On July 12, 2010 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir for acts of genocide in the region of Darfur, following the previous arrest warrant issued in 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity regarding Darfur. Al-Bashir’s arrest warrant is a significant step forward for the ICC because it was the first warrant ever issued for genocide. The warrant accuses Al-Bashir of being the indirect perpetrator and co-perpetrator of the horrific act of genocide that has taken place in Darfur.

Although Sudan is not a member of the court, the ICC has jurisdiction over international crimes against humanity that have taken place in Dafur. The ICC was able to do this Under Security Council Resolution 1593, which specifies that Sudan must cooperate with the ICC.

Not to mention the research conducted by Human Rights Watch, which has discovered that al-Bashir has directly targeted innocent civilians in Darfur in the form of “ethnic cleansing”. Yet al-Bashir denies all the alleged charges of crimes against humanity and genocide issued to him by the ICC.