5th Population and Housing Census in Sudan –
An Incomplete Exercise

The coming 12 months are very critical for the political history of Sudan. Two landmark events in the country’s history will take place. In April 2010 Sudan is expected to organise the first multi-party general executive and legislative elections after more than 20 years of authoritarian military rule. In January 2011 the people in Southern Sudan will exercise, in a popular referendum, their right to self-determination and decide on the future of the country. The referendum on the right to self-determination will be a choice between maintaining Sudan as a united country built on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as its foundation on the one hand and creating a separate State in Southern Sudan on the other. Either way, the effects on Sudan’s political future are expected to be irreversible. 

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Pre-Trial Chamber I decline to confirm the charges against Bahar Idriss Abu Garda

On 8 February 2010, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court declined to confirm the charges in the case of the ICC Prosecutor against Bahar Idriss Abu Garda. The Chamber was not satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Bahar Idriss Abu Garda could be held criminally responsible either as a direct or as an indirect co-perpetrator for the commission of the crimes with which he was charged by the Prosecution. Abu Garda was charged with three war crimes, namely violence to life, intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission, and pillaging, allegedly committed during an attack on 29 September, 2007, against the African Union Mission in Sudan (“AMIS”) stationed at Haskanita Military Group Site (“MGS Haskanita”), in the locality of Umm Kadada, North Darfur.

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The Appeals Chamber:

Judgment on the appeal of the Prosecutor against the "Decision on the Prosecution's Application for a Warrant of Arrest against Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir"

On 3 February, 2010, the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided to reverse, by unanimous decision, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision of 4 March, 2009, to the extent that Pre-Trial Chamber I decided not to issue a warrant of arrest in respect of the charge of genocide against Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir. The Appeals Chamber directed the Pre-Trial Chamber to decide anew on whether or not to extend the arrest warrant to cover the charge of genocide. The Appeals Chamber found that demanding that the existence of genocidal intent must be the only reasonable conclusion amounts to requiring the Prosecutor to disprove any other reasonable conclusions and to eliminate any reasonable doubt. The Appeals Chamber found this standard of proof to be too demanding at the arrest warrant stage, which is governed by article 58 of the Rome Statute. This amounted to an error of law.

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