Join STAND 2.0 now!

For members of STAND’s Managing Committee, this semester’s “STAND 2.0” development process has raised a number of critical questions about STAND’s role as a student constituency organization, grassroots network, and political will-building mechanism. Frequently, our continuous drive for political participation and influence builds unreasonable expectations about the scope of our impact. The STAND 2.0 process was directed towards reconciling the ambitions of our student activists with our value-added as members of the “anti-genocide movement,” and bolstering our ability to effectively mobilize our grassroots constituency to effect political change. Having participated in the development of STAND 2.0, I can confidently say that our outreach infrastructure has been reconceived to meet precisely those goals.

This new process has entirely reevaluated the roles of STAND’s bureaucracy, overhauling the outreach infrastructure to enable STAND National to more directly resource, train, and respond to the needs of our grassroots communities around the country. We have deconstructed our regional outreach structure, giving STAND’s outreach components a greater voice on the Managing Committee and a more direct link to local STAND activists. STAND activists will now have access to the same resources as our Regional and State Outreach Coordinators once had: retreats, training sessions with grassroots outreach professionals, and full support from GI-NET staff. We will now host an annual STANDCamp, which will bring together activists from across the country for a week of activism training and education about our conflicts of concern. In addition, we have bolstered STAND’s Rapid Responders program, which will allow us to cultivate more direct relationships with our advocacy targets and effectively respond to developments on the ground in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma, and elsewhere.

Such developments cannot function as stand-alone accomplishments of the STAND MC. In order to continue to develop STAND as an organization and grassroots network, we need the full participation of activists across the country. STAND will continue to grow only as a result of the full use of the resources that the STAND MC and GI-NET staff will provide.

Join STAND 2.0 now!

Early last week, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights Situation in Burma, called on UN institutions to consider the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry into international crimes in Burma. Quintana’s call, which he included in a 30-page report of his February trip to Burma, was the latest in a series of calls for a UN commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. Advocacy organizations, including the US Campaign for Burma, the Burma Campaign UK, Human Rights Watch, and the Genocide Intervention Network have consistently called for the establishment of such a mechanism directed at ending impunity in Burma. STAND student activists took an active role in lobbying for H.R. 898, which calls for a UN commission of inquiry, during our November lobby days. Quintana’s report is an important step towards ending the scourge of impunity, but STAND activists must continue to actively pursue approval for this policy by the U.S. government.

This February, University of Richmond’s STAND chapter, invited Omekongo Dibinga, a spoken word artist, rapper, actor, and motivational speaker to the Richmond campus. Omekongo posted a reflection on his speaking experience and the building movement for conflict resolution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Enough Said, the Enough Project’s blog.

Last week, I traveled to the University of Richmond (UR) to perform my spoken word poetry and hip-hop on the Congo. I was invited by Maria Sebastian of the school’s STAND chapter and Matt Sobel of the UR’s Sigma Chi Fraternity. I was impressed with the hospitality they showed me, and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm the students showed for learning about the Congo and the conflict minerals issue.

The STAND chapter there has less than 10 active members, and the Sigma Chi Fraternity members there told me they didn’t know much about the Congo. Despite these seeming obstacles, over 200 people attended – leaving standing room only – on a rainy Wednesday night. As I walked into the Commons Student Center, I saw NCAA games on the TVs and of course Winter Olympic activity. All of the campus life distractions were still taking place that night but these students came out to learn how they could stop violence and destruction in the Congo. That to me is incredible and speaks to what a small group of dedicated people can do to affect change.

What was also great to see was that the students followed up the next day with a “cell-out” protest. Participants turned off their phones and left messages on their voicemails explaining that their phones are off in order to draw attention to how our electronics are supporting violence in the Congo. As we posed for the picture attached to this post, one student asked: "How many people died for that camera to work?" Another student said: "I was thinking the same thing."

That summed it up for me. We will win this fight because we are getting people here in the United States, who wouldn’t think about violence in Congo on a daily basis, to consider how their everyday devices are helping fuel a war targeting innocent men, women, and children on the other side of the world. It’s a reality people don’t see on television, and we must work to raise awareness and suggest meaningful solutions. 

