Don't ignore Darfur
The international campaign to protect Darfur is growing. There are several ways you can play a part.
1 Pressure your government
In 2005 UN members agreed that governments had a ‘responsibility to protect’ their populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that the ‘international community’ has a responsibility and right to intervene if a government fails to do this.
Write to your government calling on them to fulfil this responsibility, including:
• A much larger international peacekeeping force in Darfur, with a mandate to protect civilians and humanitarian workers
• An international presence along the Chad/Sudan border
• Targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on senior Sudanese Government officials
• Support for a more inclusive peace process in which Darfurian civil society is fully represented
• Indictments by the International Criminal Court of more individuals who are suspected of crimes against humanity in Darfur, and pressure on the Sudanese regime to hand them over
2 Join the ‘Day for Darfur’ movement
The third ‘Day for Darfur’ took place in 35 countries on 28 April 2007. There were over 445 events, from Stockholm to Dar es Salaam to Los Angeles. People gathered at rallies, marches, ‘die-ins’, conferences and vigils to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Darfur, and their impatience at their governments’ failure to stop the killings.
To find out when the next Day for Darfur will take place, and what’s going on in your country, go to www.globefordarfur.org
3 Challenge China
China’s support for the Sudanese regime has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the way of decisive UN action on Darfur. Activists in the US have launched a campaign to force China to reconsider its position by targeting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This seems to be having some effect.
On 28 March 2007, film star Mia Farrow, of all people, wrote an uncompromising feature in the Wall Street Journal, branding the Games the ‘Genocide Olympics’, and likening Steven Spielberg, official ‘artistic adviser’ for the Games, to Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. A mortified Spielberg wrote to the Chinese Government. Worried that the reputation of the Games – intended to showcase China’s new superpower status to the world – will be sullied, Beijing appears to have told Khartoum to let 3,000 UN peacekeepers in. Khartoum complied.
For more information on the campaign, see www.sudanreeves.org
4 Support Darfurian asylum seekers
Although the vast majority of Darfurians displaced by the violence are living in camps in either Darfur or neighbouring Chad, some have made it out of the region and are now seeking asylum in other countries.
It recently emerged that of the 1,000 Darfurians seeking asylum in Britain in the last year, a little under half had their applications rejected and were deported to Khartoum – into the hands of the very government they fled from. There is evidence that some were tortured on return.1 As a result, in April 2007, the High Court of Appeal blocked the British Government’s attempts to send three Darfurian asylum seekers to Khartoum.
For more about the campaign for asylum seekers in Britain, see www.protectdarfur.org
Organizations campaigning on Darfur:
International
Amnesty International
www.amnesty.org
Human Rights Watch
www.hrw.org
International Crisis Group
www.crisisgroup.org
International Refugee Rights Initiative
www.refugee-rights.org
Médecins Sans Frontières
www.msf.org
Oxfam International
www.oxfam.org
Africa
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
www.cihrs.org
Darfur Consortium
www.darfurconsortium.org
Justice Africa
www.justiceafrica.org
Australia
Darfur Australia Network
www.darfuraustralia.org
Britain
Waging Peace
www.wagingpeace.info
Protect Darfur*
www.protectdarfur.org
Canada
Save Darfur Canada
www.savedarfurcanada.org
Sudan
Sudan Human Rights Organization
www.shro-cairo.org
Sudan Organization Against Torture
www.soatsudan.org
United States
Genocide Intervention Network
www.genocideintervention.net
Save Darfur Coalition
www.savedarfur.org
Sudan Divestment Taskforce
www.sudandivestment.org
- Sarah Maguire, ‘Safe as Ghost Houses: Prospects for Darfur African survivors removed to Khartoum’, The Aegis Trust, June 2006.
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
