Sudan has called on the United Nations to take legal and institutional measures to ensure the United States complies with its obligations under the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, following its refusal to grant an entry visa to Transitional Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan to attend the General Assembly’s high-level meetings in New York.
The request was made on Friday by Sudanese representative Ammar Mohamed Mahmoud during discussions in the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee on the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, according to the Sudan News Agency (SUNA).
Mahmoud said the US decision to withhold a visa from Burhan had prevented him from attending the high-level segment of the General Assembly’s 81st session in September.
The US administration declined to issue the visa on September 22, ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
According to Mahmoud, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed concern over the decision and urged the United States, as the host country, to fulfil its obligations under the Headquarters Agreement. However, these efforts did not result in Burhan being able to attend the meetings.
The Sudanese representative said hosting the UN headquarters entails international legal obligations and does not give the host country the authority to determine which representatives of member states can participate in the organisation’s activities.
He also noted that political considerations and bilateral relations should not affect the implementation of the host country’s obligations under international law.
Mahmoud called for the incident to be formally documented and the relevant correspondence circulated among UN member states. He also urged the organisation to take measures to prevent similar cases in the future.
He further called on the secretary-general to consider activating the dispute-settlement mechanism set out in Section 21 of the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 80/172.
Mahmoud reiterated Sudan’s position that access to UN headquarters is a right guaranteed to member states under international law and should not be subject to the discretion of the host country.
Commenting on the visa issue on September 26, Burhan said Sudan did not need a visa from any country or permission from anyone, adding that he would remain in Sudan.
The dispute comes as Sudan continues to face a conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced around 13 million, according to UN and international estimates, while triggering a major humanitarian crisis across the country.
