Abstract
On 16 May 2006, resolution 1679 was unanimously adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations Organisation (UNO). It expressed its intention to consider conducting a "United Nations Operation in Darfur" and called for the deployment of "a joint African Union and United Nations technical assessment mission" . The resolution represented a strong step towards a direct intervention of the UNO peacekeeping forces in Sudan, intervention which has been more and more demanded by international organisations, media and some states. However, owing to a refusal of Sudan to let the United Nations (UN) conduct a larger mission, the only international force present in Darfur so far remains the African Union, through the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS). As a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN, an international actor, and an active promoter of Human Rights in the world, France must unavoidably feel concerned by the dramatic human situation in Sudan's Darfur region, and cannot ignore its international legal duties towards the conflict.
