YouSaid · the spoken record

Khan

lines on the record: 485
first: 1992-11-16
most recent: 2023-11-08
sittings or episodes: 38
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“As we speak, there are women and children, the elderly and the young, fearing for their lives and living with uncertainty in the midst of conflict. As their homes burn, many do not know what the night will bring or what fate awaits them tomorrow. That is neither hyperbole nor polemic but the result of an objective assessment by myriad sources. Just today, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report detailing allegations of the killing of 87 ethnic Masalit allegedly by the RSF and members of their allied militia in West Darfur. We are investigating those allegations. By any analysis, we are not on the precipice of a human catastrophe, but in the very midst of one. It is occurring. Based on my own analysis, it is my advice and my prayer that we act urgently and collectively to protect the most vulnerable.”
2023-07-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9375 (2023) · source
“Mr. Khan: I thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity you have given me today to once again brief the Security Council. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Permanent Representative of the Sudan for the opportunity that I had to meet with him yesterday. It has now been 90 days since 15 April, when fighting erupted between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces. That conflict and engagement has spilled out of Khartoum to engulf much of the Sudan. It is certainly being felt by the people of Darfur. The simple truth is that as we in the Council and across the world are seeing increasing reports on the matter, we are in peril of allowing history to repeat itself — the same miserable history that compelled the Council in 2005 to refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
2023-07-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9375 (2023) · source
“And when we take on other responsibilities, do we feel a sense of pride and honour that we have done our best or do we feel that we have been self-indulgent and engaged in polarized discussions as humankind is crying out for help? I thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to say those few words. This is a time for partnership. It is a time for putting the interests of the most vulnerable on this top table of the international community and trying to do better than we have done.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“And what the question really should be is asking what every Council member is doing to be a supporter of humankind. Leaving aside the politics — that is a reality out there — what are we doing for the people of Tarhuna? What are we doing for the people of the world who are looking for some semblance of justice and some shelter? I believe that would lead to a much more constructive discussion about how we can all do better. I need to do better, but so does the Council. The primary legal instrument in the international legal firmament is the Charter. On some issues, the obligation is principally on the Council to put politics aside and realize that while I will not be here forever, neither will the individuals around this table.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Does the fact that there are scars on our face, the face of humankind, mean we have licence to look away as we are scarring our torso and legs? We must do what we can together by building partnerships because, ultimately — and many members of the Council have said it very cogently, with much more eloquence than I could ever summon — what is at stake here is not the ICC. We have very important, powerful, impactful States with great histories, for which I have great respect, in the role of the Council, but that are not State parties to the Court. But the Charter of the United Nations gives a responsibility to the Council to ensure that it does not act in vain. What we are doing in Libya is not an act based on a frolic of a Prosecutor. It is the Prosecutor acting on a referral by the Council.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“The final thing I have to say is that I am the first to accept that international justice is far from perfect. After all, the Security Council itself — and the United Nations — was created as a result of the failure of the League of Nations and of the international system to prevent the Second World War. It was hope, a beacon of light and a promise that the things we saw in the gas chambers and in various parts of the world during the Second World War would never occur again. It is only right to say that the face of humankind has been scarred, deeply wounded, by the imperfect application of international law. But that should not be any defence or justification for Member States, the international community or non-State actors to self-mutilate or further disfigure other parts of the body.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“When I was in Libya, I had a very good meeting with the Foreign Minister and one of the remarks I made, in terms of appraising the situation in Libya honestly, is — in addition to working to serve international criminal justice and trying to support and provide technical assistance so that the Libyan system can become as strong as possible and stand alone — that I believe there is space for a South-South dialogue to look at transitional justice systems so that the architecture that is in place, as a whole, can be ever more conducive to peace and reconciliation. But in so many situations, we see that having peace and reconciliation without accountability is impossible. Having reconciliation and peace with some form of wider transitional justice lends itself to greater success.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“And we want to benefit from the diversity that is represented here in the Council and the United Nations, and by the various legal systems and people from various parts of the world who can bring their own perspectives to international justice so that we can do better and narrow the gap. That is also a remark I wanted to make. My fourth remark is that I do not believe that anybody in the Council is naive enough to think that the ICC or my Office alone is a panacea for all ills. But it is the case that we have an important role to play. We are trying to do better and to have more of an impact.