Sudan: To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland)

21 August 2026
Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)
press release

Sudan: Extend the Fact-Finding Mission's mandate and ensure adequate resources for investigations and reporting

Excellencies,

Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council's 63rd session (7 September-7 October 2026), we, the undersigned civil society organisations, write to urge your delegation to support a mandate extension for the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan, in full, for two years.

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The next Council resolution on Sudan should ensure that the FFM has adequate resources to fulfil its mandate to investigate ongoing grave violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and related crimes, collect and preserve evidence, and identify perpetrators with a view to ensuring that they are held accountable. It should request a written report on the findings of the FFM's urgent inquiry into El Obeid, requested by Council resolution 62/1, as part of an effort to comprehensively report to UN bodies.

Additionally, the Council should strengthen the FFM's capacity by providing it with adequate financial resources and expertise. It should consider ways to further enhance the FFM's capacity, and that of the UN system, to support accountability efforts, including through the collection, consolidation and preservation of evidence on suspected perpetrators of crimes under international law. This should be part of a holistic approach to atrocity prevention and accountability.

Three years after its creation, the FFM remains a critical international mechanism with the mandate to independently investigate and report on violations committed throughout Sudan with a view to supporting accountability efforts, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and through cases before domestic courts, under the principle of universal jurisdiction. The Mission's work is key to addressing the impunity that fuels grave violations and abuses in Sudan.

As the warring parties continue to show utter disregard for international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and their commitments under the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, and as they remain "unwilling or unable to conduct genuine, thorough, prompt, and impartial investigations and prosecutions," the FFM's mandate remains indispensable. Its regular investigative reports and special inquiries also provide the international community with analysis and guidance to help prevent further atrocities, protect civilians, and advance accountability.

Over the past year, the Council has twice reaffirmed by consensus the value of the FFM's investigations into international crimes committed in Sudan and has repeatedly stressed that accountability for grave abuses is central to any solution to the current crisis. It has also made a deliberate effort to build synergies with the African regional system and to fulfil its prevention mandate, including by taking swift action on the situation in and around El Obeid.

The FFM should continue to strengthen cooperation with African regional human rights mechanisms, building on recent collaboration with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) -led Joint Fact-Finding Mission. Enhanced coordination and information-sharing between these complementary mechanisms would reinforce African and international efforts to protect civilians, advance accountability, and support sustainable peace, while ensuring that UN action is informed by and contributes to broader regional initiatives led by African institutions.

In light of the additional urgent inquiries the FFM has been tasked with and of the imperative to ensure a solid body of evidence to support future prosecutions for the crimes it is documenting, its resources and capacity should be further strengthened to allow it to fully deliver on its mandate. Relatedly, moving to a two-year renewal framework would allow for a more strategic and efficient approach and help ease some of the staffing issues that have affected its operations.

Strengthening of the FFM is not incompatible, but rather complementary, with reporting by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which is ongoing with the assistance of the High Commissioner's designated Expert.

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The international community, including the Human Rights Council, can and should do more to break the cycle of impunity and violence in Sudan and make clear that without accountability, there will be no sustainable peace. States should take a comprehensive look at Sudan's conflict, those responsible for violations, including external actors fuelling them, and adopt a holistic approach to atrocity prevention and accountability.

While supporting the Mission's ongoing investigative work and ensuring continued public reporting and debates on Sudan, including at the Human Rights Council, the UN system should consider longer-term ways of enhancing its capacity to support criminal prosecutions against perpetrators so they are brought to justice before existing or future courts or tribunals.

Against this backdrop, at its upcoming 63rd session, the Council should:

