News & Updates
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June 18, 2010
- SUDAN NOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julia Thornton, 650.587.2016, julia@humanityunited.org
Susan Morgan, 617.797.0451, susan@paxcommunications.org
Jonathan Hutson, 857.919.5130, jhutson@enoughproject.org
Andrea Clarke, 202.460.6756, andrea@savedarfur.org
Mame Annan-Brown, 347.564.2936, annan-brown@genocideintervention.net
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sudan Now, a campaign launched by leading U.S. anti-genocide and human rights advocacy organizations, announced today the release of the latest in its series of ads targeting Obama administration officials guiding the U.S. policy on Sudan. The new ad, set to appear in Sunday’s Washington Post Outlook section, targets Vice President Joe Biden following the return of his recent trip to Africa, where he made several statements on the increasingly dangerous situation in Sudan. The country faces a vote on southern secession in January 2011, which could trigger Africa’s largest civil war.
Vice President Biden’s remarks made him the highest-ranking member of the Obama administration to express support for Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended civil war in 2005, and the peace process in Darfur. The Sudan Now ad, which will publish on World Refugee Day, asks the vice president to work with President Barack Obama to:
• Make Sudan a centerpiece of their personal diplomacy.
• Step up U.S. support for full implementation of the peace agreement between North and South Sudan, and the pre-referendum negotiations now underway.
• Play a more direct role in revitalizing Darfur’s peace process, ensuring access for humanitarian access for humanitarian assistance and promoting accountability.
In addition to the ad, Sudan Now is asking activists to use Twitter and Facebook to personally thank the vice president and ask for continued engagement on Sudan. Previous Sudan Now ads have targeted President Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and members of the National Security Council Deputies Committee, among others.
View latest ads at SudanActionNow.com.
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Sudan Now is a campaign led by a group of prominent anti-genocide and human rights advocacy organizations committed to bringing meaningful and lasting peace to Sudan and encouraging strong American leadership and action to achieve this goal. The campaign challenges President Barack Obama and top U.S. administration officials to live up to their promises to take strong and immediate action to help end the international crisis in Sudan and bring a lasting peace to the people of that country. Organizations participating in the current ad campaign include Humanity United, the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, Genocide Intervention Network, Stop Genocide Now, and Investors Against Genocide.
Learn more about the campaign
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June 11, 2010
- ATEST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2010
Contact: Julia Thornton, 510.593.3604, Julia@humanityunited.org
Vanessa Parra, 202.904.0319, VParra@humanityunited.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, June 14, the U.S. government will release its annual assessment of the phenomenon of human trafficking around the world. In a call with media immediately following the report’s release, leading experts and advocates engaged in the movement to stop human trafficking and modern-day slavery will provide expert reaction and informed response to the report’s content and conclusions.
Anticipated highlights from the 2010 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report include the first-ever self-assessment of trafficking in the United States. The report will also include an assessment of the problem of human trafficking in post-earthquake Haiti, as well as additional insight into emerging global human trafficking trends.
Human trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal industries in the world, along with the illicit trade in drugs and weapons. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today—more than at any time in history.
This event is hosted by the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST), a coalition of leading U.S.-based anti-slavery and trafficking organizations. ATEST is a project of Humanity United, a California-based philanthropic organization that seeks to build peace and advance human freedom.
TIME: 1:00 p.m. EDT, Monday, June 14, 2010
SPEAKERS:
Dr. Kevin Bales, Founder, Free the Slaves
Siddharth Kara, Author, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
Justin Dillon, Director and Producer, CALL + RESPONSE
Additional experts will be on the call and available for comment, including Kay Buck, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking; Brad Myles, Polaris Project; and Dan Viederman, Verité. The call will be moderated by David Abramowitz, Director of Policy and Government Relations, Humanity United.
DIAL-IN: 866.551.3680 (U.S.) | +1.212.401.6760 (Int’l) | Passcode: 4754529#
Listen to the recorded call
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June 04, 2010
- HUMANITY UNITED NEWS
With the tropical storms blown away, the Kampala Conference on the International Criminal Court began the formal exercise of “stocktaking” yesterday, looking at where the Court has been in its first eight years. The morning session opened with a meeting on how the Court relates to victims and affected communities, which focused on outreach to victims, reparations, and the experience of victims in dealing with the “ICC” , as described by some survivors of violence in “Darfur” . A series of meetings kept me from attending, but according to people I spoke to, one interesting topic that the session raised was how to enhance the ability of the international community to find the assets of perpetrators and use them to provide reparations to the victims.
The afternoon session on peace and justice was very dynamic. A wide-ranging panel of human rights activists and international mediators discussed how these two concepts can be mutually reinforcing but occasionally come in conflict. All agreed that with the arrival of the ICC, amnesties are a thing of the past, and that international mediators have had to come to grips with accountability and international justice being part of any peace agreement.