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“The second observation is that in Libya and in other situation, my approach is that arrest warrants should be public. They will be sealed if there is an immediate arrest opportunity. In terms of the Libya case file, we already applied for warrants to be unsealed. Hopefully, the names will be known by the time of the next briefing, but that is a legal determination for the Judges. I cannot act precipitously in that connection. The third remark is an elaboration with regard to the Trust Fund for Victims and secondments. One of the things that I believe is very important is to make it clear that the cause of international justice is the cause of humankind. The new Trust Fund that we are seeking to establish on equitable geographical distribution is an important one because we have countries in economic transition.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Mr. Khan: I thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to say a few words to the representatives of the Council. The first remark, of course, must be to echo the comments made by the Permanent Representative of Libya — that the Office that I lead in the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based upon complementarity. We heard a lot of remarks today that the foundation of the Rome Statute is not an effort to seize jurisdiction or to conjure up clever legal arguments. It is to work together so that there is less space for impunity and more space for justice. I do not want anybody to be abused of the notion that the relationship is competitive. It is essential that there be ever-more collaboration and cooperation, and I think that is to be well understood.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“If we feel that we can make things better, be more imaginative and build partnerships together, I think that this referral, which has seen such progress over the past six months, can go deeper. And to achieve that would be to receive a debt of thanks that we might finally deserve. Perhaps most importantly, we can look at the victims — like those whom I have seen in Tarhuna and other places in Libya — and feel not ashamed but that we are finally doing our best to deliver on their right to justice and accountability.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“I think that during this reporting period, the clear and demonstrable accelerated focus, the application and issuance of the four warrants I have mentioned and the application of two further warrants, the greater focus on a field presence, the greater sense of urgency and that sense of acute responsibility — to be servants of humankind, to recall the great Dag Hammarskjöld — have led me to realize that self-oblivion, having brickbats thrown at one and being castigated are absolutely worth it if one can finally become worthy of being properly called a servant of justice and of the international community. That sense of service is one that should galvanize all the members of the Council to do better than we have in Libya and in so many parts of the world.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“And we see in so many parts of the world, including Libya, that, as those victims told us, quite candidly, we hear that the Security Council, the ICC, the United Nations and international institutions talk a good talk, but they are not feeling it. They are not feeling that their lives matter to those institutions. I believe that that is something that should weigh very heavily on us.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“He described how 15 members of his family had been taken away and murdered. There was a lady who, with great dignity, looked me in the eye and described what it felt like to be in the room when two of her children were taken away, never to be seen again. For those of us who have children, just imagine that suddenly our children are taken away and we do not know where they are. We do not know how their lives ended, or where they are buried. There was a man who really touched me greatly. He said, “I cannot live in my own house because that house — those walls and that roof — is where my children were born ,and my children are not with me. I cannot bear any moment in my house. It is no longer a home. It is a vivid flashback of love lost and justice that has not been felt”.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“I believe that Libya is absolutely key to all of it — the collaboration, partnership and trust, which we hope will become stronger as we go on with Libya — will, ultimately, be the litmus test to the referral that has been given to us by the Council. In the meantime, we cannot dawdle. But we need to show how things should be. It may be useful to recall one of the episodes with the most impact during my less than two years as Prosecutor. In November, I went to a town called Tarhuna, approximately two hours from Tripoli. I was there with the local community around a very simple table, and the accounts we heard was a snapshot of why the Council referred the matter to the Court. There was a man who spoke in very simple words, and the words were all the more powerful for their simplicity, devoid of any artifice.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“And if we can pause, for a moment, the political divisions that are, unfortunately, so abundant around us and coalesce around people whom we do not know, whose faces many of us will not see, and unite on the principles of humanity and justice, it would be to the betterment of international law, and international relations more generally. Technology is not a flash in the pan. The ability to use technology more effectively is important. I mentioned Relativity and e-Discovery. But in the process of transforming the architecture of the Office, we now have the ability to automatically transcribe from video and audio and use machine learning and automated translation to increase the pace of delivery and get the impacts that so many are looking for. We have used that technology in Libya.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“And Libya is a good example of having benefited from the allocation of resources that I provided to the country to ensure that we can obtain the results that I mentioned in relation to warrants. I believe that the need for acceleration is not without significance. We should not have the sense that we can take our good old time to obtain results. Rather, we must feel that sense of urgency, as if our children and family members are suffering and craving justice, wanting to know where their loved ones are buried.