The challenges in Congo are part of me; a day doesn’t pass when I don’t think of the people there and the many years of violence they have endured. Getting people like the students at University of Richmond thinking about how Congo is part of them is proof positive that the movement we’re building for Congo is on the right track, and we must continue spreading the word. I can’t wait to visit the next school as part of the RAISE Hope for Congo Speakers Tour!

If you are interested in effecting real change in the conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burma, or on the United States government’s approach to genocide prevention, sign up to lobby at our in-district lobby sessions this March!

This year, GI-NET and STAND are lobbying Congress to take a more active role in resolving the conflicts in Sudan, Congo, and Burma and preventing genocide and mass atrocities. Lobby your Congressperson to ensure that the voices of STAND activists are heard across the United States. 

From March 29 to April 9, your Congressperson will be in your home state. If you sign-up to attend a meeting:

• We’ll work to schedule the meeting to fit your schedule.
• We’ll provide training calls, give you all the information you need, and find others to go to the meeting with you.

All you need to do is sign-up here.

Lawrence Woocher, senior program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Mike Abramowitz, director of the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, recently published an essay in Foreign Policy magazine, describing the impact of genocide on national security and outlining next steps for genocide prevention. Woocher and Abramowitz, both active members of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, present an optimistic perspective on the Obama administration’s approach to genocide prevention.

The article begins with a reference to the Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s recent annual threat assessment, in which Blair described South Sudan as the most likely region to experience genocide or mass killings in the near future. The threat assessment, according to Woocher and Abramowitz, was an “underappreciated breakthrough.” Blair’s assessment, however, was “just one of several signs that Barack Obama’s administration is rethinking Washington’s response to genocide”:

This month’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a touchstone planning document for the military, states that the Defense Department should be prepared to offer the president with options for "preventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad." Although the previous QDR in 2006 also referred to humanitarian missions, it did not contemplate responses to mass atrocities. So now for the first time, the military should begin a much-needed process of strategic thinking about preventing genocide.

Even more promising, the White House has moved quietly in the last several weeks to create a high-level interagency committee at the National Security Council aimed at anticipating and preventing mass atrocities. This committee should force policymakers to grapple with the risk of mass atrocities early on, before crises get out of control. It should take control of a process now fragmented between agencies, helping combat the bureaucratic lethargy and ad hoc decision-making that has characterized past U.S. responses to genocide.

The Obama administration’s gradual incorporation of the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force report indicates a seriousness of purpose on the issue of genocide and mass atrocities prevention not witnessed in other administrations. This progress should also be an encouragement for anti-genocide activists, as we continue to pressure the administration to prioritize genocide prevention. Woocher and Abramowitz’s article makes clear that this process need also be a priority for our national security.

Read more about the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force here, here, here, and here.

Earlier this month, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) determined that the standards used to evaluate the ICC Prosecutor’s genocide charge against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in the Pre-Trial Chamber were insufficient. According to the Appeals Chamber, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber erred in “…requiring that the existence of genocidal intent must be the only reasonable conclusion” (via Bec Hamilton). The Pre-Trial Chamber must now review its initial decision rejecting the Prosecutor’s genocide charge. As Bec Hamilton notes, this does not necessarily mean that the arrest warrant for Bashir will include a genocide charge. However, the Pre-Trial Chamber, in its review of its initial decision, may determine that the Prosecutor’s re-presentation is sufficient to warrant a genocide charge.

Earlier this week, a group of grassroots Sudan activists released a letter to President Obama, calling on the president to remove Maj. Gen. Scott Gration from his responsibilities as the special envoy to Sudan. STAND and the Genocide Intervention Network continue to press the Obama administration to pressure the Sudanese government to institute electoral and security reforms prior to national elections this April. While we are not calling for Gen. Gration’s removal, it is concerning that the Obama administration has not demonstrated a cohesive and transparent Sudan policy to the Sudan advocacy community. Gen. Gration will be in Chad and Sudan throughout the next week. In order to ensure Sudan’s stability prior to the April elections, Gen. Gration must be fully transparent with the benchmarks, incentives, and pressures to be used to push the Sudanese government toward reform.

Click here to read more.

