Student Advocacy

Students Taking Action on Darfur

A Note from the Campaign Coordinator

Greetings,

We'd like to thank you and your PHR chapter for taking part in the Darfur Survival Campaign. It's by knowing the facts, daring to educate others and acting on behalf of the people of Darfur that you can help to end this living nightmare for the nearly three million people who have witnessed unspeakable horrors and who now live, displaced, in crowded and unsanitary camps, waiting to go back to their old lives.

What does it take to end a genocide? Why, five years after the conflict began, are we still hearing about violent attacks and continued displacement?

The short answer is that there are no simple answers. Just as the causes of the genocide – racial and ethnic targeting by the Government of Sudan, competition over rapidly dwindling natural resources, and a history of neglect in the region by the Government – are complex and intertwined. So are the solutions.

PHR believes that there are four critical issues that must be addressed concurrently in Darfur in order to ensure long-lasting peace and stability. These are:

1. Protection of civilians and an end to violent attacks
2. Justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators
3. Economic responsibility
4. Meeting the needs of survivors

We have used these four themes as the basis for our student work on Darfur. In Protection, PHR students will address the persistence of violence, the need for a robust international protection force that has both the mandate and the ability to protect civilians from continued attacks, and a functional political process to eventually end the conflict.

The Justice component covers the rights of the victims to justice and the imperative of holding the perpetrators accountable for their actions. One way of ensuring both justice and accountability is by guaranteeing that the International Criminal Court, which is currently investigating crimes in Darfur, has the strongest case possible.

Economic responsibility means pressuring Sudan's business partners to use their influence with the government to solve the Darfur crisis. For example, campaigns pressuring China, Sudan's largest trade partner, to use its influence with Sudan to promote change in Darfur, seem to be working.

Finally, the needs of the survivors of the genocide are enormous. They have witnessed unimaginable horrors, have lost loved ones, and have been stripped of all of their material possessions. The current effort to provide them their basic services – food, shelter and basic medical care – is the world's largest humanitarian mission.

We look forward to working with PHR's student chapters to address these four issues that are so critical to the protection of Darfurian civilians and building a hopeful future for Darfur.

Yours,
Karen Hirschfeld
Darfur Survival Campaign Coordinator