UN Authority Figures

UN Commission on Sustainable Development: Sudan

"Water Line at Kalma Camp: Displaced persons in Kalma camp near Nyala, South Darfur, line up their jerry cans to wait for water." USAID Sudan

Mission of the Commission on Sustainable Development: "...to promote dialogue and build partnerships for sustainable development with governments, the international community and the major groups identified in Agenda 21 as key actors outside the central government who have a major role to play in the transition towards sustainable development. These Major Groups include women, youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations, local authorities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, the scientific community, and farmers" (Commission on Sustainable Development web-site, "Mandate of the Commission on Sustainable Development")

Term of office: 2007-

Sudan's Record on Sustainable Development:
"In 2003, rebel groups in Darfur, a historically marginalized region in western Sudan, began attacking Sudanese military positions, although some observers have dated the first attacks to 2001 and 2002. The residents of Darfur, mostly black Muslim farmers or herders, had long clashed with some of the region's nomadic Arab tribes, and with one another, over land use...[T]he new conflict was on a different scale. By early 2004, government-supported Arab militias known as the Janjaweed had begun torching villages, massacring the inhabitants, slaughtering and stealing livestock, and raping women and girls...As of 2006, credible estimates of the dead ranged from 70,000 to over 400,000, with more than two million displaced. Many in the IDP and refugee camps suffered from disease and starvation." (Freedom House Country Report on Sudan 2007)