Event Description
Join key Sudanese stakeholders and PILPG Sudan experts on May 11 at 12:30 pm ET / 6:30 pm Khartoum time for an expert roundtable on current developments in Sudan’s recent conflict and priority issues to be addressed within the country.
After decades of conflict and marginalization, in 2019 the Sudanese people ushered in a new era, deposing President Bashir after a thirty-year dictatorship. On October 3, 2020 the Juba Agreement for Peace (JPA) in Sudan was signed, setting out key initiatives for bringing durable peace to Sudan and a real opportunity for representative governance, peace, and justice. On October 25, 2021, the military members of the transitional government, which had been sharing power with civilian actors and JPA signatories, staged a coup, arresting key civilian leaders and dissolving transitional institutions. Nevertheless, by early April 2023, civilian and military stakeholders were days away from signing a political framework agreement to usher in a new transition to civilian democratic rule. Unfortunately the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who had previously worked together to both overthrow the Bashir regime in 2019 and stage the 2021 military coup, could not agree on a plan to unify forces within a civilian political transition. Fighting erupted between SAF and RSF forces on April 15, destroying critical infrastructure in the capital city of Khartoum, killing hundreds, and forcing thousands to flee the country.
Our panelists will discuss these recent developments in Sudan, consider the events that led to the current conflict, and highlight potential avenues to address the ongoing violence. This expert roundtable will be moderated by PILPG President Paul Williams.
This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.
Speakers
Professor Adrienne L. Fricke
Adrienne L. Fricke is a Senior Legal Advisor at PILPG. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative where she is studying policy initiatives to improve access to healthcare for Syrian refugees, and a consultant specializing in human rights and refugee-related issues in the Middle East and Africa. Since 2007, she has worked with Physicians for Human Rights, serving most recently as Syria Advisor, designing and implementing projects for Syrian healthcare workers and human rights defenders. Adrienne previously assessed the health impacts on Sudanese refugee women living in Eastern Chad, and from 2006-07 was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. She is the co-author of a series of studies by the Institute of International Education and the UC Davis Human Rights Initiative evaluating the impact of the Syrian conflict on access to higher education in Syria, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Adrienne holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University, and a B.A. in African Studies from Yale University. She has lived and worked in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon and is fluent in Arabic and French.
Dr. Lutz Oette
Dr. Lutz Oette is Professor of International Human Rights Law at SOAS, University of London and Co-Director of the SOAS Centre for Human Rights Law.
He has, in his previous roles with the NGO REDRESS, worked on human rights in Sudan for the last two decades. His work included building civil society capacity to document, investigate and litigate torture cases, bringing human rights cases before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and leading on a criminal law reform project in Sudan. In 2017, he co-authored an article and several reports that critically interrogated the EU/Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, i.e. the Khartoum Process. He has continued working closely with Sudanese human rights defenders since the beginning of the Sudanese revolution in 2018.
Professor Oette is the editor of Criminal Law Reform and Transitional Justice: Human Rights Perspectives for Sudan (Ashgate 2011) and co-editor, with M.A. Babiker, of Constitution-Making and Human Rights in the Sudans (Routledge 2018).
Dr. Alush Gashi
Dr. Alush Gashi (MD., PhD.) is a professor of Anatomy and a Specialist in General Surgery. Dr. Gashi was a professor of Anatomy at the University of Prishtina (Kosova) from 1974 - 2017, served as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Prishtina from 1988 - 1992, and was a visiting scientist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine from 1981 - 1984.A signatory to the Declaration of Independence of Kosova (2008), Dr. Gashi served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic League of Kosova, Senior Advisor to President Ibrahim Rugova, Majority Leader of the Parliament of Kosova, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and the first Minister of Health of the Republic of Kosova. Dr. Gashi later served as a Political and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister from 2020 - 2021.As a well-known human rights activist, Dr. Gashi has documented and published inhumane actions of the Serbian regime. When the Serbian regime closed schools and organized the systematic firing of Albanians in all sectors, Dr. Gashi was highly active in the organization of the so-called “parallel system”, which enabled the continuation of education and services in private homes. For decades, Dr. Gashi was the face of Kosova in Washington D.C., establishing a strong connection between the United States and Kosova, and testifying about the crimes of the Serbian regime in Congressional Hearings. After Kosova gained independence, he continued his support for people seeking freedom and justice.He is the founder of the Institute on Foreign Relations (IFR) in Kosova and serves as the Chairman.
Professor Rebecca Hamilton
Professor Rebecca Hamilton is a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. She is an internationally recognized expert on atrocity prevention and the author of Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide. Her scholarship draws on her experience in the prosecution of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as well as her work in conflict zones as a foreign correspondent. Previously, Professor Hamilton served as a lawyer in the prosecutorial division of the International Criminal Court, working on cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda and Sudan. Prior to entering academia she was the Washington Post’s special correspondent on Sudan. Hamilton is an Executive Editor of the the national security law publication, Just Security, a Pulitzer grantee, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also the recipient of a 2023-2024 U.S. Scholar Fulbright Award. Hamilton received her J.D from Harvard Law School and M.P.P from Harvard Kennedy School. A graduate of the University of Sydney, she was born in Aotearoa, NZ. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and four young children.
Mr. Berhanemeskel Nega
Mr. Nega is the former UNAMID Director of Political Affairs and former Head of Office of the UN/AU Hybrid Mission in South Darfur and Khartoum, Sudan. Mr. Nega also facilitated UN/AU support for the Sudan peace talks in Juba.Mr. Nega has over 35 years of service in multilateral diplomacy, peacekeeping, mediation, post-conflict peace building and political transition. Mr. Nega previously served as Ethiopian Senior Diplomat at the UN and Deputy Head of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone. His academic training includes international law, government, and politics.
MODERATOR
Dr. Paul R. Williams
Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.