ACHPR85: African Commission documents human rights situation in Sudan

The civil war in Sudan has been raging for two years. Under its protective mandate, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights conducted a virtual joint fact-finding mission on Sudan from June 2024 to March 2025.

During this 85th ordinary session, the Commission presented a report of this mission, along with its methodology and findings, in a panel discussion with Commissioner Hatem Essaiem, Vice Chair of the African Commission, country rapporteur of Sudan and Chair of the Joint Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso, Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie, Commissioner Litha Ogana, Commissioner Selma Sassi Safer, Jeggan Grey-Johnson of the Open Society Foundation, and Wini Omer, Head of the Sudan Framework Mechanism. 

On the methodology, the African Commission specified that this mission was a virtual one. However, with a victim-based approach, commissioners were able to interview a diverse range of victims, including women, migrants, and Indigenous Peoples.

On the findings, the mission led the African Commission to confirm the long-standing root causes of the conflict and to identify the following violations breaching the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The African Commission found violations of the right to life, the right to human dignity, the right to liberty and security of the person, freedoms of speech, the media, association, the press, academic and of assembly, the right to freedom of movement, the right to non-discrimination, rights of vulnerable groups, and the right to peace and security. 

The report also refers to human rights defenders who have been arrested and detained on suspicion of possessing evidence of ongoing human rights violations.

Deploring the lack of accountability for the violations, a speaker of the panel held on this fact-finding mission on Sudan called States parties to the African Charter to adopt: