Two New Papers Focus Attention on China's Arms Sales to Sudan

Human Rights First has issued a new background paper outlining some of the implications of the charge by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has committed genocide. By publicly invoking genocide, the Prosecutor has focused the legal context for governing responses to the crisis on the Genocide Convention. Under the Genocide Convention, States’ are legally obligated to take all measures in their power to prevent and stop ongoing genocide. Countries such as China and Russia that arm Sudan and thus fuel the capacity of its government to sustain the alleged genocide campaign are bound by the Convention to take all possible action, including immediately suspending arms transfers. Sudan’s supporters may also be obligated to cease other kinds of support to Khartoum, such as political cover, and use their political or other influence to try to prevent or stop the potential genocide in Darfur.

The Prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against President Bashir informs States of the credible risk of genocide in Darfur, and thus triggers their obligation to act to prevent it or ensure they are not complicit in committing it. Last Thursday, the court survived the first major challenge to its efforts to bring President Bashir to justice, when the UN Security Council successfully resisted significant pressure by China, Russia, and others to include language that would have suspended the ICC proceedings within a resolution to extend the mandate for the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The Security Council, which has frequently been stymied in its ability to intervene to stop the crisis in Darfur by permanent members Russia and China, has the authority to suspend the ICC deliberations on this matter for a year at a time if they are judged to endanger the promotion of peace and security.

You can read the background paper by clicking the link below:
ICC%20Charges%20in%20Darfur%20and%20the%20Gencoide%20Convention.pdf

The Arms and Security Initiative of the New America Foundation released a briefing paper today finding that China has been the "most egregious violator" of the Darfur arms embargo. The briefing paper aguments some of the findings in a report issued by Human Rights First in March that details China's economic, military and political relationship with the Government of Sudan.