Sudan on Tuesday rejected as invalid the findings of a United Nations human rights mission that accused Khartoum of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur. Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohamed Ali Elmardi also told the UN’s Human Rights Council, which had dispatched the mission, that the humanitarian situation in Sudan’s vast western region was ”much more stable now”.
A United Nations human rights mission on Monday accused Sudan’s government of orchestrating and taking part in war crimes in Darfur and called for urgent international action. The UN mission, led by Nobel peace prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan’s vast western region.
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/ 9 February 2007
A United Nations mission to investigate human rights abuse in Sudan’s Darfur region, which hopes to head for the region on Saturday, is still negotiating entry visas, mission head Jody Williams said on Friday. The Nobel peace laureate would not comment on reports that Sudan objects to some members of the team.
Chinese bird flu expert Margaret Chan took over as head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday, promising to put Africa and women at the top of her agenda. Chan, the first Chinese to head a United Nations’ agency, was chosen as director general of the 192-state world health body last November in an election prompted by the death in office of her predecessor.
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/ 13 December 2006
The United Nations new human rights watchdog agreed on Wednesday to send a high-level mission to Sudan’s Darfur to probe allegations of worsening abuses against the civilian population. The 47-state Human Rights Council approved a consensus proposal leaving the naming of the five ”highly qualified” team members up to the council chairperson.
The United Nations human rights chief said on Monday ”several hundred” civilians — far more than first thought — may have died in late August attacks by militias in the south of Sudan’s violent Darfur region. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Louise Arbour, said the attacks appeared to have been carried out with the ”knowledge and material support” of the government.
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/ 8 September 2006
Sudan’s conflict-ridden Darfur region faces a humanitarian ”catastrophe” without rapid action to improve security and let aid flow to those in need, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. The warning by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres followed a similar cry of alarm by top UN humanitarian official Jan Egeland last month.
A United Nations human rights body told Washington on Friday that any ”secret detention” centres for terrorism suspects it operates abroad violates international law and should be shut immediately. The UN Human Rights Committee said the United States appears to have been detaining people ”secretly for months and years”.
Last ditch talks to keep hopes alive of a global free deal faced a deepening crisis on Monday after trading powers failed to achieve a breakthrough at a marathon first session, diplomats said. The so-called G6 — Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the European Union and the United States — must reach agreement on how to boost trade in farm and industrial goods.