UN Authority Figures

UN Commission for Social Development: Sudan

A new report accuses Sudanese government special forces of engaging in two sprees of rape and murder in the villages around the western region of Darfur and says the forces could be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Source: Newsweek, September 9, 2015

Mission of the Commission for Social Development: "...the Commission has been the key United Nations body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action... Since 2006, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit." (Commission for Social Development website)

Sudan's Term of office: 2017-2021

Sudan's Record on Social Development:
"Government forces, government-aligned groups, rebels, and armed groups committed human rights abuses and violations throughout the year. The most serious human rights abuses and violations included indiscriminate and deliberate bombing of civilian areas and armed attacks on civilians, attacks on humanitarian targets including humanitarian facilities, and extrajudicial and other unlawful killings. Other major abuses included torture, beatings, rape and other cruel or inhuman treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest and detention by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prisons conditions; incommunicado detention; prolonged pretrial detention; obstruction of humanitarian assistance; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement; harassment of internally displaced persons (IDPs); corruption; intimidation and closure of human rights and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and recruitment of child soldiers. Societal abuses included discrimination against women, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), sexual violence, trafficking in persons, discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, denial of workers' rights, and forced and child labor... the government closed civil society organizations or prevented their registration. Government and security forces continued arbitrarily to enforce provisions of the NGO law, including measures that strictly regulate an organization's ability to receive foreign financing and register public activities."
(U.S. State Department Country Report of Human Rights Practices in Sudan, 2014)