JURIST - Paper Chase: UN rights council calls for new Darfur investigation

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council [official website] passed a resolution Friday calling on Sudan [JURIST news archive] to allow a group of rights experts to visit the region of Darfur [JURIST news archive], but did not actually criticize the Sudanese government for the atrocities occurring there. The resolution passed by consensus without a vote by the 47-nation council after Germany agreed to delete language holding the Sudanese government responsible for attacks on civilians, widespread violence, and the destruction of villages. The council noted receipt of a report [text; JURIST report] blaming the government for the situation in Darfur, but did not officially accept the report's findings in the resolution.

While the resolution did not criticize Sudan's government for previously refusing to issue visas [JURIST report] to the report's authors, led by Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams [Nobel Foundation profile], it calls on the government to allow another group to visit the Darfur region. Khartoum refused to issue visas to the prior group because it claimed one of the experts was biased, but said it would cooperate with the new investigation. Since civil war broke out in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2003, over 200,000 people have died there. AP has more.

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