Geneva – Human Rights Council, 30 September 2025
During the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Coalition of
Sudanese Human Rights Organizations and their international allies submitted a written
statement (A/HRC/60/NGO/91) shedding light on the horrific violations and crimes
committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militias against civilians since the
outbreak of the armed conflict in April 2023. The statement emphasized that these abuses
represent a systematic pattern of atrocities that constitute a flagrant breach of international
human rights law and international humanitarian law, demanding urgent action by the
international community.
The statement underscored that the Sudanese Armed Forces have carried out widespread
violations of fundamental rights, including the right to life, through indiscriminate aerial
bombardments of residential neighborhoods, killing thousands of civilians—among them
women, children, and aid workers from UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
International organizations have also documented systematic torture, sexual violence against
women and girls, the targeting of healthcare and education facilities, the conversion of
schools into military barracks, and the large-scale recruitment of child soldiers.
It further highlighted serious breaches of international humanitarian law, including the
targeting of humanitarian warehouses, health centers, water facilities, and schools, as well as
the imposition of blockades on towns and villages, depriving them of vital aid. The Sudanese
army and its allied militias have also carried out summary executions and extrajudicial
killings on ethnic and regional grounds. The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, the
statement stressed, constitutes a war crime warranting international accountability.
The coalition stressed that the military authorities in Port Sudan have utterly failed to take
any steps to halt these crimes or to hold perpetrators accountable. On the contrary, senior
military and security officials have been directly implicated in coordinating with armed
militias. Meanwhile, the judiciary has lost its independence and has become a tool to justify
repression, leaving victims with no access to domestic remedies.
In its recommendations, the coalition called on the Human Rights Council to issue a clear
condemnation of the violations committed by the Sudanese army, to strengthen the mandate
of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to cover systematic practices by both
state and non-state actors, and to request a comprehensive report from the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights on the consequences of targeting humanitarian
infrastructure in Sudan. The statement also urged for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of
safe humanitarian corridors, and the activation of international justice mechanisms, including
full cooperation with the International Criminal Court, to hold perpetrators of war crimes and
crimes against humanity accountable.
The statement concluded by stressing that the continuation of such crimes in Sudan poses a
direct threat to the universal values and principles of human rights and undermines the
credibility of the entire international system if left unaddressed. It urged the Council to take
urgent and decisive steps to protect civilians, end impunity, and restore the rule of law and
human dignity in Sudan.