Sudan’s cabinet unanimously passed a draft bill on Tuesday that allows the East African country to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The cabinet’s decision would enable the ICC to officially launch trials and seek the prosecution of those responsible for war crimes and genocide in the Darfur conflict, including former President Omar al-Bashir.
The bill must now be approved by the Sovereignty Council of Sudan and the Council of Ministers before it becomes law.
Welcoming the decision, Prime Minister (PM) Abdallah Hamdok tweeted that the government will hold a joint Councils meeting to pass the bill into law. “Justice and accountability are a solid foundation of the new, rule of law-based Sudan we’re striving to build,” Hamdok said.
Today, in our Cabinet meeting, we have unanimously passed a bill to join the Rome Statute of the @IntlCrimCourt. We'll hold a joint Councils meeting to pass it into law. Justice & accountability are a solid foundation of the new, rule of law-based #Sudan we’re striving to build. pic.twitter.com/58jpqQWlf3
— Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) August 3, 2021
The landmark move follows another unanimous decision by the cabinet in June to hand over former officials accused of war crimes in Darfur to the ICC. The latest decision also comes after former ICC Chief Fatou Bensouda visited Sudan and its Darfur region last month.
During her visit, Bensouda urged the Sudanese government to hand over officials of the former regime and stressed the importance of prosecuting those responsible for providing justice to the victims. “My Office [ICC] remains firmly committed to the pursuit of justice for atrocity crimes in Darfur. Your [Sudanese government] continued support is crucial to that common goal,” Bensouda said.
The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when rebels launched an insurrection to protest Khartoum’s discrimination against Darfuris and the region’s non-Arab population. In response, the government under Omar al-Bashir unleashed local Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, to fight the rebellion. The Janjaweed carried mass atrocities against Darfur civilians, including rape, ethnic cleansing, and torture. Reports suggest that around 300,000 people were killed, and 2.7 million were displaced during the conflict.
In 2008, the ICC accused Bashir of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and the following year it issued an arrest warrant for Bashir for his role in the conflict, marking the first time the ICC sought the arrest of a sitting head of state. Bashir was ousted in 2019 in a military coup following large-scale protests demanding his removal and was replaced by a military-civilian transitional government led by PM Hamdok.
Following this, Bashir was sentenced to two years in a social reform facility in 2019 on corruption charges. In 2020, he was put on trial for his role in a military coup that led to his ascent to power in 1989 after overthrowing the democratically elected Prime Minister, Sadek al-Mahdi, for which is he facing the death penalty. Sudan has also signalled its intent to hand over Omar al-Bashir to the ICC to face charges.