Last week, STAND chapters around the country wrote letters to Gwen Ifill, urging her to ask about Darfur at last week’s VP debate in her capacity as moderator. And she did. Still not convinced it had to do with activists like yourselves?
Look at this Sudan Tribune article:
At the end of the article, it says, "Activist organizations had been lobbying intensely for the debate moderator to ask a question about Darfur, mostly through e-mail and letter-writing campaigns."
189 police advisors arrive in Darfur to support the UN Peacekeeping mission, UNAMID. This week, the UN also committed to supplying 18 helicopters for UNAMID. Meanwhile, Qatar may be hosting new peace talks in the coming weeks.
There are an incredible number of creative and comprehensive websites out there on Darfur for you and your chapters to explore – and take your level of knowledge to the next level…
One of them is the newest site on Darfur put up by Human Rights Watch called "Failing Darfur", featuring videos, timelines, maps, reports.
Tonight, Darfur took the national stage. In front of probably more than 50 million viewers, Gwen Ifill, asked the vice-presidential candidates what they would do about Darfur. And, most likely, this was in no small part due to your letters and e-mails asking her to do so. Watch the video below!
We’re working hard to get the best speakers for the 2008 National Student Conference – we’ll have experts on genocide and the conflicts in Sudan, Burma, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as many leaders in the anti-genocide movement.
Check out this list of speakers who have been confirmed so far:
In 2005, the United Nations endorsed the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, establishing the responsibility of the world to act when governments are unable – or unwilling – to protect their own populations from large-scale violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the international community has taken up this responsibility, deploying the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping force and expending significant diplomatic efforts to broker peace deals.
Last week, Jim Lehrer, moderator for the first presidential debate between McCain and Obama, disappointed the world by not asking the candidates about their plans for Darfur, even though the debate was was slated to cover foreign policy issues. This week, you can prevent this from happening again! Take action to let the moderators and the candidates know that they owe it to their voters to outline their specific plans for Darfur.
Take action by:
Last week, students took action to influence the Presidential and VP debates by sending handwritten letters to Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill, asking that the moderators ask a question about Darfur.
There has been a flood of heavy fighting in Darfur in the past two weeks. Large battles between a number of Darfur rebel groups and the Janjaweed/Sudanese Army have increased violence to a level the world has not seen since February of this year.
