UN Authority Figures

UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: Sudan

Photo: Janjaweed militia
The Janjaweed has used rape as a weapon of war to ethnically cleanse Darfur and eastern Chad of blacks. In April 2010, Musa Hilal, a prominent leader of Janjaweed militia, has won a seat in the Sudan National Assembly. (Radio Dabanga, April 26, 2010)

Mission of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: "The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) is the United Nations body of Member States responsible for setting out global strategy to prevent crime and promote stable criminal justice systems. The 40-member UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice formulates international policies and recommends activities in the field of crime control...The Commission offers nations a forum for exchanging expertise and information on matters of crime prevention and criminal justice and to determine strategies and priorities for combatting crime at the global level....Priority areas mandated by the [Economic and Social] Council when it established the Commission in 1992 are: international action to combat national and transnational crime...and improving the efficiency and fairness of criminal justice administration systems." (Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice web-site)

Term of office: 2009-2011

Sudan's Record on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice:
"Government security forces continued to torture, beat, and harass suspected political opponents and others...In accordance with Shari'a (Islamic law), the Criminal Act provides for physical punishments, including flogging, amputation, stoning, and crucifixion--the public display of a body after execution...Government security forces beat and tortured persons in detention...Southern Sudan Police Services (SPSS) officers and SPLA officers reportedly raped women, including with impunity...In practice, indefinite detentions were common...Government security forces often held persons incommunicado for long periods in unknown locations without access to lawyers or family members...The judiciary was largely subservient to the president or the security forces...The judiciary was inefficient and subject to corruption...Authorities often obstructed access to justice for rape victims, and during the year only four soldiers were convicted of rape in Darfur...Unless a rape victim could provide proof of the crime, she could be charged with the capital offense of adultery..." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2009, Sudan)

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