Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO)

The South Sudanese civil society of Abyei are planning peaceful demonstration in London on the 25th May at 12:00 opposite Downing Street, London, against the killing of the Kowal Deng Kowal, paramount chief of the Dinka Ngok. For more information contact Paul Muortat on 07505160658.

Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO)

March 22, 2013 – As Qatar prepares for a donors conference in Doha on April 7 – 8 to promote investments in the Darfur region of Sudan, human rights organizations, genocide scholars and Sudan advocates around the world sent open letters to the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and the President of the African Development Bank Group, Donald Kaberuka, asking that the conference be cancelled. The letters state, “Efforts to promote investments in Sudan are premature and put the… Read More +

WILL WE EVER LEARN THE LESSONS ABOUT GENOCIDE?

The 1948 Genocide Act defines genocide as an attempt to destroy a people, as a whole or in part, on the basis of their ethnicity, faith or other forms of identity. Yet regimes continue to act with impunity, slaughtering their own citizens, and enlisting civilians to participate in massive human rights abuses against their neighbours.

April 2013 will mark ten years since the start of the genocide that has devastated Darfur in Sudan, leaving at least 300,000 dead and millions living in refugee camps.

Alyth Reform Synagogue is inviting you to a special event on April 11th 2013 as part of A Decade of Darfur events, marking ten years since the start of the slaughter… Read More +

To U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, member States of the U.N. Security Council and the African Union:

Ten years ago, the Government of Sudan began a genocide in Darfur. A decade later, the suffering in Darfur is not over and neither should be the outcry and global efforts for peace, justice, and relief.

As concerned citizens of the world, we call on you to expend all resources at your disposal to bring an end to the suffering in Darfur and other areas under attack including Blue Nile and South Kordofan; urgently address the humanitarian crisis; bring those accountable for human rights crimes to justice; and protect the vulnerable to bring a just and lasting peace to Darfur and all of Sudan.

URGENT SIGN PETITION HERE

Ten years ago, the Government of Sudan began a genocide against civilians in Darfur killing more than 300,000 and displacing 3 million Darfuris. Despite attempts at peace, the killing continues today.

Even with a U.N. peacekeeping force on the ground, Darfuris remain vulnerable to attacks and extreme human rights violations. Since 2010, the UN has reported more than 200 attacks in Darfur.

The Sudanese government is the main perpetrator of violence against civilians in Darfur. The government has obstructed U.N. peacekeeping forces, refused to prosecute individuals charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, blocked international aid, used aerial bombardment against civilians, and extended its attacks on civilians beyond Darfur.

The continued displacement of more than 2 million… Read More +

Ten years ago, the Sudanese regime unleashed a systematic genocide in Darfur which continues to this day, away from media attention. Khartoum's policy of ethnic cleansing destroyed 90% of black African villages, killing an estimated 300,000 people. Today, three million people who fled the violence live mostly in camps, but their lives are still fraught with danger. Women in particular continue to be attacked on an almost daily basis and the incidence of rape is high. Women and children have no choice but to walk beyond the camp boundaries to collect firewood or to tend their crops, making them vulnerable to attack and sexual violence.

Life in the camps is tough, with little access to humanitarian help because the Sudanese regime deliberately hinders and prevents aid… Read More +

Returning to Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains

In January 2013, Baroness Cox and Dr Mukesh Kapila travelled hundreds of kilometres through Sudan's Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.

The two areas have been closed since armed conflict erupted between the Sudanese Government and opposition groups in June 2011

Over the past 18 months, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Many remain in the two areas, where Government bombing has triggered desperate food shortages. International humanitarian relief access has been blocked.

Is this on its way to becoming another Darfur-scale catastrophe?

Thursday 31st January at 7.00 – 8.30pm

Frontline Club

13 Norfolk Place

London W2 1 QJ

Baroness Cox, Founder and CEO of HART

Dr Mukesh Kapila, Former head of UN in Sudan in 2004

Chaired by:

Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies,… Read More +

Please note that the time of the demonstration today has been changed. It will be held from 16.00 - 21.00.

The protest will be held outside the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensingtonmore, 4-18 Harrington Gardens, London, SW7 4LH. Nearest Tube Station: Gloucester Road station

For enquiries and information please contact: Samia Abuhassabu: 07727289832 or Kamal Kambal: 07533800015

Message from the SPLM-N in UK

WE ARE PREPARING FOR TWO MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS ONE AT 12:00 TO 18:00 ON SATURDAY 17/11/2012 OUTSIDE 10 DOWNING STREET AGAINST THE IRANIAN REGIME TO PULL ITS MILITARY OUT OF SUDAN AND TO STOP SUPPORTING SUDAN REGIME.

