African Rights Groups Urge UN Human Rights Council to Extend Sudan Inquiry Mandate

The Swiss city of Geneva hosted the start of the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, running from June 15 to July 10, 2026, with Sudan dominating the agenda amid escalating violations.

“In 2003, the conflict in Darfur erupted”

Amnesty International France

The Council planned sessions to discuss developments in the state of human rights in Sudan and to hear the oral briefing provided by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Sudan, as calls grew for accountability, protection of civilians, and an end to grave violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Amnesty International France

African rights organizations with special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council filed an official note approved as a United Nations document under number A/HRC/62/NGO/141, urging the extension of the mandate of the International Commission of Inquiry on Sudan for at least two years.

The note warned that continued refusal to cooperate by the authorities in Port Sudan could lead to a diplomatic and political confrontation with international and African communities, and it said the Commission had been unable to visit Sudan so far due to Port Sudan authorities’ refusal to cooperate.

In an oral report presented to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Sudan affirmed that both sides of the war—the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces—bear responsibility for grave violations committed and continuing during the conflict.

Commission head Mohamed Shandi Osman said, “Civilians still bear the heaviest burden of this conflict,” adding that civilians face an increasingly repressive regime based on arbitrary detention and intimidation.

Dabanga Radio TV Online

The Commission said warring parties increasingly resort to arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearances to control civilians trapped in the country, contributing to a worsening civilian protection crisis described as catastrophic in light of the conflict’s ongoing fourth year.

Amnesty International France framed the conflict’s surge as beginning on Saturday, April 15, 2023, in Khartoum and several cities, and it described the clash as pitting the de facto head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Hemetti against each other.

African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of its independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, citing ongoing allegations of serious abuses linked to the country’s civil war.

“Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the escalating violations resulting from the conflict in Sudan, the Swiss city of Geneva hosted the start of the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which runs from June 15 to July 10, 2026”

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The groups said in a joint written statement that neither mission has yet been able to visit Sudan and that some neighbouring countries hosting large Sudanese refugee populations had not granted access to investigators, while praising Chad, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan for cooperating with the missions.

The statement highlighted allegations that Sudanese Armed Forces personnel may have used chemical weapons and noted that Sudan has yet to publish the findings of a national investigation established in 2025 to examine the claims.

Amnesty International France added that since the outbreak of the conflict, “more than 12 million forcibly displaced,” and it described civilians as suffering from the lack of humanitarian aid while fighters positioned themselves among civilians in violation of international humanitarian law.