Chasing The Flame

Darfur: When did our expectations for human beings get so low?

Yesterday the Enough Project hosted a conference call on the situation in Sudan.  In many ways, it was a “wake up” call, an impassioned plea to get people to stop hitting their snooze button on Darfur, looking for any reason to go back to sleep.  As Enough co-founder John Prendergast said, a new (American) administration needs some time to settle.  And, they’ve had some time.

Prendergast and Enough Executive Director John Norris discussed the recent comments by the US Special Envoy on Sudan, Scott Gration, particularly his claim that:

"What we see is the remnants of genocide.  What we see are the consequences of genocide, the results of genocide.  We still have thousands of people living in camps as IDPs.  We have women who are still afraid to go out and collect firewood.  And we have children that are not having the benefits of growing up in their homeland -- that are growing up in these camps. (…)The violence still exists where bandits and Janjaweed and warlords and those kinds of folks do conduct terrorist activities on these folks and do increase terror.  But it doesn’t appear that it is a coordinated effort that was similar to what we had in 2003 to 2006."

If you have time, listen to Prendergast and Norris here.  If not, consider the following.  Article 2 of the Genocide Convention is actually very clear. It reads:

 

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Women are afraid to collect firewood because they are being raped.  Children are growing up outside their homeland because they have been forcibly removed from it. People are starving and dying of sickness because access to aid has been turned off. This is genocide.  Because villages are not burning and aerial attacks are not taking place does not mean the genocide has ended. It means that Khartoum responded to the attention of the world and the bright light that was shining on Darfur for a while.

When asked about improvements in Darfur, Prendergast rightly responded with exasperation. Improvements? How are things “better”? Really, when did our expectations for human beings get so low?  Debating how much better things are or how much Khartoum has “improved” the situation is a recipe for spinning our wheels and for becoming tangled up in precisely the kind of endless debate that impedes action.

So, it’s time to shine that light on Darfur again and turn up the heat on ourselves.

Twitter and Iran...A Review

As we mentioned last week, the Iranian protestors’ use of Twitter has everyone talking about the future of micro-blogging.  So just how powerful is the twitter revolution we’ve been hearing so much about?  According to Gordon Brown, it means that “foreign policy can never be the same again,” which has unearthed some commentary from those who are still doubtful that what we’re seeing is a true sea change. 

Noam Cohen of the The New York Times does a very good job breaking down the pros and cons of the social network as news outlet: difficult to censor – check, good at capturing the zeitgeist – yep, often inaccurate – definitely, easily adopted by those trying to spread misinformation – sure seems that way.  Peter Daou of the UN Dispatch makes a more philosophical criticism, lamenting the fact that twitter hasn’t taken up the equally important issues of hunger or violence against women.  This seems slightly unfair since attention going to issues of spiking drama is hardly a problem unique to new technology. 

Steve Bloomfield of Things Seen and Heard makes the more pressing point that all the excitement might end in the old realization that “there is no direct correlation between us knowing about a tragedy and us doing something about it.”  (A point that Good decided to express in statistical terms.) And while it remains to be seen where all this is headed, Cohen’s final point suggests that while there is no proof yet that Twitter can oust a government (Twitter only represented a small percentage of the tools used to organize protests in Iran), its power over traditional media is growing.  When CNN failed to pick up coverage of protests last weekend, a Twitter campaign forced the channel to explain its decision.

Photo: Mykl Roventine on flickr under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Serving at Home

One doesn’t need to go abroad to make a difference in the world.  President Obama launched the "United We Serve" call to action to inspire Americans to help those in need by volunteering this summer.  Visit Serve.gov to find opportunities and post your own community projects.

Sergio's Post Open Again

The UN Dispatch reports that Sergio’s successor as top diplomat in Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, will be stepping down to become deputy executive director of the World Food Program.  A close friend and colleague of Sergio, de Mistura helped facilitate the difficult political progress that made the surge the success it was.  We await the next appointment with interest.

The United Nation’s Facebook Campaign Gets a Boost from Microsoft

Donations made on Facebook’s Causes section in honor of World Refugee Day on June 20th will now be matched by Microsoft, up to $50,000.  The campaign has already raised more than $10,000.

A Disappointing Stance from Sergio’s Homeland

Human Rights Watch reported today that Brazil is using its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council to argue for the sovereignty of nations over the need to address human rights violations.  From abstaining on a vote to condemn the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo to co-sponsoring a resolution affirming the principle of non-interference in Sri Lanka despite allegations that the government as well as the rebel LTTE committed war crimes, Brazil is seemingly aligning itself with China, Cuba, Pakistan, and other countries less committed to human rights.

"Brazil's support for abusive governments is undermining the Human Rights Council's performance," said Julie de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights = Good Foreign Policy

Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent reports that human rights groups in Iran are pleased with Obama’s focus on human rights after the recent elections.  Apparently, support for any one side would only fuel suggestions that Ahmadinejad’s opposition is taking orders from the United Sates.

For a more detailed look at how the elections worked and how power is actually wielded in Iran, check out Good’s handy flow chart and explanation.

Twitter once again is serving as the final bastion of political protest.  The last mode of communication shut down in China during the lead-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, it remains one of the only forms of current updates from civilians in Iran.

How Great Would It Be If It Were True?

Human Rights Watch reports that Saudi Arabia agreed to adopt the recommendation of the United Nations Human Rights Council to give Saudi women full legal rights and end the power of male guardianship, a Shari'a concept that they declared was not a legal requirement.

Let's hope there's some action behind the assertions.

Split Focus

Though President Obama's Cairo speech was historic, Foster Klug of the AP points out that it was a shame it had to come on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, thereby overshadowing any critique of China's policy on human rights.

A Sad Reminder

Our friends at Change.org posted a sad reminder that Sergio's fate is a far too common tragedy in the world of humanitarian aid.  The bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel In Peshawar, Pakistan brings the number of aid workers killed worldwide, this year alone, to forty seven.  It also a creates further problems for Pakistan as the United Nations and other aid agencies consider pulling out of the more dangerous zones where their help is needed.