Darfur (S/PV/7100)

The Security Council met on the situation in Sudan-Darfur (S/PV.7100) on 23 January 2014.

The Security Council met to discuss the report of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (S/2014/26) on 23 January 2014 (S/PV.7100). The Council heard statements from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations and the representative of the Sudan. The Under-Secretary-General reported on the unstable security situation in Darfur, including intercommunal violence and attacks on UNAMID, government personnel, and civilians. He also reported on the slow progress of the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur and a cessation of hostilities agreement for humanitarian access, as the humanitarian situation deteriorated during 2013 with almost 2 million displaced people. The Under-Secretary-General concluded with the impacts the conflict in South Sudan and government inaction are having in Darfur. The representative of Sudan recognized the humanitarian situation but ascribed the violence to ancient tribal clashes. He claimed that Sudan had made a number of promising attempts to aid the peace process but was hindered by the loss of oil revenue to South Sudan and delays in the Doha peace process resulting from some of the leaders having been killed. Sudan also blamed the connection with the violence in South Sudan on Security Council inaction.

There was no mention of women, peace and security concerns.

The Under-Secretary-General made multiple references to humanitarian, civilian, and IDP’s concerns, but he missed the opportunity to include women in his verbal report to the Council. He did speak on the limited progress made on the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, which does include women’s participation in the peace process, but did not specifically speak about women to the Security Council. Additionally, the president of the Security Council briefly mentioned the report of the Secretary-General on the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (S/2014/26), which does include WPS content. The report, however, was only brought up once by each speaker.

The meeting was inadequate in its response to the January 2014 MAP, which called for sex-disaggregated data, progress on addressing SGBV, gender advisors, and protection of civilians including women[1]. Overall, both the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping and the representative of the Sudan missed the opportunity to respond to the MAP recommendations and include a gender perspective in their statements to the Council.

This meeting was on par with the last meeting on the peacekeeping UNAMID mission on 23 October 2013 (S/PV.7048) in terms of WPS language. This meeting took a step backwards, however, from the previous Security Council meeting on Sudan-Darfur. The meeting of 11 December 2013 (S/PV.7080) included many references to the protection of women, especially in regards to SGBV in the statements of the Council members and by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. This meeting’s record was shorter because it does not include member statements, however, the previous meeting did include two references to SGBV specifically mentioning women during the briefing portion of the meeting.