EU — Council conclusions on Sudan 3029th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Council meeting

Brus­sels, 26 July 2010
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“1. The Coun­cil recog­nis­es the enor­mous chal­lenges fac­ing Sudan over the forth­com­ing months while not­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties that exist for secur­ing last­ing peace and sta­bil­i­ty for the Sudanese peo­ple. In the con­text of this crit­i­cal peri­od, dur­ing the final stages of the Com­pre­hen­sive Peace Agree­ment (CPA), the Coun­cil under­lines the EU’s readi­ness to sup­port:
• the upcom­ing ref­er­en­da process­es in South Sudan and Abyei through sub­stan­tial tech­ni­cal and finan­cial assis­tance,
• peace­ful imple­men­ta­tion of the CPA, reach­ing an agree­ment on post-ref­er­en­dum issues and work­ing towards long term region­al sta­bil­i­ty,
• the work of the African Union High Lev­el Imple­men­ta­tion Pan­el,
• capac­i­ty build­ing and assis­tance to meet the chal­lenges faced by South Sudan,
• efforts to address inse­cu­ri­ty and reach a last­ing peace set­tle­ment for Dar­fur,
• the work of the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court,
• con­tin­ued devel­op­ment and human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance across Sudan.

The EU reit­er­ates its com­mit­ment to coor­di­nate close­ly with the Sudanese par­ties, the African Union (AU), the Unit­ed Nations (UN), IGAD, the Unit­ed States and oth­er nation­al, region­al and inter­na­tion­al partners.

2. The Coun­cil reit­er­ates its strong sup­port to the full and time­ly imple­men­ta­tion of the CPA, includ­ing the hold­ing of the ref­er­en­da on Abyei and on self deter­mi­na­tion in South Sudan in Jan­u­ary 2011. The Coun­cil express­es con­cern over the delays and urges the Sudanese par­ties to make progress in key areas of CPA imple­men­ta­tion such as the final­i­sa­tion of the bor­der demar­ca­tion and the organ­i­sa­tion of the Abyei ref­er­en­dum. The Coun­cil calls upon the Sudanese author­i­ties to con­tin­ue the prepa­ra­tions for cred­i­ble and inclu­sive pop­u­lar con­sul­ta­tions in South­ern Kord­o­fan and Blue Nile.

3. Ensur­ing peace­ful and con­struc­tive rela­tions between the par­ties irre­spec­tive of the out­come of the ref­er­en­dum is of cru­cial impor­tance for the peo­ple of Sudan and the wider region. The Coun­cil wel­comes the recent for­mal launch of the nego­ti­a­tions on post-ref­er­en­dum issues, engag­ing the main par­ties in Khar­toum and Juba and calls on all par­ties to strive for inclu­sive­ness in this process. The Coun­cil stress­es the impor­tance of reach­ing agree­ment before the ref­er­en­dum on South Sudan’s self deter­mi­na­tion. It sup­ports the AU High Lev­el Imple­men­ta­tion Pan­el for Sudan under the aegis of for­mer Pres­i­dent Thabo Mbe­ki. In that vein the Con­sul­ta­tive Forum for Sudan plays a cru­cial role in sup­port­ing the efforts of the Sudanese par­ties to ful­fil their com­mit­ments. In addi­tion, the Coun­cil stress­es the impor­tant role of the Assess­ment and Eval­u­a­tion Commission.

4. The Coun­cil wel­comes the estab­lish­ment of the South Sudan ref­er­en­dum com­mis­sion in view of prepar­ing the ref­er­en­dum in South Sudan and urges all actors to expe­dite fur­ther prepara­to­ry work in par­tic­u­lar with regard to vot­er reg­is­tra­tion. The EU remains ful­ly engaged in sup­port­ing the prepa­ra­tions of the ref­er­en­dum, notably in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with UNMIS (Unit­ed Nations Mis­sion in Sudan). The Coun­cil under­lines the impor­tance of trans­par­ent and cred­i­ble ref­er­en­da which clear­ly reflect the will of the peo­ple and whose out­comes are accept­ed by all.

5. The Coun­cil express­es its readi­ness to send an EU Elec­tion Observ­er Mis­sion to Sudan on time to observe all steps of the ref­er­en­dum process, includ­ing vot­er reg­is­tra­tion, and looks for­ward to receiv­ing an ear­ly invi­ta­tion from the Sudanese author­i­ties. It recalls the rec­om­men­da­tions made by the EU Elec­tion Observ­er Mis­sion in the fol­low-up to the Sudanese elec­tions in April 2010 whose cen­tral aspects should be tak­en into account when prepar­ing for the ref­er­en­dum. This includes in par­tic­u­lar the nec­es­sary improve­ments regard­ing vot­er reg­is­tra­tion, the neu­tral­i­ty of secu­ri­ty ser­vices and armed forces, free­dom of media and respect of Human Rights and regard­ing the trans­paren­cy of the over­all process. 

