of the UN Fact Fighting Mission and the Office of the High Commissioner for the Human Rights for all they are doing to to commend reports and keep this Council informed of the situation in Sudan.

We are how in the fourth year of this war, back in April, the said anniversary prompted important gathering such as in Berlin conference.

But for Sudanese people it is yet another anniversary.

We do not wish to mark the devastation.

Impact of this conflict on civilians has been all documented.

BORS, SAF and RSF continue to inflict indescribable suffering on civilians.

The use of drones targeting critical civilians infrastructure has brought even further suffering and devastation.

Most recently the use of drones in Alwait have targeted civilians including those who are attending funeral in areas and that effective conflict including Derange and parts of Darfur.

Civilians populations are facing starvation and hunger and humanitarian task with providing life saving aid are being targeted.

The use of drones also disturbing key AIDS roads.

The nature of the rights violations in Sudan range from credibly and well documented evidence of atrocity crimes, as has been described by the FFM, and the almost total obligation of space for dependent civil society and human rights defenders in areas controlled by SAF.

The authority dissolved legitimate trade unions like Sudanese Bar Association and the Sudanese Journalist Syndicate which was awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2026.

Lawyers are now only permitted to work if they are registered with the illegitimate bar that affiliated that was affiliated with the former Bashir Islamist regime.

Despite the Supreme Court recognition of the legitimate bar.

Similarly, the authorities do not recognise the elected Journalists Syndicate.

Journalists are now required to register with the authorities affiliated body that prominent officials from the Bashir regime formally run new amendments of the Cyber Law Act, federal strict freedom of speech and diminished space for civil society.

Given the scale of conflict creating sexual violence documented in this conflict, no one, no one person has been held to account.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has documented incidents of CRSV berpitated against civilians, including women, children, and regular use of sexual violence in detention against men.

Survivors are left with physical, emotional and psychological trauma.

There is an urgent need to support victims of CRSV, but attacks on humanitarian actors makes that more complicated.

Moreover, the legal structure and assumption makes securing legal justice more complicated, and there is a pressing need for additional support for this extremely sensitive and yet devastating cases to be addressed.

The contracture of civil society is a stark reminder of repression in Sudan's past recent past.

There is legit.

There are legitimate concern that gains made during traditional.

May be arrested despite legal protection in place.

There has been consistent documentation of restrictions around Christian places of worship in North even during the conflict.

Federal minorities and religious communities are highly are rightly concerned of their rights to rebuild and restore palaces for ship that has been severely damaged during this war.

Furthermore, there are serious concern of official interference of the affairs of religious institutions, as was commonplace during Bashir's time.

Additionally, those who are responsible for atrocities must be brought to account, not welcomed as heroes.

External backers who have been documented and to be to be supporting parties to the conflict and furthering the suffering and scale of violations must be brought to account.

Repeated and credible allegation Credible allegations concerning states such as the United Arab Emirates warrant thorough investigation and any individuals or entities found responsible must be held to account for the contribution and for this conflict and complicity in the countless authorities that the RSF have been committed throughout Sudan, complementary mechanism for justice and accountability as well as protection of civilians are necessary.

The complicities of the conflict in Sudan and the decarious position of international rules based order means that we must use all tools within reach for the protection of human rights.

This includes the effectiveness of the Coalition of Atrocity Prevention and the use of the university jurisdiction by Member State.

We have seen the effectiveness of this in order in other conflicts to bring justice and accountability.

[Other language spoken]

In accordance with our practise, we will begin by giving the floor to the delegation of the country concern.

And I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Sudan.

[Other language spoken]

I say the Rais and Harbour Sudan Sami.

[Other language spoken]

HRC 62 - Human Rights in Sudan - 15 June 2026