Saleh Mahmoud: ICC jurisdiction may expand beyond Darfur

Member of the Darfur Bar Association, human rights lawyer, and winner of the European Sakharov Prize for Human Rights Saleh Mahmoud said yesterday that the area of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction may expand soon to include all parts of Sudan. 

After visiting the EU Parliament in Brussels and the ICC in the Hague, the prize winner told Radio Dabanga that he had held fruitful meetings with representatives. 

He met with representatives of the EU Commission and EU Parliament to review the humanitarian situation and discuss the war victims.

They touched on the urgent need for aid distribution and reviewed ideas for delivering relief to those affected. Radio Dabanga has recently reported on the Médecins Sans Frontières’s call for a “substantial increase in efforts to provide humanitarian aid in Sudan,” including faster visa processing for humanitarian workers and increased interventions from humanitarian organisations. 

In July, the ICC launched an investigation into attacks on civilians in Darfur since the war broke out in mid-April between the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The recommendations put forth by the newly adopted fact-finding commission from the Human Rights Council last week would be a “valuable entry point for extending the jurisdiction of the ICC to crimes committed outside Darfur,” he said.  

“Crimes in areas outside Darfur would fall within the category of crimes against humanity.” Mahmoud explained that the member states of the Rome Statute will hold a meeting in New York next December to develop new mechanisms and present them to the Security Council.  

He said that the intention of the Office of the Prosecutor Karim Khan is to benefit from the support of the EU and the US after the EU approved the law on the criteria used in targeting people involved in committing violations in Sudan.  

He called for the role of the EU to be reviewed, in terms of the political situation, democratic transition, partnership with the military, and the framework agreement in Sudan. Mahmoud noted that this would once in light of the EU repositioning itself in accordance with the African Union, IGAD, and the African Peace and Security Council. 

In 2007, following investigations into crimes committed in Darfur between 2003-2004, ICC issued arrest warrants against Ahmed Haroun (also spelled Harun), former Minister of Interior Affairs and Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. 

Al Bashir was indicted by the ICC in 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and in 2010 for genocide. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant against former Interior and Defence Minister Abdelrahim Hussein in 2012, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. 

In 2014, the ICC issued another arrest warrant, accusing Abdallah Banda, commander-in-chief of a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement, of war crimes in Darfur. The former rebel leader is still at large. 

Kushayb is the only one being tried. He was transferred to ICC custody on June 9, 2020 after surrendering himself in the Central African Republic. Upon his arrest, the Sudanese government announced its support for his transfer to the ICC.