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“We also hope to establish a field office in Tripoli. That is very important. It is not some cosmetic exercise when are working with the people affected and with national authorities. Wherever we are in the world, justice becomes more tangible. It becomes less distant and less theoretical, and that is also what is needed at the moment. Of course, the medium-term aspiration and hope must be that the Libyan authority, the flag of Libya, is increasingly behind the principle of justice at home. We are willing and eager to work ever more closely with the Libyan authorities to vindicate the needs of Libyans who have suffered so much for so long. Of course, partnership is key, and the secondees all Member States have provided to my Office have been used across situations — not only in one situation, but across situations.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“That is an example of humankind coming together and the law not being the preserve of States parties to the ICC, but being an obligation and the glue that can bind us together in a way that is not contentious but much more cooperative than we have seen in the past. I have continued to engage with the Office of the Attorney General, the military prosecutor and the Ministry of Justice in Libya. We are trying to work on other areas of partnership, while helping the Libyans to increase their own capacity and providing the technical assistance of the men and women of my Office in the areas of forensics and the identification of remains, in which there is a great deal of scope for collaboration and improvement. In the coming weeks, my team will again be in Libya, liaising with the Libyan authorities.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“During the reporting period, we further supported the national prosecutions in Italy and the Netherlands, working with the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and the joint investigative team, of which we are members in the Libya case file, in relation to human trafficking, that egregious crime that includes sexual abuse, sexual slavery and many other allegations that we are receiving. And non-States parties also have a very important role to play. I recently went to the United Arab Emirates. I applauded the Emirati authorities because, on 1 January, a 39-year-old Eritrean man, a key suspect in relation to the egregious crime of trafficking, was arrested in the Sudan in an operation courageously led by the United Arab Emirates. And that was in furtherance of an arrest warrant issued by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“When I was in Tarhuna and in the Kalma camp in the Sudan, there was a concern that victims did not trust the Security Council or the ICC. The United Nations and its Member States are viewed as all talk because the victims are not seeing enough change in their lives. They are not seeing that their lives matter. There is a gap between the promise of justice, the prayer of “never again” and the spectre of international institutions working for them. They see that they still are in refugee camps. They are displaced and living in fear around the world. That is something that every individual, Council member, Member State and international institution and the men and women must acknowledge. We need to galvanize our efforts to do better and come of age as a species. But there are significant milestones.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Of course, as the Council and as the international community, we have a great deal of room for improvement. The warrants are of course the first step. How do we deliver ever more? Partnerships are absolutely key, as well as the realization that it does not matter at all which flag is behind a judge or a prosecutor. We need to work more closely with the independent judicial authorities of the States Members of the United Nations, States parties and non-States parties alike. Everybody has a stake in justice. And when we can share evidence with national authorities in the way that we have over the six-month period, it is a sign of hope that, at last, we are maturing as a people. Impact is important, however.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“In addition to those four warrants in Libya, which are demonstrable evidence of renewed activity and greater focus, in the past two to three weeks I also applied for two additional warrants as well. That is also important. Warrants are not an end in themselves, but they are an important step in the rights of victims and survivors — that their lives matter to the members of the Council and to us. What many of them have suffered and the allegations they have raised that we believe to be supported by evidence need to be assessed by independent and impartial judges, if we are not to give the lie to the promise of Nuremberg — the promise in which all permanent members of the Council joined with one voice: that there should never again be a time in which human rights are trampled so egregiously in different parts of the world.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Over the reporting period, we accelerated a transformation of the Office, including the Libya file, in that we moved to the cloud and started using Relativity as a powerful new e-discovery tool that is enhancing our ability to ingest more information, analyse it effectively and give it to national authorities, as well as to properly target investigations and investigate incriminating and exonerating evidence equally. That has allowed us to get concrete results. I announced that we had applied for more warrants in the Libya situation. I can announce today that four warrants were issued by the independent Judges of the International Criminal Court. I have applied for them to be unsealed, and the Judges will decide on that application in due course.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“That must trump politics and short-term expediency. The partnership has embraced very close collaboration with the United Nations Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, with which have a very good partnership and have received information, which we have also independently reviewed and scrutinized. I think it is only right and proper to express gratitude to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), whose support was critical to my mission last year. It remains critical in terms of engagement and ability to be in the field in Libya.