UN Authority Figures

UN Economic and Social Council: Sudan

On December 2, 2012 national security officials entered the El Gazeera University and arrested 11 Darfuri students who had appealed to the administration for a fee waiver. In the following days, students protested at the university. Police, national security officers, and pro-government students clashed with the protesters. Approximately 60 were arrested on December 5. Witnesses said the government security forces pushed the protesters toward the canal, causing several students to fall in. Six protesters were reported missing, including the four whose bodies were later recovered from the canal. Two other students are still missing. According to GIRIFNA, Sudanese watchdog, "the National Congress Party (NCP) security agents killed those students in cold blood. The NCP is also responsible ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur and other regions."
Photo: Mohamed Younis Nil's body after being extracted from the pond.


Mission of the Economic and Social Council: "The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues...It is responsible for: promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms." (ECOSOC web-site, "Information about the Council")

Term of office: 2013-2015; Vice-President: 2013 (elected on January 28, 2013)

Sudan's Record on "social progress" and "encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms":
"The main human rights abuses during the year included the following: government forces and government-aligned groups committed extrajudicial and other unlawful killings; security forces committed torture, beatings, rape, and other cruel and inhumane treatment or punishment; and prison and detention center conditions were harsh and life threatening.
Other major abuses included arbitrary arrest and arbitrary, incommunicado, and prolonged pretrial detention; executive interference with the judiciary and denial of due process; obstruction of humanitarian assistance; restriction of freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement; harassment of internally displaced persons; restrictions on privacy; harassment and closure of human rights organizations; violence and discrimination against women, including female genital mutilation; child abuse, including sexual violence and recruitment of child soldiers; trafficking in persons; violence against ethnic minorities; denial of workers' rights; and forced and child labor. Except in rare cases, the government took no steps to prosecute or punish officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government who committed abuses. Security force impunity remained a serious problem." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2011, Sudan)