Following a joint submission to the Foreign Minister by the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and the Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) in August 2025, requesting sanctions against eight individuals and ten entities tied to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the groups have reiterated in a recent letter the urgent need to impose sanctions in light of the further deteriorating situation in Sudan and continued evidence of grave human rights violations.
What is happening in Sudan?
Sudan has experienced cycles of political violence for many years. Most recently, in June 2019, peaceful pro-democracy protesters were brutally massacred in Khartoum by the SAF and the RSF. This marked the beginning of an entrenched pattern of systematic violence against civilians. In April 2023, tensions between the SAF and RSF erupted into full-scale armed conflict, with both sides continuing to deliberately and indiscriminately target civilians.
Overnight, the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan released its new report finding that the RSF carried out a coordinated campaign of destruction against non-Arab communities in and around El Fasher, the hallmarks of which point to genocide. While the Mission documented war crimes and crimes against humanity, it found that the evidence established that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed. This report follows the Mission’s report of October 2024, that concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct of the SAF and RSF amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, rape, sexual slavery, and persection on intersecting ethnic and gender grounds.
The coordinated campaign of mass killings, sexual violence and indiscriminate attacks on civilians in El Fasher has also raised the concern of the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (ICC-OTP), which recently reported that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed based on video, audio and satellite evidence collected.11 Vibhu Mishra ‘Sudan: Atrocities ‘repeated town by town’, ICC prosecutor tells UN Security Council’ United Nations News (19 January 2026).
The ICC-OTP is also advancing investigations into crimes committed in El Geneina, where witnesses have provided accounts of attacks on displacement camps, looting, gender-based violence and crimes against children.22 Vibhu Mishra ‘Sudan: Atrocities ‘repeated town by town’, ICC prosecutor tells UN Security Council’ United Nations News (19 January 2026). The ICC-OTP opened an investigation into Darfur, Sudan in June 2005 covering alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 1 July 2002.
The cost of inaction by Australia is too high
Since human rights violations have only intensified in Sudan, the cost of inaction by Australia is too high. The groups press for the Foreign Minister to exercise her powers under the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth) to designate and declare persons and entities for “serious violations or serious abuses of human rights”.
The effect of such measures include the imposition of targeted financial sanctions by way of asset freezes as well as travel bans, that deny the entry of sanctioned targets into Australia and bar the targets from engaging with Australia’s financial system.
A designation further means that Australian citizens and companies located either locally or overseas cannot undertake a number of activities with the target, including broadly dealing with the designated person or entity. Non-compliance with sanctions laws is a serious criminal offence under Australian law, potentially attracting up to 10 years imprisonment.
Risk of Australia becoming a safe haven for war criminals
Sanctions work most effectively when they are imposed by multiple jurisdictions. The multilateralisation of sanctions strengthens their overall impact, particularly when they are implemented simultaneously or within as short a timeframe as possible by increasing the ‘cost’ on the targeted person or entity. Since 2022, like-minded jurisdictions including the United States, United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada, have imposed sanctions in relation to Sudan.
To date, Australia has not made any independent designation or declaration for persons or entities in Sudan, standing in stark contrast to the above jurisdictions.
The ACIJ and DWAG stress that Australia has both the opportunity and responsibility to use its sanctions powers to support accountability, signal strong condemnation for atrocity crimes and ensure that Australia does not become a safe haven for perpetrators of these grave crimes.
For media enquiries contact the Australian Centre for International Justice at: +61 (0)450708870.
