Chair of Sudan Sanctions Committee Briefs Security Council on Week-Long April Visiting Mission to Darfur
The Security Council received an update today on the recent activities of the Sudan sanctions committee, including detailed information about a visiting mission to the country undertaken from 13 to 20 April.
Joanna Wronecka (Poland), Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning Sudan, told members that the purpose of the visit was to obtain information on the implementation of sanctions measures in Sudan by viewing the facts on the ground.
During the visit, she said, the mission held meetings with a wide range of Government interlocutors, representatives of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and the diplomatic corps. The mission also visited two camps for the internally displaced.
Recalling that she had submitted her report to the Committee on 6 June, she said the situation in Darfur had improved significantly since the imposition of sanctions in 2004, although many challenges remained, particularly regarding the humanitarian and human rights situation, as well as issues related to the political process.
She went on to stress the need to address the root causes of conflict in Darfur, adding that the Council would be justified in reviewing the sanctions regime. She said that her report contained four recommendations, three of them addressed to the Committee and one to the Council. In the recommendation to the Council, the report proposed that the organ “could consider setting solution‑oriented parameters of the eventual termination of the measures in the long term, which might serve as a vehicle for positive change in Sudan”.
Turning to other matters, she noted the Secretary-General’s appointment of four members of the Panel of Experts on 14 March, and a fifth expert on 9 May. In informal consultations on 12 April, the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts made a presentation on the body’s programme of work, telling members that the experts would continue to monitor Darfuri rebel groups, most of whom were now in Libya and South Sudan, or had joined militia groups within Sudan.
The meeting began at 3:08 p.m. and ended at 3:16 p.m.
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* The 8286th Meeting was closed.