THE SECOND DEMO WILL BE AT 16:00 TO 21:00 ON TUESDAY 27/11/2012 OUTSIDE MILLENNIUM HILTON LONDON AGAINST SUDAN GOVERNMENT. WE ARE CURRENTLY MOBILISING PEOPLE.

PLEASE NOTE WE WILL WELCOME ANY SUGGESTIONS.

KAMBAL 07533800015

Waging Peace… Read More +

Mohammed Al Halengy is a key member of the Manchester-based human rights organisation RAPAR and a leader in the Beja Congress UK. He will be in court on Wednesday November 7. The Upper Tribunal is determining his right to stay in the UK. RAPAR are organising a vigil to support him while his in front of the Upper Tribunal judge and need your presence.

Please come and show your support for Mohammed. Assemble from 9:30 onwards at Piccadilly Exchange, 1^st Floor Piccadilly Exchange, 2 Piccadilly Plaza, Mosley Street, Manchester, M1 4AH.

Eric Reeves has made heroic efforts to keep the massive human rights violations in Sudan in the public eye over the years. He rightly exposes the hypocrisy of the rest of the world in its dealings with the Khartoum regime.

Please watch this powerful video made by the Sudan Sentinal Project about the Nuba Mountains

We are deeply alarmed by the ongoing lack of full and unhindered access for international humanitarian aid agencies to all areas within the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, as well as Darfur.

Letter to UN Security Council members on humanitarian access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile states

In 2007, a member of the Waging Peace team brought back the first ever petition of Darfuri refugees from the Chadian camps on the border of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of Darfuris have escaped to avoid massacre at the hands of the Sudanese Government and Janjaweed militias.

The petition and the testimonials scrawled alongside the names, call on the international community to intervene to stop the killings and restore peace and justice to Darfur so that the survivors can return home.

It has been signed by over 60,000 refugees, 70% of whom are women and therefore constitutes the largest expression of women’s voices to come out of the region.

This petition is the true voice of the Darfuri people, who, frustrated with their leaders felt that for… Read More +

Hundreds of refugees are fleeing Sudan every day. Join us for a walk that will raise awareness. Help to deliver a letter to 10 Downing Street … barefoot. Constant aerial bombardment and ground fighting in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State of Sudan, have caused half a million people to be displaced.

Humanitarian assistance has been denied by the Government of Sudan. Many survive by eating leaves and wild fruits, without clean water or medicine, hiding in caves and forests; an increasing number of them do not survive.

Thousands of people remain displaced from Darfur and Abyei.

Assertive diplomatic action towards the Sudan Government is needed to allow… Read More +

Today, Sudan365 launched a new music video at www.sudan365.org. It features contributions from some of the world's best drummers, including Coldplay, Snow Patrol, The Police, Radiohead, Faithless, Mohammed Munir, Yehia Khalil, Hugh Masekela and the Corrs, and from supporters (aged 2 and up!) who've uploaded their own 'Beat for Peace' videos on YouTube.

Ways to get involved:

• Check out the video and forward it onto your networks - it is available on www.sudan365.org and at www.youtube.com
• Embed the video on your website:
  
  • Go to YouTube, click Share, then click Embed. Now copy and paste the code on your website
• Sign the petition at www.sudan365.org/en-get-involved.htm

The video is being launched… Read More +

The two hour seminar is aimed at getting 15-20 Sudan experts together and facilitating discussions on urgent action needed to address the situation in Sudan.

With six months to go before the elections and just over a year before the referendum on the secession of the South, Waging Peace is hosting a seminar entitled Spotlight on Sudan: addressing the country's multiple conflict, an exclusive policy roundtable event.

The two hour seminar planned on 15 October will provide an opportunity to discuss recent developments on the ground in Sudan and the urgent need for international concerted action, in particular in light of the upcoming elections.

As war raged in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, people around the world called for international intervention to stop the shelling of civilians. In January this year, millions shared similar feelings of horror and anger witnessing the bloodshed in Gaza. Both events were especially painful to Muslims watching other defenceless Muslims being killed. But why have the deaths of vastly more unarmed Muslims in Darfur caused so little concern among co-religionists?

The Khartoum regime, brought to power in a highly ideological and fundamentalist Islamist coup 20 years ago, has killed an estimated 400,000 of its fellow Muslim citizens. Yet, there is near silence about massive human rights abuses in the remote western corner of Sudan. As Tareq Al-Hamed, editor of the Asharq Alaswat paper, has… Read More +

Today President al-Bashir celebrates 20 years since the military coup in which he took power in Sudan. In the past two decades he has waged two civil wars, taking the lives of more than 2.6 million people, and displaced a further 6.5 million; he has funded murderous rebel armies in Chad and Uganda; and most recently he has been indicted by the international criminal court for five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crime.

