Sudanese People’s Right to Self-Defense: An International Law Perspective
By: Dr. Ahmed A. Bagi (PhD)
Humanity has always recognized that individuals should have the right to defend themselves from violence, and this is the case in all religions and civilizations and their convictions. In our modern time, in international law, the individuals’ right to defend themselves is a basic normative intuition, which is codified for states in the UN Charter Article 2(4). This article is a general prohibition on the resort to force, with only two exceptions: one allows UN Security Council authorization of force, and the other is the right of self-defense found in Article 51. Article 51 refers to an “inherent” right of self-defense but also notes that self-defense arises “if an armed attack occurs.”
It is given that the most fundamental aim of the Charter and the UN organization objective is to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, and even fourteen (14) centuries -before the UN- Islam called for the right of self-defense to preserve the human life’s sanctity (preserving life is among five (5) necessities of life that Islam upholds). Note that Article 51 permits a state to act in unilateral or collective self-defense only “if an armed attack occurs.”
If we look at the notion of “an Armed Attack” that Article 51 stipulated, the militia of the Rapid Speed Forces (RSF) in Sudan indeed launched a brutal armed attack on the Sudanese people. The RSF armed attack started with their rebellion against Sudan armed forces on 15 April 2024. They indiscriminately attacked Sudanese people and civilian objects in blatant violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) that prohibits acts of violence and reprisals against civilians and civilian objects. Such violation prohibitions are enshrined in the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and are a major part of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949. Consequently, nearly every State in the world has agreed to be bound by them. These Conventions have been developed and supplemented by two further agreements: the Additional Protocols of 1977 for protecting armed conflict victims. Moreover, the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, plus its two protocols, are applied too (q.v, https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law%C2%A0).
The rebellious and terrorist RSF announced that the purpose of its armed attack was to dislodge the Sudanese Armed Forces’ command and impose its will on all the Sudanese people under the disguise of bringing democracy to Sudan. The RSF hypocrisy of bringing democracy to Sudan is characterized by committing crimes against humanity in Darfur, terrorizing Sudanese people, killing them in cold blood, raping their women, robbing their properties, stealing their savings, forcing them out of their homes, setting up and manning illegal military checkpoints to humiliate them. These crimes are well documented by the UN Panel of Experts Report on Sudan (qv., https://sudanwarmonitor.com/p/full-text-un-panel-of-experts-report), issued on 13 January 2024. Further, the UN Human Rights Office issued a similar report on 23 June 2023, and likewise, Amnesty International did the same on 19 June 23. Sarcastically, even the savaged militias and their accomplice mercenaries, recruited from foreign countries, documented their inhumane crimes on social media.
In the author’s views, such crimes, directed at all Sudanese people indiscriminately and targeting the country’s infrastructure, warrant a strong response, including armed fighting by the Sudanese Armed Forces and all Sudanese people. According to international law, such a response is an inherited right of self-defense against RSF. This response is permissible and legal per Article 51 of the UN Charter, which recognizes the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.” Further, individual self-defense complements the system of collective security set up by the Charter of the United Nations in 1945.
Though the rebellious RSF crimes have become well-known facts, the international community has closed its eyes to the RSF militias’ atrocious and, the positions of regional groups such as the Arab League, African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) towards the criminal acts of RSF against Sudanese People and their country are shameful and disappointing. Consequently, Sundanese People, as responsible and bonafide citizens, have answered the call of the motherland to exercise their right of self-defense and formed the “People’s Resistance” to fight under the umbrella of their National Armed Forces to protect themselves and their families and the sovereignty of Sudan territories.
People’s Resistance is against nobody, but it is a contribution of people to protect their selves, their families, and their properties against the RSF’s criminal attacks that do not differentiate between civilian objects and military targets. Thus, it is a duty bound for every able and capable Sudanese individual to join the People’s Resistance to exercise his/her constitutional rights recognized by the Sudan national laws and international laws.