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“In my last report I mentioned that, in November 2022, I conducted the first official visit of an ICC Prosecutor to Libya in over 10 years. I briefed the Council for the first time from Tripoli. That engagement was accelerated during the reporting period. We are regularly reaching out to the Libyan authorities, but also to civil society, victims and survivors in Libya. Partnerships are key to justice. If the Council’s instructions and responsibilities and its referral of situations to the Court are to be vindicated, it requires that everybody step up and for every single State to realize that there is a shared responsibility, much bigger than the politics of the moment, but to children, women and men who look to this body for justice and for the rights of the Charter of the United Nations to be properly vindicated.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“We are working under the principle of complementarity, both with the Libyan national authorities, as an exercise of their sovereignty and primary responsibility as a matter of public international law, as well as by giving evidence to six national authorities to pursue justice in their own courts. I think that is a matter of significant pride for the international community, that is, the fact that justice in not the preserve of the International Criminal Court of any one national authority; it is the obligation of every State Member of the United Nations to finally, in 2023, realize the obligations that have been with us since Nuremberg. We are bringing our Office and the work of its men and women closer to the people of Libya.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“It is important to recall that the motivation that led the Council to refer the matter was not politics, divides or power politics. It was the need for justice for children and women and men. Over the past six months, significant progress was made as a result of more dynamic and field-focused investigations — a targeted approach to investigations. I think there is cause for optimism that we are finally on track. Twenty missions were conducted by the men and women of my Office during the reporting period. More than 500 items of evidence of a vast array of types — audio, video and satellite — were collected, including testimonial evidence, which has been scrutinized and preserved. We have also realized that the International Criminal Court is a hub; it is not an apex court.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Mr. Khan: I thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity today to once again brief the Security Council. With the Council’s leave, I would like to start by expressing my personal thanks to the Permanent Representative of Libya for his presence in the Chamber. In my report one year ago (see S/PV.9024), I had the privilege of addressing the Council and laying out what I opined was the need of the hour, that is, to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) be seen as having more impact and being nimbler and results-oriented. I set out a new plan for action that would hopefully fulfil the need of the people of Libya, and thereby also vindicate the demands of the Council when it referred the matter to the Court in the first place.”
2023-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9320 (2023) · source
“Since I commenced my responsibilities as Prosecutor about one year and a half ago, I have made very sincere and determined efforts, along with my deputies and the staff of my Office, to reform, restructure and improve the processes and functions of my Office and inject more professionalism so that I can better discharge my own responsibilities under the Rome Statute. And with the greatest of respect, perhaps the time has come — indeed perhaps it is long overdue — for the Sudan to be similarly determined to ensure its cooperation with my Office, as that is what is required of it as a function of international law pursuant to resolution 1593 (2005). Because as I said, judges will judge what is presented in the courtroom, but history of course judges us all.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“And I really think that in this Chamber it is important to remember them. If the members of Council could visualize the faces of children — some knocking deflated footballs around and some in an array of clothes that may have been worn by generations, by parents who themselves were born in the camps, because there are many challenges being faced — I think they would realize that there is a moment to suspend the normal political discourse. They would realize that in those moments of influence that we all have — the moments of authority that the Council continues to have — we need to be able to discharge responsibilities in a way that we can be proud of.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“The question of the moment, perhaps, is whether that can be achieved and whether it will be done in sincere partnership with the Government of the Sudan or not. And I myself, on behalf of my Office, sincerely hope that it will become a valued partner and willing to work with me to deliver justice in a manner that will allow us to tell the victims — to look them in the face and say that there has been justice and that their lives and experiences matter to all members of the Council. Then we can also close the situation and dispel the clouds that hang over the Sudan so that it can fulfil its destiny by fulfilling the aspirations of all its citizens, unencumbered by the burdens of the past that it will carry until justice is delivered. The victims and the survivors can never be far from our thoughts.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“When I next brief the Council, I hope to report that there has been a revitalization and a renewed common effort between my Office and the Sudanese authorities to implement the mandate given to us by the Council. That would also reflect the promises made by the Government of the Sudan during my previous visits. But irrespective of that cooperation, I have every confidence that I will be able to report on further progress made in the current trials. I am also hopeful that new pathways for further accountability will have been set. The question really must be not whether we can deliver on the mandate, but how. I believe that, through the adoption of the new strategy, by adding new resources and by running investigations more diligently, we can ensure that steps towards justice continue to be taken.