 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(February 2013) |
The Genocide Intervention Network (or GI-NET) was a non-profit organization aiming to "empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide". [1] Founded in 2004, in 2005 the Genocide Intervention Fund changed its name to Genocide Intervention Network, [1] and in 2011, it merged with the Save Darfur Coalition to form a new organization, United to End Genocide.
In October 2004, two Swarthmore College students, Mark Hanis and Andrew Sniderman, established the Genocide Intervention Network in hopes of empowering citizens to protect civilians from the atrocities occurring in Darfur. GI-Net's mission and policy goals were greatly influenced by the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, drafted by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, in order to create a permanent anti-genocide grassroots movement. [2]
In 2011, GI-Net and the Save Darfur Coalition merged to establish United to End Genocide. [3]
Mark Hanis, Andrew Sniderman, Sam Bell, Cara Angelotta, Susannah Gund, Janessa Calvo-Friedman, Rita Kamani, Elisabeth Jaquette and others wanted the genocide in Sudan to be treated as a security issue, not as a humanitarian disaster, and did so by directly supporting the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), an underfunded peacekeeping force. [4]
GI-Net's controversial idea of supporting military force for foreign intervention attracted the attention of Gayle Smith, who had two decades of experience in Africa and had been the senior director of African Affairs in Clinton's National Security Council. Smith provided the first positive interest in GI-Net's work. Smith helped GI-Net raise over $300,000 to support AMIS. [4]
After several disagreements on how to organize the fundraising money, GI-Net, in collaboration with the African Union, funded the Africa Humanitarian Action to support patrols that would protect displaced women, who put themselves at risk of rape when they left the internally displaced persons camps to collect firewood in order to prepare food. The program was canceled due to a lack of additional support and financial resources. [5]
In 2006, GI-Net looked for new methods to increase economic pressure on the Sudanese government. However, after the U.S. government had already maxed out the economic sanctions it could apply alone, GI-Net increased its involvement in the divestment campaign that had begun on Harvard's college campus in 2004. [5]
The goal behind the divestment campaign was simple: to engage students to pressure their universities to withdraw investments providing revenue to Sudanese government. This financial support allowed the Sudanese government to expand on their military assets.
By April 2005, the student activism prompted college officials to change its investment policies. Harvard University declared that it would withdraw support in China National Petroleum Corporation, a business partner of the Sudanese government. [6] Companies in the oil industry were the perfect target for divestment since oil is an essential source of revenue for the government, but is an industry that provides little benefit or relief to Sudanese civilians. [7]
By September 2006, the divestment movement grew substantially and adopted larger goals. The group eventually became known as the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which drafted legislation to influence state legislatures around the United States to divest. [5]
Feeling pressured by the U.S.-based advocacy campaign, the Khartoum spent close to a million dollars on an eight-page spread in the New York Times encouraging companies to invest in Sudan, a country with "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future". [5]
As the official Olympic torch made its way around the world prior to the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Dream for Darfur team, a campaign to bring mass attention to the conflict in Darfur, began its own symbolic relay. The Dream for Darfur team had one and only goal: to convince China that the continuation of the Olympic Games in Beijing was at risk unless it withdrew support for Sudan's regime. [8] Genocide survivors joined the relay led by Mia Farrow and traveled to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Cambodia. [5]
This led to the formation of a U.S.-based relay in September 2007. Jill Savitt and Mia Farrow organized and led the event, supported by GI-Net, the Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project. [8]
The mission of the Dream for Darfur team was to break down the foreign policy information into digestible form, so that citizens, without the background to understand the complexities of the international policy-making process, could become involved in the anti-genocide campaign. [5]
The Dream for Darfur team encouraged the major sponsors of the Olympic Games, such as McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft, and Volkswagen to privately meet with Chinese officials to raise concern over affairs in Darfur. Eventually, the team encouraged Steven Spielberg to resign as creative consultant for the opening ceremonies. [8]
In 2005, the organization changed its name from Genocide Intervention Fund to its current name, Genocide Intervention Network. GI-Net was publicly re-launched on April 6, 2005. GI-Net immediately broadened its efforts by introducing a membership and chapter program in order to educate and mobilize support for U.S. policies that could assist victims in Darfur. [2] In 2011, the Save Darfur Coalition and GI-Net merged to create United to End Genocide. The organization's president is Tom Andrews. [2]
GI-Net launched a program to build an engaged and permanent anti-genocide community. Named in honor of Carl Wilkens—the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994—the "Wilkens Fellowship" was a selective year-long program that exposed individuals to vital tools and resources in hopes of building permanent peaceful communities throughout the world.