6. The Coun­cil recog­nis­es that South Sudan faces sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ment chal­lenges regard­less of the out­come of the ref­er­en­dum. The Coun­cil urges the Gov­ern­ment of South Sudan to active­ly con­sid­er how it will address these chal­lenges, notably those relat­ed to gov­er­nance, rule of law, capac­i­ty build­ing and the capa­bil­i­ty to deliv­er basic social ser­vices. The EU is strong­ly com­mit­ted — through Union instru­ments and bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion by Mem­ber States – to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment of South Sudan in address­ing these issues. The EU also remains com­mit­ted to inten­sive polit­i­cal dia­logue with the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan in Khar­toum on issues of mutu­al concern.

7. The Coun­cil express­es con­cern about a pat­tern of increas­ing polit­i­cal repres­sion and the dete­ri­o­rat­ing envi­ron­ment for civ­il and polit­i­cal rights in all areas of Sudan. It is, in this respect, deeply con­cerned about the recent clo­sure of news­pa­pers and the arrests of a num­ber of jour­nal­ists. It remains great­ly con­cerned about the over­all human rights sit­u­a­tion in Sudan, par­tic­u­lar­ly as regards Human Rights Defend­ers. Spe­cif­ic atten­tion should be paid to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren affect­ed by armed conflict.

8. The Coun­cil calls on all par­ties to end hos­til­i­ties in Dar­fur and is increas­ing­ly con­cerned about the dete­ri­o­rat­ing secu­ri­ty and human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion. Attacks on civil­ians and on Unit­ed Nations — African Union Mis­sion in Dar­fur (UNAMID) con­sti­tute a war crime. The increas­ing cas­es of abduc­tions of human­i­tar­i­an aid work­ers, both Sudanese and inter­na­tion­al staff, are unac­cept­able. The Coun­cil empha­sis­es the par­tic­u­lar respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan to take effec­tive action against per­pe­tra­tors and to bring an end to impuni­ty. The Coun­cil calls upon all par­ties includ­ing the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan to allow urgent, unim­ped­ed access to all pop­u­la­tions in need of human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance. The Coun­cil sup­ports the impor­tant role of UNAMID in Dar­fur, reaf­firms the pri­or­i­ties of pro­tect­ing civil­ians and enabling human­i­tar­i­an access and calls on the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan to remove all obsta­cles to UNAMID’s full and prop­er dis­charge of its mandate.

9. The Coun­cil calls for increased inter­na­tion­al efforts in sup­port of the ongo­ing AU/UN ini­tia­tives towards an inclu­sive polit­i­cal solu­tion in Dar­fur, address­ing the root caus­es of the con­flict, ensur­ing the pro­tec­tion and pro­mo­tion of human rights, jus­tice and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and ade­quate par­tic­i­pa­tion of civ­il soci­ety. It express­es sup­port for the AU/UN Medi­a­tion and wel­comes its achieve­ments so far, includ­ing efforts for increased par­tic­i­pa­tion of Dar­furi­ans, espe­cial­ly women, civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions and inter­nal­ly dis­placed per­sons and refugees, in the peace process.

10. The Coun­cil wel­comes the sign­ing of a frame­work agree­ment between the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan and the Lib­er­a­tion and Jus­tice Move­ment towards a glob­al peace agree­ment, calls on oth­er rebel groups to join the nego­ti­a­tions and stress­es the need for an all inclu­sive process that would lead to the con­clu­sion of a com­pre­hen­sive peace agree­ment for Darfur.

11. The EU remains com­mit­ted to respond­ing to the human­i­tar­i­an needs in all parts of Sudan. More­over, the Coun­cil recalls its deci­sion on mobi­liz­ing decom­mit­ted funds from the 9th EDF (EUR 150 mil­lion) to address the needs of the most vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions in Sudan, in par­tic­u­lar in the war-affect­ed areas, includ­ing the South of Sudan and Dar­fur, in the bor­der regions between North and South Sudan (the Three Areas) and in East Sudan. The fund­ing com­ple­ments ongo­ing devel­op­ment and human­i­tar­i­an pro­grammes in Sudan, includ­ing over EUR 500 mil­lion in devel­op­ment assis­tance com­mit­ted since 2005 and over EUR 750 mil­lion in human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance since 2003. In addi­tion, sup­port is pro­vid­ed under the Instru­ment for Sta­bil­i­ty (EUR 15 mil­lion) for the pro­vi­sion of basic ser­vices in South Sudan and the ref­er­en­dum process.

12. The Coun­cil rec­og­nizes the region­al com­plex­i­ty and the inter­nal and cross-bor­der impli­ca­tions of con­flicts, as well as the chal­lenges relat­ed to the Nile water resource issue. The EU will ensure enhanced diplo­mat­ic efforts with the AU, League of Arab States (LAS), IGAD and the East African Com­mu­ni­ty (EAC) to fos­ter region­al integration.

13. The Coun­cil recalls that war crimes, crimes against human­i­ty and crimes of geno­cide are the most seri­ous crimes of con­cern to the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and that impuni­ty for these crimes can nev­er be accept­ed. The Coun­cil reit­er­ates its sup­port for the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC) and calls upon the Gov­ern­ment of Sudan to coop­er­ate ful­ly with the ICC in accor­dance with its oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tion­al law.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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