Future generations will not easily forgive the governments and international bodies that have allowed the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan to continue uninterrupted and unpunished year after year. So a report this week prepared for the UN Human Rights Council by a “High-Level Mission on the Situation of Human Rights in Darfur” should be welcome as a beam of bright light pointed into this 21st-century heart of darkness. The mission’s report tells some hard truths — free of jargon or obfuscation. It says the human rights situation is deteriorating, the areas in which humanitarian aid workers can operate are shrinking, and aid workers are often targeted by government-backed militias. “Killing of civilians remains widespread, including in large-scale attacks. Rape and sexual violence are widespread and systematic. Torture continues.”

The helpful actions that the mission report recommends to the council and the Sudan regime are almost certain to fall into a void. Its recommendations to the UN Security Council to protect civilians through deployment of an effective peacekeeping force by the AU and UN might be feasible. But that can happen only if enough international pressure is applied to persuade Sudan’s petroleum partner, China, to stop protecting the perpetrators of genocide.