Much of the discussion centered around sequencing. A responsible international prosecutor has to have the judgment and expert advice to understand how his or her actions will affect the dynamics in the country where the investigation takes place and when to take which actions. It was interesting to hear many countries talk about how “there can’t be peace without justice” but then hedge that sometimes peace needs to come before justice. Some country representatives argued that there were many kinds of justice (truth commissions, traditional justice, national justice, international justice) that can be looked to for ways of addressing accountability; some even suggested that amnesty should not be taken off the table as part of a peace that used less judicial methods.
The conversation raised practical issues that many in the international community struggle with, and there were a number of calls to keep the conversation going. Certainly, experts in international justice and in international mediation need to continue and deepen the dialogue. Human Rights Watch’s Ken Roth , David Tolbert of the International Center for Transitional Justice, Ugandan human rights lawyer Barney Afako , and the other panelists did a great job laying out the issues and leaving ample time to allow for good exchanges with the others in the room. Once the ICC Secretariat publishes notes, this will probably be a session worth reading about in greater detail.
Meanwhile, state parties started vigorous side meetings in earnest to discuss the crime of aggression, with small groups of parties getting together to discuss possible compromises. Rumors continue to swirl regarding whether a compromise can be achieved, with Prince Zeid of Jordan having the main responsibility of brokering a deal. Stay tuned.
N.B.: For a good collection of background reading on the ICC and the Review Conference, check out this special page put together by the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
David Abramowitz is the director of policy and government relations at Humanity United. Previously, he served as chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was responsible for advising the committee on issues such as international law, international justice, and global human rights, and democracy.
Full text: ‘Kampala Conference: The Peace and/or Justice Debate’
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June 03, 2010
- HUMANITY UNITED NEWS
Under an overcast sky with intermittent tropical downpours, the “ICC” Review Conference wound its ways through a set of “interventions” (read: speeches) by heads of delegations on Tuesday.
Among them, the Brits mentioned that the conference could not ignore the economic downturn (translation: don’t expect new money). U.S. Ambassador Stephen Rapp pointed to the recently enacted “LRA” Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recover Act and the sections focused on international justice in the Obama administration’s recently released national security strategy as demonstrations of America’s commitment to ending mass atrocities and promoting international justice. (His full statement is here.) Rapp spent at least half of his time at the podium expressing concern about the conference adopting a new crime of aggression, going over well known U.S. objections—insufficient consensus on the definition of the crime, ICC still too young, etc. Nothing new here, leaving the U.S. looking like it does not have any fresh thinking on this critical issue for the conference (although that will become more clear next week when the crime of aggression takes center stage).
Additionally, Rapp seemed to have stirred up some drama by using quotes from U.S. “NGO” statements that expressed caution on adoption of a crime of aggression as part of his argument. Some NGOs took offense at being quoted. They also did not care for Rapp’s reference to “leading civil society organizations,” with some NGOs hearing the word “the” before “leading” in his oral statement. Nor were they pleased with his specific reference to certain parts of Human Rights Watch’s pre-conference report, while excluding other relevant parts of the report.
The only other excitement of the day came when, following the speech by the Palestinian delegation criticizing Israel’s Monday attack on the so-called “freedom flotilla,” the conference got into a procedural wrangle as to whether Israel would be allowed to respond immediately. It didn’t happen.
The “general debate” concluded with a series of statements by NGOs around 10 p.m., when, unfortunately, very few government delegations were left standing.
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David Abramowitz is the director of policy and government relations at Humanity United. Previously, he served as chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was responsible for advising the committee on issues such as international law, international justice, and global human rights, and democracy.
Full text: ‘Kampala Conference: Opening Remarks Provoke Controversy’
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June 03, 2010
- HUMANITY UNITED NEWS
A number of inspirational and enlightening “NGO” side events took place in Kampala yesterday. In one event, African NGOs shared their perspectives on the Court, and panelist Oby Nwankwo described how Nigerian NGOs mobilized to convince their government to rescind a state invitation to Sudanese President Bashir because of the “ICC” indictment. Several Uganda and Congo-based NGOs, who were not officially accredited at the conference, conducted a day-long event next door. Unfortunately, few delegates from the official conference attended and heard their insights. OSI and the University of California-Berkley put on a panel on outreach to victims, comparing the experiences of Sierra Leone, Cambodia, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the ICC.
A key takeaway from these and other conversations: The International Criminal Court faces a crucial challenge of explaining what it can and cannot do for victims. There is the incredibly high expectation that the Court can provide victims’ assistance or reparations to those who have suffered, but this optimistic view assumes resources that the ICC simply does not have, at least not right now. I worry this is a train wreck waiting to happen.
Back at the official conference, the real stock-taking of the first eight years of the Court began, with issues of peace and justice taking center stage. Hopefully, the working groups will be more productive than the general debate thus far, now that the long series of opening remarks from delegations have concluded.
David Abramowitz is the director of policy and government relations at Humanity United. Previously, he served as chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was responsible for advising the committee on issues such as international law, international justice, and global human rights, and democracy.
Full text: Kampala Conference: Civil Society Groups Mobilize
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