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New Zealand welcomes the report of the Group of Experts and thanks them for their important work on following up and fostering the implementation of resolutions and recommendations on Darfur.
We would like to firstly comment on two sections of the report of special interest to New Zealand. They relate to violence against women, and children and armed conflict.
We note that the Government of Sudan has condemned violence against women and reaffirmed a zero tolerance policy for such crimes. It stated that 40 police officers have been trained and deployed to Darfur to assist victims of gender-based violence. But, according to UN agencies, the problem of violence against women in Darfur has persisted. And, apparently the United Nations has not received any information on the ground to indicate that female police officers have been deployed to camps of internally displaced persons or police stations in Darfur. We would ask whether such deployments are being actively pursued.
On children in armed conflict it is very disturbing to read that while the Government of Sudan has reported that several laws protected children, there are no reports of rigorous and systematic prosecution of perpetrators of violence against children. We note, however, that the Group has been advised that gender and child units have been set up in West and North Darfur although not yet in the South. It would be of interest to learn of the impact of the units which have already been established and whether comparable units are planed for South Darfur.
New Zealand would also like to express its deep concern that the rights and security of humanitarian workers continue to be violated. In particular, according to reports by the UN, the rights and privileges of its staff and members operating in Darfur are being increasingly disregarded. Furthermore, despite the number of incidents against humanitarian workers dropping from 214 to 168 over the past year, the severity of these incidents has increased.
Turning to the report as a whole, it is highly regrettable that, despite some evidence of steps being taken by the Government of Sudan to address the situation on the ground, few of the Group’s recommendations have been fully implemented, and a significant number of recommendations have not been addressed by the Government at all. Moreover, as noted in the report, with very few exceptions, there has not been an improvement of the situation of human rights in Darfur. The Government of Sudan must act with much greater urgency and resolve to improve the human rights situation in Darfur.
In conclusion, New Zealand supports the continuation of the Group of Expert’s mandate and we call on the Government of Sudan to continue its cooperation with the Group to ensure that all of its recommendations are implemented, in particular those prioritised for the short and medium term.