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“In addition to briefing those States, international organizations and partners that have tried to be on the side of humanity and justice, I also want to note that sometimes the most valuable contributions are offered by those who dedicate themselves completely pro bono. In that regard, I want to commend my Special Adviser on Darfur, who sits behind me, Mrs. Amal Clooney, for her dedication to the cause of justice. That is not cosmetic. It really shows evidence that, when we work together, we can make a difference. But that is what it requires. It requires coming together in a way that is not political — and we are not political — to independently and impartially get to the truth.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“We can — and it is my hope to — scythe a clearing through the thicket of disinformation that will also allow us to discharge our responsibilities in order to get to the truth and identify a proper road map so that I can discharge my responsibilities under the Rome Statute and to the Council, and to help identify a way to close the situation. As I have said repeatedly, these situations cannot be never-ending stories. During the reporting period, we conducted a comprehensive mapping process with a number of third States, which I think is going to be extremely important, and I hope to report more about that at my next briefing to the Council.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“I am pleased to note that, during the reporting period, we significantly strengthened that cooperation, and it is paying dividends. The innovations and new approaches put forward have allowed us to collect new evidence in relation to some of the individuals for whom there are outstanding warrants. But more is needed. I think it is only right to also commend the States that assisted us during the reporting period. Everybody should be the friend of humankind. That must not be jeopardized by the fractures in the Council or in the international firmament that we witness around the world. This is not about politics, it is about basic humanity.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“It is truly my sincere hope that we can partner together with the Sudan, and that the Sudan can seize the moment for its own sake and for the sake of its international reputation, the people that it represents and its future. I really hope that the road map towards accountability that I have presented can be seized, because it will be beneficial to international justice and, in my view, beneficial for the Sudan as well. We will strive to ensure that anybody who seeks to frustrate the work of the Court through non-cooperation will not be successful. That is why we have tried to the best of our ability to build new partnerships, to go to third States and international organizations and to strengthen the evidential base from a variety of other sources.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“I really am genuinely open — and I mentioned it to His Excellency yesterday — to innovative approaches, such as engaging with the African Union and with the Sudan, and building partnerships. But something has to be done, because partnerships require two people, two entities, to be engaged. As the saying goes: “It takes two to tango.” We cannot try to move alone — and if we do, we will not get to the destination we are compelled to get to, which is simply getting to the truth. Those who wish to frustrate accountability must not be allowed to run down the clock. I expressed that in Khartoum and in my meetings yesterday, as well as on other occasions.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“We are trying to work in a way that helps the Sudan in its transition and that enforces instead of undermines peace and security and stability. But my obligation, by dint of the Statute, is quite focused. Over the most recent period, since 2005, not one domestic trial has taken place in the Sudan for the hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced, for the pictures of property being burned and destroyed and for the allegations of rape, of targeting children and civilians that we have heard in the courtroom and in many other areas as well. And if we do not see a change of approach, I may have no option in the next report but to commence certain other action by member States in the next period. But I am open to engagement.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“With all due respect, a change of posture is needed by those charged with responsibility or those who have assumed responsibility in the Sudan — because what we are talking about is the potency and the credibility, not of the International Criminal Court or of the Office I lead, but also of the Council. Can the decisions and obligations of the Council, when finally achieved, be disregarded? Can any individual, State or authority thumb its nose at the will of the Security Council? If the answer is yes, then what hope is there? If the answer is no, then what are the courses of action that member States or the Council can take or decide upon in order to encourage the implementation and the discharge of international obligations? I know that it may be a sensitive position in the Sudan, and perhaps there have been many sensitive moments there.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“More than 34 such requests remain outstanding, and I continue to wait for formal approval for what was promised to me orally and what is in a signed memorandum of understanding, namely, the ability for us to establish an office in Khartoum. It may be said that these are bureaucratic issues, that this is evidence of dysfunction, rather than obstruction. Time will tell, but one thing is clear — things are getting worse. They were better, and they can get better again if there is a will to cooperate with the will and international obligations of resolution 1593 (2005).”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“The reason I think this is important is that we have a job to do. We will try to do it. But while internationals may sit in hotels in Khartoum waiting to get travel permits, we have children, women and men waiting in refugee camps, waiting for justice. And it is their patience, not mine, that I am quite focused on. Access to documentation and witnesses remains restricted, and there are significant challenges, even in getting access to what should clearly be public, for example, the national archives. And in this reporting period, over the past six months, not one request for assistance, unfortunately, has been executed by the Government of the Sudan.