The program terminated in 2012 due to financial constraints. [2]
In 2004, a group of Georgetown University students created a campus community organization that focuses on genocide prevention. The program gained national recognition, and now colleges and universities across the United States host STAND chapters. [9]
STAND emerged as a grassroots-based campaign that networks students who are committed to ending crimes against humanity around the world. Since its debut, STAND developed as a key component in the anti-genocide movement alongside its previous parent organizations: the Genocide Intervention Network, which merged into United to End Genocide. In 2012, STAND became an independent organization, entirely student-run. [9]
Two college students co-founded the Sudan Divestment Task Force (SDTF) in 2005. [10] The Task Force launched successful divestment campaigns around the world targeting university endowments, asset managers and city, state, and national investment policies. [11] As a result of the Task Force efforts, twenty-two states, dozens of universities, eleven cities and fifteen countries adopted Sudan divestment policies. SDTF worked closely with Genocide Intervention Network, and in 2006 became part of GI-NET under the leadership of Adam Sterling, an original co-founder. The Sudan Divestment Task Force led to the enactment of the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA) on December 31, 2007.
As part of the campaign, the University of California, Brown, Amherst, Princeton, the University of Vermont, and the University of Washington are encouraging companies not to provide financial support to the Sudanese government. Instead, financial aid is given directly to the victims of the genocide. [12]
In 2009, SDTF became the Conflict Risk Network (CRN). Drawing upon successes in corporate engagement and the lessons learned from the Sudan divestment movement, the CRN calls on corporate actors to take steps towards responsible actions including acts that support peace and stability in areas affected by genocide and mass atrocities. [13]
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Government of Sudan announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.
Darfur is a region of western Sudan. Dār is an Arabic word meaning "home [of]" – the region was named Dardaju while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë c. 350 AD, and it was renamed Dartunjur when the Tunjur ruled the area. Darfur was an independent sultanate for several hundred years until 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. The region was later invaded and incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. As an administrative region, Darfur is divided into five federal states: Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur. Because of the War in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency and genocide since 2003. The factors include religious and ethnic rivalry, and the rivalry between farmers and herders.
Disinvestment refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change. The term was first used in the 1980s, most commonly in the United States, to refer to the use of a concerted economic boycott designed to pressure the government of South Africa into abolishing its policy of apartheid. The term has also been applied to actions targeting Iran, Sudan, Northern Ireland, Myanmar, Israel, and China.
The Janjaweed are a Sudanese Arab militia group that operates in Sudan, particularly in Darfur, and eastern Chad. They have also been speculated to be active in Yemen. According to the United Nations definition, Janjaweed membership consists of Sudanese Arab tribes, the core of whom are from the Abbala Arabs, traditionally employed in camel herding, with significant recruitment from the Baggara, who are traditionally employed in cattle herding.
James F. Moore studies co-evolution in social and economic systems. He is best known for pioneering the Business ecosystem approach to studying networks of organizations that together constitute a system of mutual support and that co-evolve contributions. The business ecosystem is a form of organization distinct from and parallel to markets and firms. Moore argues that Business ecosystem is an essential unit of analysis for competition law, economics, sociology and management—a concept and unit of analysis that has been found necessary and helpful in business strategy and practice for many years.
The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act or DPAA restates the United States government's position that the Darfur conflict constitutes genocide, and asks the government to expand the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (AMIS) and give the force a stronger mandate, including more generous logistical support. It also directs the government to assist the International Criminal Court in bringing justice to those guilty of war crimes. It was passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Bush on 13 October 2006 along with a companion executive order.