Few of his contemporary dictators can claim so many casualties and such opprobrium. Yet Bashir continues to manipulate even his critics in the international community, setting Russia and China against Europe and the US, and cynically lobbying the African Union… Read More +

On 8 and 9 June, African Union member states are meeting to discuss withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a form of protest to the arrest warrant issued against Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Ahead of the meeting in Addis, African civil society groups, including the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, the Chairman of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa and Halima Bashir, Darfuri author of the novel 'Tears of the Desert', have united in condemnation of the Sudanese Government's cynical lobbying of countries to withdraw recognition of the International Criminal Court. Their condemnation is supported by several leading figures from African civil society who have signed the letter, including… Read More +

Today, Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, will become the first Darfuri anti-government rebel to be charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court. This follows the indictment of the Sudanese President in March which set legal precedent as it was the first time charges had been set against a sitting head of state. Abu Garda, leader of the Darfur rebel group the United Resistance Movement (URF), is due to appear before the Court this afternoon, to deny charges against him.

Abu Garda, a former senior member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), is charged with three war crimes, allegedly committed during an attack carried out on 29 September 2007, in which twelve peacekeepers were killed and eight… Read More +

On 6 April, Darfuri asylum seeker Shoman Mohamed Ahmed (Home Office Reference number A1213639/4) was detained in Sheffield during a regular sign in. He was then informed that he would be transferred to Colnbrook detention centre and sent back to Khartoum on 9 April.

This news is of great concern to us since Mr Ahmed is from the Darfuri non-Arab Zaghawa ethnic group and as such will be at risk of persecution if returned to Sudan. While there currently is a halt on removals of non-Arab Darfuris to Khartoum, the Home Office is refusing to recognise Mr Ahmed as Darfuri, therefore allowing for his deportation.

We have collected letters… Read More +

Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook? 
By DESMOND TUTU

The expected issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan by the International Criminal Court tomorrow presents a stark choice for African leaders — are they on the side of justice or on the side of injustice? Are they on the side of the victim or the oppressor? The choice is clear but the answer so far from many African leaders has been shameful.

Because the victims in Sudan are African, African leaders should be the staunchest supporters of efforts to see perpetrators brought to account. Yet rather than stand by those who have suffered in Darfur,… Read More +

On 10 December 1948 governments around the world adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all people of all nations. The fundamental value underpinning the entire UDHR proclaims “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Today, Waging Peace will commemorate the 60 Anniversary of the recognition of the inherent dignity of all humankind with an exhibition of the Darfuri children’s drawings at the prestigious Harvard University in the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. The exhibition continues into January 2009. To see some of the drawings click on:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7QW29_9BHUs

On the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the Home Office is getting ready to deport to Sudan AbdulMajid Hassan Ismail, a Darfuri seeking refuge from persecution in the UK.

Mr. Ismail [Home Office reference: J1104674] is from the non-Arab Marareit tribe in Darfur and the Home Office is intending to forcibly remove him from the UK on Thursday 11 December. As a non-arab Darfur and a member of the JEM rebel group, Abdulmajid is at great risk of torture and possible death at the hands of the Sudanese authorities if returned to Sudan.

This impending deportation indicates the breaking of previous promises made by the Home… Read More +

One year after the publishing of its report on the illegal interview of Darfuris in Home Office facilities, Waging Peace has finally received a response from the Home Office.  The contents of the response are very concerning and raise points which need to be addressed as a matter of urgency by the Home Office. Please follow this LINK to write to your MP and ask that he contacts the Home Office and the Home Affairs Select Committee to ensure that these interviews are fully investigated. For more information on this issue, please follow this LINK or emailRead More +

The Darfuri children's drawings Waging Peace brought back from the Chadian refugee camps are featured in this week's edition of Grazia. If you are inspired by this article, here are a number of ways in which you can take action today: 1- Click here to donate to Waging Peace and help fund our project in Chad aimed at providing psychological support to Darfuri children in the refugee camps. For more information on the project, email Read More +

The Home Office must review its policy in light of the changed circumstances in Khartoum and the recent indictments by the International Criminal Court

In response to Waging Peace’s campaign on behalf of Abubaker Yousef Mohamed and other Darfuri asylum seekers, the Home Office announced last week that it would halt removals of Darfuri asylum seekers until a review of its policy in September.

