We, the heads of over 50 human rights and humanitarian organizations are coming together to sound the alarm about Sudan, where a disaster is unfolding before our eyes. With fighting continuing across the country, brutal sexual violence rising, widespread deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and journalists and human rights defenders being silenced, the country is no longer at the precipice of mass atrocities – it has fallen over the edge.
Since April, when open hostilities broke out in Sudan’s capital, more than five million people have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands of others may soon be forced to join them. Many are now living in camps with limited access to humanitarian assistance, few educational opportunities for their children, and almost no psychosocial support to help them cope with their traumatic experiences.
Inside Sudan, over 20 million people, 42 percent of Sudan’s population, now face acute food insecurity and 6 million are just a step away from famine. At least 498 children have died from hunger. Clinics and doctors have come under fire throughout the country, putting 80 percent of the country’s major hospitals out of service.
Hate speech, especially language urging the targeting of communities based on the color of their skin, is always alarming. But with an increasingly fractured social fabric, some fighters targeting civilians based on their ethnicity, and accounts from sexual violence survivors in Darfur who heard their rapists tell them that we hope you bear “our” babies – we fear the worst.
Twenty years after the horrors of Darfur shocked our conscience, we are failing to meet the moment. Thus far, mediation efforts have not deterred Sudan’s warring parties from continuing to commit egregious abuses. We urge a more unified approach that better represents the voices and perspectives of Sudan’s civilians, including women, youth, and representatives from the historically marginalized “periphery.”
We are committed to working together to urge more aid for, more solidarity with, and greater attention to the needs of Sudan’s civilians. The United Nations humanitarian appeal remains woefully underfunded – at about 25 percent of what is needed – and Sudan’s warring parties continue to undermine efforts to deliver aid safely. Donors should step up humanitarian funding, both for local and international organizations who are providing indispensable assistance in Sudan and neighboring countries.
The costs of inaction are mounting. The UN Security Council should move from talk to action and begin negotiations to pass a resolution that challenges the climate of impunity, reiterates that international law requires providing safe, unhindered humanitarian access, and redirects international efforts to better protect Sudan’s most vulnerable. The consequences of not acting are too grave to imagine.
Signatories (listed alphabetically)
African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, Mossaad Mohamed Ali, Executive Director
Africans for the Horn of Africa, Stella Ndirangu, Coordinator
Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, Secretary General
Association of Sudanese-American Professors in America (ASAPA), Beckry Abdel-Magid, Secretary
Atrocities Watch, Dismas Nkunda, CEO
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bahey El Din Hassan, Director
Carter Center, Paige Alexander, CEO
Center for Peace Building and Democracy in Liberia (CEPEBUD-Liberia), Florence N. Flomo, Executive Director
Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, President
Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Carol Cohn, Director
Darfur Diaspora Association Group in the United Kingdom, Abdallah Idriss, Director
Darfur Women Action Group, Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President
DefendDefenders, Hassan Shire, Executive Director
EG Justice, Tutu Alicante, Executive Director
Freedom House, Michael J. Abramowitz, President
Genocide Alert, Gregor Hoffman, Chairman
George W. Bush Institute, David Kramer, Executive Director
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Savita Pawnday, Executive Director
Global Survivors Fund, Dennis Mukwege, President
GOAL, Siobhán Walsh, CEO
HIAS, Mark Hetfield, President & CEO
HUDO Centre, Bushra Gamar, Executive Director
Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, Executive Director
iACT, Sara-Christine Dallain, Executive Director
Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University, Kerry Whigham, Co-Director
InterAction, Anne Lynam Goddard, Interim President and CEO
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Eleonore Morel, CEO
International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, President & CEO
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Felice Gaer, Director
Legal Action Worldwide, Antonia Mulvey, Founder and Executive Director
MADRE, Yifat Susskind, Executive Director
Mercy Corps, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, Kyle Matthews, Executive Director
Never Again Coalition, Lauren Fortgang, Director
No Business with Genocide, Simon Billenness, Director
Nobel Women’s Initiative, Maria Butler, Executive Director
Nonviolent Peaceforce, Tiffany Easthom, Executive Director
Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, Secretary General
Open Society Foundations, Mark Malloch-Brown, President
OutRight International, Maria Sjödin, Executive Director
Physicians for Human Rights, Saman Zia-Zarifi, Executive Director
Plan International, Stephen Omollo, CEO
Project Expedite Justice, Cynthia Tai, Executive Director
Public International Law & Policy Group, Paul R. Williams, President
Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, President
Regional Centre for Training and Development of Civil Society, Mutaal Girshab, Director General
Society for Threatened Peoples, Roman Kühn, Director
Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, Suliman Baldo, Executive Director
Sudanese American Public Affairs Association, Fareed Zein, Board Chairman
The Sentry, John Prendergast, Co-Founder
Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), Aymen Tabir, Executive Director
US-Educated Sudanese Association (USESA), Samah Salman, President
Vital Voices, Alyse Nelson, President & CEO
World Federalist Movement Canada, Alexandre MacIsaac, Executive Director
World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy (WFM/IGP), Amy Oloo, Consulting Executive Director