UN UPR 54th Session: On Procedural Bias and the Selective Treatment of Human Rights Violations in Sudan

The International Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (ICHRO) and Omnium des Libertés (ODL) have filed a joint stakeholder submission to the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review ahead of its Fifty-Fourth Session (January–February 2027), for the fourth-cycle review of the Republic of the Sudan.

The submission pursues three objectives: to recall the commitments Sudan accepted during its third Universal Periodic Review in 2022; to assess how far those commitments have been implemented; and to draw the Working Group's attention to concerns regarding procedural impartiality and the selective treatment of documented human rights violations — including issues arising during the Human Rights Council's sixty-second session on the draft resolution concerning the humanitarian situation in El Obeid.

What the submission documents

Sudan supported 244 of the 283 recommendations made at its third review, which the Human Rights Council adopted without a vote on 4 July 2022. Four years on, the submitting organizations find near-total non-implementation of that record, alongside a marked reduction in cooperation with international mechanisms:

• The mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan was terminated in December 2023 at the request of the Sudanese authorities.
• The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan has been unable to conduct investigations inside Sudanese territory.
• OHCHR and the Independent Expert have encountered restrictions on access imposed by the de facto authorities in Port Sudan.
• Initial and periodic reports due under several human rights treaties since 2022 remain outstanding, and no voluntary mid-term report has been submitted.

The submission also warns that an exclusive or disproportionate focus on a single geographical area risks an incomplete assessment of the situation. It points to continuing reports of violations in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile, to civilian casualties including children following the events in Kulbus, West Darfur on 29 June 2026, and to the prolonged siege of El Fasher and repeated attacks affecting camps for internally displaced persons in North Darfur.

A further section addresses matters omitted from the Council's agenda: documented allegations concerning the use of internationally prohibited chemical weapons, the indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure, the obstruction of humanitarian relief operations including World Food Programme convoys, and the reported involvement of foreign cross-border armed groups.

The recommendations

The submitting organizations call upon the Sudanese authorities and all parties to the conflict to ensure access for international human rights mechanisms; ensure independent investigations and accountability; protect civilians; guarantee humanitarian access; engage in a ceasefire and an inclusive peace process; strengthen follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review; restore civilian-led governance; and resume full cooperation with the International Criminal Court. They further recommend that any Human Rights Council resolution concerning the Sudan be comprehensive, balanced and fully reflective of the armed conflict.

"The fourth review will constitute a defining test," the submission concludes: "either the universal periodic review confines itself to a formal exercise in which commitments are recorded and forgotten, or it becomes the framework within which the gap between the commitments of February 2022 and the reality of July 2026 is named, measured and redressed."

Read the full submission (PDF, 10 pages)

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Submitted by the International Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (ICHRO) and Omnium des Libertés (ODL)

Geneva, 22 July 2026