This article covers the period of the history of Sudan between 1985 and 2019 when the Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab seized power from Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry in the 1985 Sudanese coup d'état. Not long after, Lieutenant General Omar al-Bashir, backed by an Islamist political party, the National Islamic Front, overthrew the short lived government in a coup in 1989 where he ruled as President until his fall in April 2019. During Bashir's rule, also referred to as Bashirist Sudan, he was re-elected three times while overseeing the independence of South Sudan in 2011. His regime was criticized for human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide in Darfur and allegations of harboring and supporting terrorist groups in the region while being subjected to United Nations sanctions beginning in 1995, resulting in Sudan's isolation as an international pariah.
The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
Stephanie Nyombayire is the Director General of Communication in Office of the President of Rwanda, a representative for the Genocide Intervention Network, and a Rwandan native. She graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut in 2004 and Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in June 2008.
The Save Darfur Coalition was an advocacy group that called "to raise public awareness and mobilize a massive response to the atrocities in Sudan's western region of Darfur." Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it was a coalition of more than 190 religious, political, and human rights organizations designed to campaign for a response to the atrocities of the War in Darfur, which culminated in a humanitarian crisis. By 2013, reports indicated that the conflict had claimed approximately 300,000 lives and had displaced over 2.5 million people.
This is the bibliography and reference section for the Darfur conflict series. External links to reports, news articles and other sources of information may also be found below.
While there is a consensus in the international community that ethnic groups have been targeted in Darfur and that crimes against humanity have therefore occurred, there has been debate in some quarters about whether genocide has taken place there. In May 2006, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur organized by United Nations "concluded that the Government of the Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide ... [though] international offences such as the crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been committed in Darfur may be more serious and heinous than genocide." Eric Reeves, a researcher and frequent commentator on Darfur, has questioned the methodology of the commission's report.
Throughout its history, Darfur has been the home to several cultures and kingdoms, such as the Daju and Tunjur kingdoms. The recorded history of Darfur begins in the seventeenth century, with the foundation of the Fur Sultanate by the Keira dynasty. In 1875, the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in Khartoum ended the dynasty. The British allowed Darfur a measure of autonomy until formal annexation in 1916. However, the region remained underdeveloped through the period of colonial rule and after independence in 1956. The majority of national resources were directed toward the riverine Arabs clustered along the Nile near Khartoum. This pattern of structural inequality and overly underdevelopment resulted in increasing restiveness among Darfuris. The influence of regional geopolitics and war by proxy, coupled with economic hardship and environmental degradation, from soon after independence led to sporadic armed resistance from the mid-1980s. The continued violence culminated in an armed resistance movement around 2003.
Olympic Dream for Darfur is an organization and campaign to pressure the Government of the People's Republic of China to intervene on the side of civilians in the Darfur conflict. It claims that the Chinese government has the requisite influence to pressure the Sudanese government to accept international police into its country, although China disputes this. The methods of the campaign are alternative torch relays and boycotts intended to disrupt the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Brian Steidle is a former Marine Corps captain, military and security operations expert, and author who had worked on publicizing the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Steidle wrote a book, The Devil Came on Horseback, about his experience, which was turned into a documentary film that premiered at Sundance in 2007.
Day for Darfur is an international advocacy campaign that works to bring together activists in cities around the globe in calling for action on the crisis in Darfur, western Sudan.
Adam Sterling was the executive director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, and a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles with degrees in Political Science and African American Studies.
Sudan–United Kingdom relations are foreign relations between Sudan and United Kingdom. Sudan has an embassy in London whilst the United Kingdom has an embassy in Khartoum. Most of the recent relations between the two countries centre on the region of Darfur.
David Rubenstein was the founding Executive Director for the Save Darfur Coalition. He helped develop a 182-member coalition to end violence and reduce the suffering in Darfur.
The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the ongoing conflict in western Sudan. It has become known as the first genocide of the 21st century. The genocide, which is being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, has led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict several people for crimes against humanity, rape, forced transfer and torture. An estimated 200,000 people were killed between 2003 and 2005.