Despite the significant challenges posed by the ongoing fighting, the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) continues to support the promotion of human rights and the protection of civilians. Since the start of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, UNITAMS has strengthened its reporting and monitoring to ensure adequate reporting on the conflict. We have produced 119 situational reports on the conflict which provided real time information on the conflict with particular focus on victims, perpetrators and other actors.

Through its vast local networks, UNITAMS has collected and documented information on thousands of incidents. Data collected from these networks is subjected to a verification process and then feeds into the human rights elements of the Secretary General’s report and Security Council briefings on Sudan. The data is also used for advocacy purposes during our regular engagements with SAF and the RSF.

Human Rights Incident Monitoring and Analysis Tool (HIMAT)

Prior to the conflict, UNITAMS through its Office of Support to Civilian Protection (OSCP) invested efforts and resources to build civil society platforms in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile regions with the aim to ensuring the involvement of civil society groups in human rights, protection and transitional justice issues. The platforms were then linked to UNITAMS’ Human Rights Incident Monitoring and Analysis Tool (HIMAT), which was built to strengthen early warning, information gathering, and documentation of human rights violations and abuses.

HIMAT is the first of its kind in the UN system where civil society groups, human rights defenders and local community groups can log in and share detail information on human rights violations with the UN. Upon the eruption of the conflict, HIMAT has become an exceptional tool for human rights defenders on the ground and those who fled Sudan. Given its extensive usage, HIMAT has recorded thousands of human rights incidents with an extensive database of perpetrators which could be useful for future accountability.

Upcoming related events 

In November 2023, UNITAMS will, in partnership with other entities, including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Sudan Human Rights Network, launch the Sudan Accountability Platform, which is dedicated to harmonising crucial evidence to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes in Darfur, Khartoum, Omdurman, Bahri and other regions.

In the coming weeks, UNITAMS will train 40 Sudanese civil society actors and human rights defenders engaged in documentation of crimes committed in the ongoing conflict.

UNITAMS’ human rights colleagues will hold a workshop on the “Interface between Journalism and Accountability for Human rights Atrocities”, in Entebbe next month, which could enable Journalists to interact with our networks/partners.

Stay tuned for more on those workshops!