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“My report attempts to fairly and accurately set out the unfortunate gap that exists between the words and the action of the Government of the Sudan. Despite commitments made during my visit to the Sudan, access to the country has become more difficult. New administrative hurdles have been created, and Sisyphean efforts are required in order to simply obtain single-entry visas. The promise of multiple-entry visas has not been delivered. That is only the beginning of the story, because even when we obtain a single-entry visa, limited in temporal duration, we have to obtain internal travel permits to go, for example, to Darfur. And there have been decisions to say that we cannot obtain those before we travel, so teams must be deployed to wait in Darfur in order to do their job.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“As reflected in the report and as is patently obvious, cooperation from the Government of the Sudan is critically important if we are to meet the needs of the people of Darfur. It brings me no pleasure to say this, but the unfortunate truth is that the Government of the Sudan is not meeting the requirements of cooperation set out by this Council under Chapter VII of the Charter, as contained in resolution 1593 (2005), adopted all those years ago. Many important promises were made, cooperation agreements signed and commitments undertaken by the most senior officials of the country. These agreements, made to my face during my last visit and signed in memorandums of understanding, have not been honoured. It is my unfortunate duty to say that cooperation has deteriorated, not improved, since my most recent briefing.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“Five months have passed since my most recent visit to Darfur, and I believe a fair assessment compels us to reach the conclusion that the Office I have the honour to lead has made truly sincere efforts to keep the promises that I made to the communities I had the honour to look in the face, to listen to and to engage with. And through cumulative measures, the focused deployment of additional resources and the attempt to obtain more information, we have tried to bring back to The Hague, to the activities of my Office, the urgency that we felt so keenly in the camps of those displaced in Darfur. But there remains a key and essential part of our collective work that must be addressed.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“It has also been achieved by excellent trial management by the independent Judges of the International Criminal Court and by the diligent work of the men and women of the Registry, who often are invisible, but deal with issues related to the witnesses, such as bringing them to the Court, and with the Court proceedings, and the interpreters, translators and stenographers. I think it is only right to acknowledge all of their work. I think that even now, before the trial is concluded, there is much to be proud of and much to be emulated in the work by the organs of the Court, by the legal representatives of the victims and by the defence in other cases.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“It was not an exercise of politics; it was an exercise of humanity, in my respectful view, as well as a legal requirement to discharge the Council’s obligations under the Charter of the United Nations. And I am delighted to say that the trial is making swift progress, and the prosecution intends to close its case by the end of next month, as reflected in the report. That makes the pace of the trial the most efficient since the establishment of the Court. That has been achieved by targeted presentation of evidence, by agreements between the prosecution and the defence wherever possible.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“But, amid those truly chilling accounts, it is remarkable that hope was not extinguished. In their accounts, there is hope, which was heard from the mouths of witnesses. If I may, I will present an example of that to the Court, and it is in our report. But I think that the most eloquent testimony is from those who experienced the loss that I described. I will quote from the Court transcript. One witness says: “We need to know their stories. We need to know what they say about who killed their family members, who displaced them, who took away their belongings, who seized their cattle. Not a single person, not even a hundred people, can describe it enough. We have to show the victims that there is justice in this world.” It is this prayer, this hope and this imperative that compelled the Council to refer the matter to the Court.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“The accounts provided reflect the human experiences of people who could be our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters or our children — profound, in fact the most profound, suffering: the loss of family members, the loss of schoolfriends and displacement from homes. The disruption in children’s education and the extremely challenging and difficult years — not months, but years and decades — that they have endured in refugee camps as internally displaced people in their own land, in neighbouring countries or around the world, where they sought refuge because of what was inflicted upon them in the Sudan. The Court also heard about the stigma experienced by victims of sexual and gender-based violence and, indeed, that of the children who were the result of that.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source
“Those witnesses had the opportunity to confront the accused and have their accounts tested before independent impartial judges, creating a record that will pave the way at the end of the process for a determination to be made on what took place and whether the accused is responsible. I cannot tire of commending the heroism, perseverance and dedication of the survivors who testified in that particular case. Their courage and perseverance — against all odds, really — are something that I find truly humbling. Those qualities are something that we see in victims in many parts of the world. Despite what they endured, they somehow truly represent the very best of us and the triumph of hope in the face of their awful, wretched experiences. It is something that we should take to heart, and not as something that is without value or impact.”
2023-01-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9249 (2023) · source