Social Science Research Council

I have been delaying writing about the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s public application for an arrest warrant against President Bashir until that application is public. As it is still not available, let me comment on the press conference. In the absence of law and evidence, we have the theatrics.
I sat in Luis Moreno Ocampo’s press conference [...]

For Sudan’s governing National Congress Party, the unsettling prospect of having its leader, President Omer Hassan al-Bashir, indicted for the government’s disastrous response to the Darfur insurgency over the last five years has only succeeded in galvanizing the party and buttressing its determination to block action by the International Criminal Court.
The violence that the [...]

The world holds its collective breath, and waits to see the repercussions of the ICC prosecutor’s request to indict President Bashir. Much is at stake, not least the court’s credibility. To pursue a prosecution as currently envisaged by the ICC, such a case must be winnable to preserve the integrity of this nascent organization and [...]

International Law must be delivered with the right procedures and indubitable evidences if it has to be credited as objective justice. This Law of Nations must not be biased with politics of selfish competition in the international and global interests. This Law must always be the servant of security, stability, order and peace and not [...]

To date, the application by Moreno Ocampo for an arrest warrant for President Omar al Bashir has not led to disaster in Sudan. The CPA is intact, the UN operations are continuing, there have been no clashes between government supporters and enemies. In fact, the country appears calmer than last week. What is going on?
Most [...]

Memorandum to EU Ambassadors On the ICC and Sudan
From: Al Sadig Al Mahdi
President of Umma National Party
17th July 2008
Excellencies,
I have requested this meeting, which you have kindly arranged to update you on events in the Sudan from Umma National Party (UNP) point of view and to compare notes with you.
Sudan is now at an important [...]

Attempting to make a snap judgment on the outcome of the ICC’s intervention is perhaps a mistake. Commentators on both sides of the argument have skilfully demonstrated the complexities and possible consequences involved. While not wishing to add to the list of possible scenarios, I would like to query some of the arguments [...]

Something is definitely happening - and there may even be reasons to be faintly optimistic about it. Having presented a ‘worst case scenario’ earlier in this discussion, perhaps it is worth setting out a ‘best case scenario’, looking at the situation from this point on.
First, I do believe the worst case remains a serious possibility. [...]

The decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to file genocide charges against President Bashir has generated the familiar wave of alarmist commentary in the op-ed pages of newspapers and blogs such as this one. The Associated Press called is “a high-risk strategy that could backfire against the people in [...]

The definitive indications are that President Bashir and the National Congress have, indeed, chosen the mature response to the ICC indictment; pushing ahead with the CPA and trying to secure a comprehensive political settlement to Darfur. They have realised that a country that is moving head forth towards comprehensive political, economic and social transformation hardly [...]