Press Release
Published on December 5, 2008
New York – Human Rights First applauds the Bush administration’s call for the Security Council to enforce the arms embargo it imposed on Darfur. Speaking during a Security Council meeting on December 3rd, Rosemary DiCarlo (U.S. Ambassador and Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the U.N.) encouraged the Council to “allow for meaningful follow up” to the recommendations made by the UN panel of experts that monitors violations to the arms embargo.
“Security Council members have hard evidence that the Darfur arms embargo is being systematically violated by all parties to the conflict, and that certain UN member states are at the very least helping to make those violations possible by supplying weapons to Sudan,” stated Julia Fromholz, Interim Director of the Crimes Against Humanity Program at Human Rights First. “But so far, the Council has failed even to enforce its own embargo, much less to strengthen it in the face of such gross violations.”
Human Rights First has called on the Security Council to expand the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan as well as Chad and northern parts of the Central African Republic.
The organization has also called on the Security Council to immediately sanction individuals whom the UN panel of experts has identified as orchestrating violations to the Darfur arms embargo.
“We look forward to continued leadership from the U.S. government in helping to stem the transfer of weapons into Darfur. Until weapons flows into the region are significantly reduced there is little incentive for the parties to the conflict to engage in serious peace negotiations,” Fromholz observed.
