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ICC Asks Sudan to Allow Access to Investigators

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during her visit to Sudan in October. AFP file photo
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during her visit to Sudan in October. AFP file photo
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ICC Asks Sudan to Allow Access to Investigators

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during her visit to Sudan in October. AFP file photo
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during her visit to Sudan in October. AFP file photo

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has urged the UN Security Council to pressure Sudan into allowing access for investigators to conduct a probe in the Darfur region.

"I reiterate this call and urge this Council to impress upon Sudan the urgent need for my investigators to access its territory and in particular, to conduct investigative missions in Darfur without further delay," Fatou Bensouda said in a briefing.

Bensouda said that she stressed, during her trip to Sudan in October, the urgent need for ICC investigators to be given access to the territory of Sudan.

"It had been my hope that my team would have traveled to Sudan in November for an operational assessment mission to pave the way for fully-fledged investigative activities immediately thereafter. Unfortunately, this mission was postponed at the request of the Sudanese authorities."

Unless the mission is rescheduled soon, the ICC investigators risk losing a golden opportunity to directly engage with victims and witnesses, for the first time and to ensure their evidence is made available to the judges at Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman's confirmation of charges hearing, scheduled for Feb. 22, she said.

Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, was transferred to the ICC in June following his voluntary surrender to the authorities in the Central African Republic.

He made his initial appearance before an ICC pre-trial chamber the same month. The confirmation of charges hearing was set to be held on Dec. 7, but has since been postponed to Feb. 22.

Security Council Resolution 1593, passed in 2005, referred the Darfur situation to the ICC prosecutor and called on the Sudanese government and other parties to the conflict to cooperate fully with the court and its prosecutor.

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Syria Forms Committee to Draft Transitional Constitutional Declaration

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Forms Committee to Draft Transitional Constitutional Declaration

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa talks to attendees during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced on Sunday the formation of a committee to draft a constitutional declaration for the country's transition after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The new authorities are focused on rebuilding Syria and its institutions after Assad's removal on December 8, ending more than half a century of his family's iron-fisted rule and 13 years of devastating war.

The presidency announced "the formation of a committee of experts", including one woman, tasked with drafting "the constitutional declaration that regulates the transitional phase" in Syria.

The seven-member committee would "submit its proposals to the president", it said in a statement, without specifying a timeframe.

In late January, Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which spearheaded Assad's overthrow, was appointed interim president for an unspecified period.

Syria's new authorities have repealed the Assad-era constitution, and Sharaa has said rewriting it could take up to three years.

In late January, Sharaa promised a "constitutional declaration" to serve as a "legal reference" during the country's transitional period.

Sunday's announcement came "based on the Syrian people's aspirations in building their state based on the rule of law, and building on the outcomes of the Syrian national dialogue conference", said the presidency.

It also came "with the aim of preparing the legal framework regulating the transitional phase", it added.

A national dialogue conference held this week in Damascus set out a path for the new Syria.

The committee includes Abdul Hamid al-Awak, who holds a doctorate in constitutional law and lectures at a university in Turkiye, and Yasser al-Huwaish, who was appointed this year as dean of Damascus university's law faculty.

It also includes Bahia Mardini, a journalist with a doctorate in law who has been living in Britain, and Ismail al-Khalfan, who holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law, and who this year was appointed law faculty dean at Aleppo university.

Another committee member, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, holds a doctorate in law specializing in international law from Idlib university, where he graduated in 2023.

The final statement of this week's dialogue conference called for "a constitutional committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the country that achieves balance between authorities, sets the values of justice, freedom and equality, and establishes a state of law an institutions".

Syria's conflict broke out in 2011 after Assad brutally repressed anti-government protests.

It spiraled into a complex conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more domestically and abroad and battered the economy, infrastructure and industry.

In December, a caretaker government was appointed to steer the country until March 1, when a new government was due to be formed.