Committee for Justice (CFJ) has submitted a contribution to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, in response to the call for inputs on reconstruction and internally displaced persons in conflict-affected and mass devastation settings. The submission focuses on Sudan and will inform the Special Rapporteur’s report to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In its submission, CFJ stressed that Sudan remains affected by ongoing armed conflict, active hostilities, fragmented territorial control and severe humanitarian constraints. Accordingly, any early recovery, service-restoration, return-planning or reconstruction-related measure must be guided by international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, and the principle that durable solutions must be safe, voluntary, informed and dignified.
Drawing on its monitoring and documentation work, CFJ highlighted that between March 2026 and 24 May 2026 it monitored 13,828 violations in Sudan, including 13,191 violations related to forced displacement, 149 civilian deaths caused by bombing, 45 arbitrary detention cases and 24 enforced disappearance cases.
“Reconstruction in Sudan cannot be treated as a purely technical or infrastructure-driven process. For displaced communities, it is inseparable from protection, accountability, housing, land and property rights, civil documentation, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. Without these safeguards, reconstruction-related measures risk enabling unsafe return, renewed displacement, dispossession and impunity.” Said Usame Mehmetoglu, Regional Officer at CFJ
CFJ called on States, donors, international organizations and development actors to ensure that reconstruction financing and early recovery measures are subject to strict human rights due diligence, independent monitoring and meaningful participation by IDPs, returnees, host communities, survivors and Sudanese civil society. CFJ further emphasized that return must not be treated as the automatic or preferred durable solution, and that IDPs must be able to choose freely between voluntary return, local integration or settlement elsewhere in Sudan.
The submission also underlined the importance of the Banjul Joint Declaration on Sudan, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Joint Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan and the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, as a key framework for civilian protection, humanitarian access, accountability, justice, evidence preservation and support to survivors.