By Allyson Neville, GI-NET Senior Advocacy Associate

Early this morning, the International Criminal Court appeals chamber issued its decision on the standard of proof used by the pre-trial chamber in deciding not to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Bashir on the charge of genocide.  The court ruled that the standard of proof was too high and the pre-trial chamber must reconsider the charges.

STAND/GI-NET supporter and ICC expert, Bec Hamilton, summarized the ruling in her most recent blog entry where she writes, “Put simply, the [pre-trial chamber] had applied the standard of proof required for a conviction at trial to the decision of whether or not to issue an arrest warrant. This was wrong as a matter of law.”  She also states, “To be clear about what this does not mean: It does not mean that the Bashir arrest warrant now includes the genocide charge – at least not yet…it is now back to the [pre-trial chamber] to decide – this time using the right legal standard – whether or not to include the genocide count.”

Predictably, the government of Sudan is less than thrilled with this decision.  As some of you may remember—in March of 2009 when the arrest warrant for various counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity came out—Sudan reacted by kicking 16 humanitarian organizations out of Darfur.  We’re watching the situation closely for any reactions by the government and we hope that the United States is engaging in robust diplomatic efforts to prevent any negative fallout from this important decision.

If you are interested in more general background on the ICC, check out this quick overview published by the Washington Post today.

During last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama did not mention genocide prevention, nor did he reiterate the human rights commitments that he expressed so eloquently in the past. At this juncture, it is critical that we are not discouraged by President Obama’s omission of these subjects. There will continue to be opportunities for action on genocide prevention and conflict resolution going forward, and we must remain vigilant in pursuing our policy goals if we are to continue STAND’s history of aggressive and nuanced advocacy.

Action must not stop at the State of the Union address. Many STAND activists participated in the Pledge on Camera video advocacy campaign last fall; CitizenTube, a YouTube politics blog, offered us another opportunity to press for genocide prevention through video advocacy, and as a result of our video submissions and votes, President Obama was asked about Sudan. As I write, the Foreign Relations Authorization bill continues to move through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offering opportunities for anti-genocide activists to constructively contribute to the genocide prevention language in the bill. Action remains necessary on Sudan and Burma, as the two countries face elections over the coming year, and on Congo, where the scourge of conflict remains present in the country’s Kivu provinces. We cannot be discouraged; now is the time for action, not discouragement.

STAND will continue to press for a commitment from the Obama administration on genocide prevention, more forceful action to implement benchmarks for reform prior to the Sudanese elections in 2010 and 2011, conflict-free minerals in the Congo, and a UN commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. We must remain vigilant if we are to succeed in our advocacy goals. We must hold the administration accountable for its past promises.  Please join me as we reaffirm our commitment to ending and preventing genocide.

Tonight, President Barack Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address. This week, activists from around the country called on President Obama to make a public commitment to genocide prevention in his address. In accordance with the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force report, we must continue to urge the Obama administration to demonstrate leadership on genocide prevention.

Action on genocide prevention must not stop with President Obama’s State of the Union address. CitizenTube, a YouTube politics video blog, is facilitating an important opportunity for activists. Beginning at 9 p.m. EST, CitizenTube will open a Google Moderator series, allowing participants to submit and vote on questions for the President. President Obama will address the top questions in an interview a few days after the State of the Union address.

As part of the Pledge2Protect campaign last fall, STAND partnered with WITNESS, an innovative video advocacy initiative for human rights activists. CitizenTube’s initiative provides another opportunity for STAND activists to advocate for genocide prevention.

What Can You Do?

Ask a Question

Beginning at 9 p.m. EST, use the following text to ask President Obama what his administration will do to prevent genocide and mass atrocities:

Good evening, President Obama. My name is ___________, and I am from _____________. My question is about genocide prevention. Sudan plans to hold national elections this April, and will hold its referendum on Southern independence in 2011 (two-thousand eleven), offering potential flashpoints for a resurgence of violence across Sudan. Conflict in the eastern Congo and Burma’s ethnic minority regions continues to rage. What steps is your administration taking to monitor and mobilize response to these conflicts? How does your administration intend to develop a coordinated strategy to prevent genocide and mass atrocities? Thank you.

Vote for Genocide Prevention

When the Google Moderator series opens at 9 p.m. EST, vote for questions addressing genocide prevention and the conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burma.