International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda delivered a statement [press release] to the UN Security Council on Wednesday criticizing the UN for not taking action against states that did not turn suspects in to the ICC.

The Security Council referred the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur, Sudan by the military and militias to the ICC for prosecution 13 years ago. The ICC was able to issue arrest warrants for five suspects, one of which is Sudan’s president.

Sudan, a member of the UN, refuses to cooperate with the investigation.

“What is required now is for this Council and the international community at large, to support the apprehension and transfer of ICC suspects to the Court so that they can answer the charges against them through a fair, independent and objective judicial process,” said Bensouda.

The ICC is asking the UN to help them facilitate a dialogue with the Sudanese government.

Bensouda said:

The eyes of the world are upon us; the eyes of victims and victims’ groups in Darfur, some of whom are present today, are upon us. They are owed at least this minimum decorum and they deserve not to have their ordeals undermined by rhetoric aimed at confusing the issues and distracting the Council’s and the world’s attention from what we are really concerned with here: the need to ensure there is accountability through the Court’s independent judicial process for the serious and destabilising crimes under the Rome Statute committed in Darfur.

Last July the ICC ruled [JURIST report] that South Africa violated its obligations after failing to arrest Sudan’s president. In June 2017 the ICC urged [JURIST report] the international community to help bring Darfur war crime suspects to justice.