From our friends at the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition:
December 10 is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This document, ratified by all United Nations member states, declares, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Yesterday, December 9th was another 60th anniversary, of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Today, the list of human rights violations around the world is unbearably long. The Darfur genocide is in its sixth year.
Only individual people can make documents signed by governments effective. Today, please take one or more of the following actions to commemorate these anniversaries:
1. Take action at StopGenocideNow.org, honoring, in particular, the women of Sudan.
2. Join the Elders and send a message to the UN General Assembly. Visit www.everyhumanhasrights.org and call on individuals and governments to renew their commitments to human rights.
3. Help protect and empower Congo’s women by asking President-Elect Obama to announce his administration’s initial plan to end violence against women and girls in eastern Congo by no later than International Women’s Day, March 8, 2009.
“Currently, Gen. Bashir’s thugs, to show his reaction if faced with arrest [via an International Criminal Court warrant], have shut down a humanitarian project helping women of Darfur recover from his mass rapes. In retaliation, if a warrant is issued, says the Economist, many more of those rehabilitation projects will be abolished.”
The news from the ground makes it clear what kind of horror the people of Darfur are facing on a daily basis. Katie Gualtieri from the Save Darfur Coalition files a Dec. 8 update on Hassa Hissa camp in West Darfur:
“From sources on the ground, we have heard that over 100 water pumps and irrigation systems were at least partially damaged and the main line supplying drinking water to the camp was completely destroyed [by the Janjaweed], leaving camp residents without water for multiple days. As of the weekend, the residents remained without water. Leaders from Zalengei sent a list of those injured in the attacks, including an eight-month old boy. Reportedly, two have died.”
A thank you to everyone — student and non-student — who participated in yesterday’s STANDFast.
We need to keep Darfur and Sudan in the headlines and on the agendas of public officials everywhere. We need to strengthen and grow networks of compassion and action in our schools, places of worship, and neighborhoods. Anywhere we can. So, thank you again to all of the participants.
Many of us have been Darfur and Sudan advocates for years now. The road has been long, and we have so much more work to do. But the fact remains: together we can change the world.
Together we will close the book on genocide and mass atrocities. Let’s get back to work.
A timely action alert from our friends at the Genocide Intervention Network:
Barack Obama just nominated Senator Hillary Clinton to be America’s next Secretary of State.
Click here to send Clinton a message asking her to highlight Sudan as a critical priority during her confirmation hearings and to develop plans now so the new administration can end the crisis without delay.
Obama, Darfur, and ICC justice
By Eric Reeves
November 24, 2008 The Christian Science Monitor
Northampton, Mass. — Of all the issues President-elect Barack Obama faces before he takes office, none is of greater moral urgency than changing the tenor of the US response to what he has repeatedly described as “genocide in Darfur.”
That’s because, before Inauguration Day, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is very likely to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, charging him with crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.
These charges are amply justified by the evidence. Mr. Obama’s clear and effective response is needed, because the Khartoum regime has threatened aggressive violence in a calculated campaign to fend off the arrest.
Indeed, its threats are as shocking as they are underreported.
The perpetrators announce a paper ceasefire, and then they go on bombing as usual. From the UN’s 10/19/2008 noon briefing:
“During the past few days, the United Nations has received troubling reports of aerial bombings near Kutum in Northern Darfur, as well as reports of fighting in the area of Tine, Western Darfur and along the border with Chad.”
“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon takes these reports very seriously and calls on all parties to refrain from hostilities…”
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 18 – U.N. experts have recommended that an arms embargo on Darfur be extended to all of Sudan as well as neighboring Chad to combat “flagrant violations” of the ban by Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups.
In a report for the Security Council, released on Tuesday, a panel of four experts said both sides in Darfur were bent on a military solution to the five-year conflict in the west Sudanese region and a peacekeeping force had so far been ineffectual.
From the United Nations’ 10/18/2008 noon briefing:
The UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has received reports from various sources pointing to increased military activities throughout Darfur during the past few days. These include reports of aerial bombings by the Government of Sudan in the Kutum area; UNAMID is trying to confirm these reports.
