Agata Hinc, Warsaw, Poland
From more than four years the international community tries to find a solution to the Darfur conflict. The UN Security Council, the European Union (EU), the African Union (AU), the United States of America (USA) and other international players were and are involved in its unsuccessful termination. The conflict spreads. The Janjaweeds (independent Arabic police) commit terrible crimes in Darfur and in Eastern Chad – they slaughter, they burn villages, they steal cattle.
Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide says: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Even though we can call the above lines the description of the situation in Darfur, we can count on fingers of the hand European leaders who ventured to call this conflict a genocide. Fortunately many more voices rose from the USA.
The Security Council took two important steps in 2005. One of them was the referral of the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court in The Hague because of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. The second step was establishing a sanctions committee and a panel of experts to investigate individuals who violate the arms embargo, commit abuses of human rights, or impede the peace process. A third step was taken in 2006 with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1706 deploying UN peacekeepers to Darfur.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into the situation in Darfur in June 2005 (ICC has the mandate to investigate those individuals most responsible for crimes in accordance with the Rome Statutes). In May 2007 the Prosecutor issued indictments for suspects of atrocities in Darfur.

The ICC decided that the functions of Pre-Trial Chamber I concerning the Case of the Prosecutor v. Ahmad Muhammad Harun and AU Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Rahman ("AU Kushayb") in the Situation in Darfur, Sudan shall be carried out by the single judge from 10 May 2007 until otherwise decided by the Chamber.

The Human Rights Council (HRC) mandated (by Decision No. S-4/101) the High-Level Mission on the situation of human rights in Darfur to assess the human rights situation in Darfur and the needs of the Sudan in this regard. Members of the High-Level Mission carried out their programme of work from 5 February to 5 March 2007 inter alia in the refugee camps of Eastern Chad and prepared its report to the Human Rights Council.

On its 4th session (30 March 2007) HRC adopted seven resolutions and two decisions, including a text on Darfur in which it expressed its deep concern regarding the seriousness of the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur and decided to convene a group to be presided over by the Special Reporter on Sudan to work with the Government of Sudan and the appropriate human rights mechanisms of the African Union to ensure the effective follow-up of the implementation of resolutions and recommendations on Darfur.

In its latest resolution concerning Darfur - Resolution 1769 (2007), adopted at its 5727th meeting, on 31 July 2007 - the UN Security Council authorized and mandated “the establishment, for an initial period of 12 months, of an AU/UN Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID) as set out in this resolution and pursuant to the report of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission of 5 June 2007” and decided “that UNAMID, which shall incorporate AMIS personnel and the UN Heavy and Light Support Packages to AMIS, shall consist of up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, and an appropriate civilian component including up to 3,772 police personnel and 19 formed police units comprising up to 140 personnel each.”

With the support of international society the situation in Darfur may change. There are still many things to do, but the first few steps have been already taken. Investigations, trials, programs, reports, decisions, resolutions – this all was a good beginning. Now we need more good will and more action from the European Union, from the United States of America and first of all from China. If everyone gives its part, it would become possible to turn the misfortune away from Darfur.