ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY
TO PROTECT
117. Donors face a challenge. In order to help meet
the huge human development needs in Sudan, they must fulfil their
promises to invest in the North-South peace process. This will
involve working with the regime in Khartoum, but in so doing the
international community must not take off the pressure as regards
Darfur.[338]
That mistake must not be made again. The
Government of Southern Sudan must be provided with the resources
it needs to become a partner for peace and development, and to
invest in the human development of its citizens. But the provision
of debt relief and of funds which would primarily benefit the
National Congress Party — the Khartoum regime responsible
for the crisis in Darfur — must be conditional on resolving
the crisis in Darfur. The
UK Government seems to understand this.[339]
The conditions
to be met must be clearly benchmarked, the timetables for meeting
them spelt out, and the consequences which flow from meeting or
not meeting commitments must be specified. The UK Government should
take the lead on this, ensuring that donors speak with one voice
at Oslo.
118. Development partnerships entail shared responsibilities.[340]
Shared responsibilities such as the responsibility to protect,
and for development, will not be met unless those responsible
are accountable for their actions and inactions. As the report
of the Commission for Africa rightly emphasises, accountability,
along with the capacity to deliver, is the basis of good governance.
If the international humanitarian system had been more accountable,
and had learnt more from past responses, then it would surely
have responded more effectively to the crisis in Darfur. If the
Government of the Sudan had been more accountable for its actions,
to its citizens, or, failing that, to the international community
— working bilaterally, through the AU, and through the UN
— then the crisis in Darfur would have been resolved more
peacefully. And if the "international community", and
in particular the UN Security Council, were more clearly accountable
to those governments and people who take seriously their responsibilities
to protect, then it would surely have acted more decisively on
Darfur. The response to the south Asian tsunami proved that the
public is willing to assist those in need, and that the international
community can respond effectively. What are lacking are mechanisms
to hold to account the humanitarian agencies, governments and
international organisations which are entrusted with translating
that willingness to help into effective action.
119. This is the lesson of Darfur. If
the international community is to fulfil its shared responsibility
to protect, then we must all fulfil our responsibilities, and
hold others to account for fulfilling theirs. The UK Government
has, on the whole, responded well to Darfur. The international
community must fulfil its responsibility to protect the people
of Darfur, now. Attacked by the government which is meant to protect
them, the people of Darfur, who we have collectively and demonstrably
failed, deserve no less. Action is needed now.
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