  1. Extend the mandate of the FFM and enhance its capacity by ensuring adequate resources for investigations and reporting:
  • Extend the FFM's mandate, in full, for two years;
  • Request the FFM to provide the Human Rights Council with oral updates on its work at its 65th and 68th sessions, to be followed by enhanced interactive dialogues that should include the participation of relevant stakeholders, as well as comprehensive reports at its 66th and 69th sessions, to be followed by interactive dialogues, and to present the reports to the General Assembly at its 82nd and 83rd sessions;
  • Enhance and resource the FFM's capacity to investigate ongoing grave violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and related crimes, collect and preserve evidence, and identify perpetrators with a view to ensuring that they are held accountable, in line with its mandate;
  • Request the FFM to present a written report on the findings of its urgent inquiry into violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law and related international crimes, allegedly committed in and around El Obeid in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Sudan, requested by resolution 62/1, before the Council's 64th session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue; and
  • Request the Secretary-General to provide the assistance and all resources necessary to enable the High Commissioner to provide the administrative, technical and logistical support as is required to implement the provisions of the FFM's mandate, including its mandate to collect, preserve and analyse evidence in support of accountability processes and to cooperate with judicial and other entities to support their work to hold perpetrators to account.
  1. Move towards a holistic approach to atrocity prevention and accountability:
  • Recommend that the General Assembly submit all reports of the FFM to the Security Council for its consideration and appropriate action;
  • Call upon all parties concerned, including United Nations bodies, to consider implementation of the recommendations made by the FFM in its reports in order to address the dire situation of human rights in Sudan;
  • Invite the FFM to consider ways of briefing all relevant United Nations bodies, including the Security Council;
  • Address the role of external actors supporting the warring parties and ensure that the FFM has adequate resources to identify all actors responsible for violations with a view to ensuring that they are held to account, in line with its mandate, including as part of an effort to encourage the FFM to report on external actors fuelling violations in Sudan; and
  • Make clear that the Human Rights Council will remain actively seized of the matter, including by assessing the situation in Sudan and appropriate responses, which could include further extensions of the FFM's mandate and further actions in the framework of the Council's prevention mandate.
  1. Follow up on resolutions S-32/1, 50/1, S-36/1, 54/2, 57/2, and 60/3 by requesting additional reporting by the High Commissioner beyond the Council's 64th session (February-April 2027):
  • Request the High Commissioner, with the assistance of the designated Expert on human rights in the Sudan, to submit to the Human Rights Council at its 67th and 70th sessions comprehensive reports on the situation of human rights in the Sudan and on violations and abuses committed by all parties to the conflict, to be followed by interactive dialogues with the participation of the High Commissioner and the Expert.

Finally, we urge States to mobilise to address the UN's financial crisis and work together to ensure that human rights work is adequately resourced. In addition to paying their contributions to the UN in full and on time, it is particularly important to ensure the timely availability of resources to independent mechanisms established by the Council to address emergency situations, including the FFM for Sudan.

We thank you for your attention to these pressing issues and stand ready to provide your delegation with further information as required.

Sincerely,

  1. African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ACDHRS)
  2. African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS)
  3. AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network)
  4. Africans for the Horn of Africa
  5. Al Jazeera Observatory for Human Rights
  6. Al Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE)
  7. Amnesty International
  8. Atrocities Watch Africa
  9. AWAFY Sudanese Organization
  10. Bazza for Development, Humanitarian Service and Peacebuilding Organization (BDHSPO)
  11. Burundian Human Rights Defenders Coalition (CBDDH)
  12. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
  13. Central Observatory for Human Rights (COHR Sudan)
  14. Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) - Malawi
  15. Chaka for Peace and Justice
  16. CIVICUS
  17. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
  18. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
  19. Darfur Victims Support Organization
  20. Darfur Women Action Group
  21. December Foundation
  22. DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
  23. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
  24. Every Casualty Counts
  25. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)
  26. Global Rights Compliance
  27. Governance Programming Overseas (GPO) UK
  28. Hawai'i Institute for Human Rights
  29. Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) - Malawi
  30. Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO Centre)
  31. Human Rights Forum - Sudan
  32. Human Rights Watch
  33. Institut des Médias pour la Démocratie et les Droits de l'Homme (IM2DH) - Togo
  34. International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
  35. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
  36. International Press Institute (IPI)
  37. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  38. The International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
  39. Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) - Sudan
  40. Kaja Organization for Peace and Development (KPD)
  41. Kayn for Women Empowerment Organization
  42. The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
  43. Lawyers for Justice Sudan
  44. Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada
  45. MIR Italy (Italian branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation)
  46. Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l'Amitié entre les Peuples (MRAP)
  47. Nubian Center for Peace and Democracy (NCPD)
  48. PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities)
  49. PAX
  50. The Reckoning Project (TRP)
  51. REDRESS
  52. Regional Centre for Training and Development of Civil Society (RCDCS) - Sudan
  53. Rights Bridge Africa
  54. SIHA Network
  55. Sudanese Network for Development and Democracy (SND)
  56. Sudanese Organization for Justice and Human Rights
  57. Sudanese Women Rights Action
  58. Sudan Human Rights Defenders Coalition (SudanDefenders)
  59. Sudan Human Rights Hub (SHRH)
  60. Sudan Knowledge Centre (SKC)
  61. Sudan Peace Call (SPC)
  62. Sudan Rights Watch Network
  63. Sudan Unlimited
  64. Togolese Human Rights Defenders Coalition (CTDDH)
  65. Voice of Victims Newspaper
  66. West African Human Rights Defenders Network (ROADDH/WAHRDN)
  67. Women of Change Organization (WCO)
  68. Youth Citizens Observers Network (YCON Sudan)

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