- Prioritize U.S. leadership on international norms and universality of human rights
- Act to prevent genocide and mass atrocities and ensure accountability
- Pursue policies that protect people from the threat of terrorism while respecting human rights both at home and abroad
- Oppose the coordinated global assault on civil society, including the murder, criminalization, and vilification of human rights defenders
- Proactively address the democracy and human rights opportunities and challenges presented by the Arab Uprisings
- Ensure that corporations avoid contributing to human rights violations in their operations and through their supply chains
- Bolster accountability and access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence
- Review the United States’ relationships and alliances with governments that violate human rights
- Support international justice and accountability for human rights violators present in the United States
- Support policies both at home and abroad and norms that respect the rights of and equal treatment for refugees/migrants/immigrants
(click through for full article)
***All are brilliant, but I can speak to #10 specifically. We need reform to protect and assist our brothers and sisters fleeing violence and persecution!
Obama was forceful in demanding that President George W. Bush stand up to Sudan during the slaughter in Darfur, so it’s painful to see him so passive on Sudan today. When governments turn to mass murder, we may have no easy solutions, but we should at least be crystal clear about which side we’re on. That’s not too much to expect of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
recognition.
18 years ago today marked the beginning of one of the greatest horros in human history and one of humanity’s greatest failures: the Rwandan genocide.
upwards of one million lives were taken in one hundred days. what a tragedy—and one i cannot comprehend.
read the chorus of “turikumwe”. feel it. share it.
1000 hills,
1 million smiles,
100 days,
and we’ve come a long way
TURIKUMWE.
“turikumwe” means “we are together” in Kinywarwanda, the native language of Rwanda.
this song was created and sung by “Mike-E” of Afro-Flow (Mike Ellison in Detroit, MI) and “The Ben” from Rwanda, my brother:
sending love and light to all Rwandans and all those affected by this moment of history all around the world, especially those who have become my family.
ndagukunda! (i love you!)
found while reading “The Enough Moment”
Honorata
By Omekongo Dibinga
5 million screams falling on deaf ears
Fatherless children fathered by foreign soldiers
Homes with no husbands
Husbands with no honor
Rape as a tool for much more than power
Pregnant women’s legs spread
Aborted by their own community
Thus another rape committed
Another violation unforgiven
Another lifeless life lived by abandoned women
But on behalf of men worldwide
I ask you to stand with pride
Because your screams were never silent
We were never compliant in these acts so violent
Across oceans we cried for you when you ran out of tears
Incapable of international intervention to assuage your fears
Your stories became our poems
Your horrors inhabited our homes
But now you must hear that we are here for you
I implore you to forgive the world for having ignored you
As they raped you they said “today you will have husbands …”
But as we embrace you I say “today you will have brothers”
For all of my Congolese sisters, daughters, and mothers
Your perseverance is appreciated
Your persistence respected
Though human interest has depreciated
I’ll ensure you’re no longer neglected
Let the world be your pillow to comfort your despair
And let the love of this one man show you that men do care
i have no words.
what does the #Genocide Convention mean? (Taken with instagram)
finally reading “the enough moment” by John Prendergast and Don Cheadle.
[…]
Southern Sudan is three months from a Jan. 9 independence vote that could see Africa’s largest country break in two. The vote — and the potential of a new north-south war because of it — are the reason behind the rash of visits.
“If you knew a tsunami, or Katrina or a Haiti earthquake was coming, what would you do to save people?” Clooney said, according to a blog post by Ann Curry, a reporter for NBC who is accompanying Clooney.
[…]
“It is very hard to predict genocide. However, there are warning signs, many of which are present in Sudan,” Abramowitz told The Associated Press last weekend. “Today there is an opportunity to avoid calamity, with sufficient international focus and pressure brought to bear on both southern and — particularly — northern leaders.”
In a speech last week, Kiir said that he and his people have experienced “the anguish of war” and do not want to return to conflict.
viewing.
just did a little leisurely friday night screening of documentary footage on genocide.
watched these two [short] films that i got for free from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. (click here to get yours for free, too!)
Carl Wilkens is featured in “Defying Genocide.”
what an incredible man. i cannot possibly say enough about him.
upon watching this, i had to send him a text to thank him for what he did, and what he continues to do. i feel so incredibly honored to know him, personally.
i love him.
i’m a staff member for a summer program for high school students about human rights and genocide studies.
this one female student started her own nonprofit organization back in June 2009 to help orphans in Ghana.
she’s been trying to get there for the past year or so, but due to the ailing economy, as well as financial constraints, has been unsuccessful.
she, as well as her cause, is incredibly deserving.
if you believe in and support what i support, based on what i tumble, then PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, click the link (title of this post) and simply click “VOTE.”
it’s that simple.
help her, and you’re helping others.
thank you.
peace & love to you all.
[also, feel free to REBLOG to help spread the word!]
a complete high.
“Please use your liberty to promote ours.” -Aung San Suu Kyi
this is a photo from the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies yesterday.
it was a day about the ongoing craziness, for a lack of a better word, in Burma
these gentlemen next to me are Law Eh Soe, a photojournalist, and Myo Thant, a pro-democracy activist who spent 17 months in detention beside Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Law Eh Soe is featured in a documentary (“Click in Fear”), which has two parts on YouTube: part one and part two. He is still very active in promoting his country and its need for support in order to be truly free. He also took the cover photograph of/on this book:
Myo Thant actually work with Suu Kyi and was a leader for NLD (National League for Democracy)-Youth, the student division of the political party founded by Suu Kyi and others. He has done many other things and led many other groups in Burma. He is still active in promoting the democracy and the plight of the Burmese, speaking 2 or 3 times a month at various high school, college and community events. (He is also in a photo in the above book, shown standing beside Suu Kyi at the gate of her compound!)
The passion and compassion and love and motivation that these two gentlemen had were like no other.
This meeting was truly a day that I will remember for the rest of my life.
P.S. if you know nothing about the Burma/Myanmar issue, and/or Aung San Suu Kyi, please do yourself, and the Burmese, a favor and look it up! Ignorance of an issue does not excuse your complacency/apathy.