The media coverage, behind the scene lobbying, work in the House of Lords and Parliament, and the hundreds of letters sent by Waging Peace supporters succeeded in bringing about this crucial… Read More +

On Monday 14 July, the ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.

Waging Peace greatly welcomes this news. Naming Bashir as the architect of his government’s plan to commit genocide against the people of Darfur is a vital step forward in delivering peace and justice to this war-torn region.

In the last five years, the Sudanese Government has attacked, killed and displaced the people of Darfur, undermined prospects for peace and impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid and the deployment of peacekeepers in the region.

This latest indictment sends a strong signal to Khartoum that the Sudanese Government… Read More +

It has been brought to our attention that a number of Darfuri asylum seekers have recently been informed by the Home Office of their imminent deportation to Sudan. One Darfuri individual in particular, Abubaker Yousef Mohammed, is due to be deported on 13 July 2008.

While the Home Office had halted all deportations of Darfuri asylum seekers in late 2007 in light of fresh evidence of torture of Darfuris upon their return to Khartoum, it appears that such forced removals have resumed.

The return of Darfuris to Khartoum goes against the explicit advice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which insists that Darfuris are at risk of torture… Read More +

In the face of evidence brought forward by Waging Peace and featured in theIndependent today, the Home Office has been forced to admit that it has resumed the removal of Darfuri refugees - covertly reneging on its promise to halt deportations to Khartoum.

The Home Office announced on 10 December 2007 that it had halted all deportations of Darfuri asylum seekers, pending an investigation into growing evidence that Darfuris are being  tortured when they are  returned to Khartoum. However, despite evidence that increasing numbers of Darfuri’s are being arrested and tortured the Home Office has now confirmed that deportations have resumed, although it failed to make any announcement of this change in policy.

Waging Peace uncovers evidence of trafficking and forced recruitment of child soldiers from the refugee camps on the Chad / Sudan Border

In their report, featured in theGuardiantoday, Waging Peace reveals that Darfuri refugees as young as nine are being trafficked as child soldiers by armed groups operating in Eastern Chad.

The evidence was gathered by Waging Peace researcher Anna Schmitt during in-depth interviews with leaders of refugee camps on the Chad / Sudan border. Their testimony is the first to suggest that children are being bought and sold as soldiers and that widespread kidnap and violent coercion is now occurring in the region.

In 2007 a Waging Peace researcher brought back the first ever petition of Darfuri refugees from the Chadian camps on the border of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of Darfuris have escaped to avoid massacre at the hands of the Sudanese Government and Janjaweed militias.

The petition and the testimonials scrawled alongside the names call on the international community to intervene to stop the killings and restore peace and justice to Darfur so that the survivors can return home.

The petition, featured in the Guardian on 24 April 2008, has been signed by over 60,000 refugees, the majority of whom are women and it therefore… Read More +

In the four years since the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, rebel groups have splintered and Government support for militias has continuously shifted, creating an increasingly complex and protracted situation on the ground. Furthermore, throughout February and March 2008, the violence has escalated to levels last seen in 2005, as the Sudanese Government has resumed its scorched-earth policy and heavy bombing of civilian villages.

While allegiances have shifted, one thing has remained constant in the last four years: the international community still lacks the political will to speak out and act on the Sudanese Government’s continued large-scale human rights violations in Darfur. Their silence indicates to the Sudanese Government that it can continue its campaign unabated. The… Read More +

Last year our researcher, Anna Schmitt, travelled to eastern Chad to interview Darfuri refugees and displaced Chadians. She handed out crayons and paper to children aged between 6 and 18 years, and asked them to draw their dreams for the future and their strongest memories. Most of the resulting pictures depict violent attacks by the Sudanese Government forces and their allied Janjaweed militias. Many drawings show adult males being killed, women being shot and taken prisoner, babies being thrown onto fires and Government of Sudan helicopters and planes attacking ordinary Darfuris.

The result is an unprecedented collection of 500 drawings which have toured the globe - in Lithuania, Canada, the Czech… Read More +

A new Waging Peace report China in Africa: the Human Rights Impact published today examines the practical impact of Chinese investment on human rights in Africa.

Recent media attention devoted to China, the Olympics and Darfur has prompted a much-needed debate on China’s complicity in the Darfur genocide.  However, Darfur is not the only place where the effects of China’s presence are felt.  In recent years, China has strengthened its economic ties across the continent, with enormous investments in natural resource extraction, oil, infrastructure projects, construction, textile and other commodity sectors.

And while China’s involvement in Sudan is a clear example of the grave consequences of Chinese investment, there are other cases where the effects of China in Africa… Read More +