MIGS: The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies

Darfur (SUDAN)

Canada can make a difference in Darfur
Yoine Goldstein, National Post Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008

TV Ontario's "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" features panel discussion on Darfur, 8 May 2008

See updated links on the situation in Darfur: Amnesty International's Eyes on Darfur and ENOUGH Project and Northern Uganda Report and Selected Topics in the History of Genocide course at Concordia.

Click here for the program and video links to all the panels in the Concordia Conference on "Canada and Darfur," Canada's role in protecting victims of atrocity crimes, 31 October-1 November 2005.

TV Ontario features "The Darfur Genocide" on "The Debate," broadcast on "The Agenda with Steve Paikin," 8 May 2008. Featured panelists are Nii Akuetteh, Frank Chalk, Irwin Cotler, Ben Kiernan, and John Lewis. Click here for the video link.

MIGS organized and co-sponsored a conference on "Canada and the Darfur Crisis" on 1 November 2005. Click here for conference video links.

On 1 November 2005, MIGS, the Office of the Preseident, the Concordia Student Union, and other sponsors hosted a one day conference on the Darfur situation for students from Concordia and other universities. Major Brent Beardsley, Gen. Roméo Dallaire's aide in Rwanda, and Detective Sgt. Debbie Bodkin, returned from field work as a UN crime investigator in Chad and Darfur, presented the keynote addresses in the opening morning session on Darfur, the African Union and the responsibility to protect. Panels were presented on the following topics: the options available to resolve the Darfur crisis; the role of the Canadian media in alerting Canadians to ongoing crimes against humanity in Darfur; and Canadian student opportunities for urging solutions to the problems in Sudan. Analysts from non-government organizations, student groups, the media, government and university research centres will make panel presentations. The conference will took place at Concordia University.

For further information contact Prof. Frank Chalk, drfrank@alcor.concordia.ca
or Tara Tavender, canada.and.darfur@gmail.com

Useful Web Sites on Darfur and Sudan

Introductory Material

Be A Witness. This 30-second video clip released in July 2005 calls on television news departments to devote more air time to Darfur and other sites of current atrocity crimes. It highlights the wasted broadcast time devoted to sensationalist news stories about celebrities in trouble with the law. An analytical table quantifying the major American television networks' paltry attention to Darfur is accessible from this link.
Be A Witness Video Clip

The Latest Policy Briefing by the International Crisis Group
International Crisis Group: Darfur's Fragile Peace Agreement (20 June 2006)

International Crisis Group: Bridging the Gaps in the African Union's Mission to Darfur

Nicholas Kristoff on Media Neglect of the Darfur Crisis (26 July 2005)

For a crash course on the Darfur situation and links to readings, see the web page of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur and the announcement of the:
National Student Leadership Conference on Darfur (11-14 August 2005), Washington, D.C.

Background Information on the Darfur Conflict

Sudanreeves.org: This site links to electronically published analytic briefs and advocacy writings on Sudan by Eric Reeves. These have been organized chronologically, and include all electronic publications since the signing of the historic Machakos Protocol (July 2002). There are separate links for publications in 2005 and 2006. There is also a separate link for analyses published from July 2002 to December 2003 and another for yet earlier pieces, primarily related to oil development in southern Sudan and pre-July 2002 stages of the peace process involving the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). There are also links to a number of Reeves' formal publications in newspapers, news magazines, academic journals, and human rights publications, as well as the texts of his Congressional testimony. Finally, a complete list of publications, testimony, and academic presentations is also linked, as is a grouping of profiles of his work.
Sudanreeves.org

Human Rights Watch : Essential Background. Also available in French
Essential Background: Overview of human rights issues in Sudan (Human Rights Watch, 31-12-2004)

Human Rights Watch: FAQ: What is happening in Darfur?
Q & A: Crisis in Darfur (Human Rights Watch, 21-6-2004)

International Crisis Group - Crisis in Darfur
International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) - Conflict prevention and resolution

Human Security Gateway: The Human Security Gateway is a research and information database regrouping electronic and bibliographic resources on human security.
Human Security Gateway

Amnesty International: Sudan Crisis Background
Sudan crisis - Background - Amnesty International

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: IRIN Web Special on the prospects of peace in Sudan
Sudan: A future without War?

The Humanitarian Policy Group: Briefing Note on the Darfur crisis.
HPG Briefing Note

Darfur Information Centre. Provides "views and news about the current events in Darfur and
general information about Darfur history, culture, geography, for Sudanese and non-Sudanese"
www.darfurinfo.org

Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General (Geneva, 25 January 2005)
Click here to download DOC File

African Capacity-Building for Peace Operations: UN Collaboration with the African Union and ECOWAS by Victoria K. Holt with Moira K. Shanahan ( February 2005, Second Printing, Spring 2005)

ENOUGH Releases a Comprehensive Strategy for Ending the Crisis in Darfur
Click here to download the report (PDF)
ENOUGH is a joint initiative of the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress to resolve and prevent genocide and mass atrocities. For additional information please visit www.enoughproject.org

ENOUGH PROJECT: "AN AXIS OF PEACE FOR DARFUR"
"An Axis of Peace for Darfur" is written by John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen, for the ENOUGH Project. The ENOUGH Project is a joint initiative of the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress. "An Axis of Peace for Darfur " is the ENOUGH Project's 3rd Strategy Paper on Darfur.
The full ENOUGH Project report is available at: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/pdf/axis_of_peace_paper.pdf

Maps

Relief Web - Map Centre Sudan
Relief Web Maps Centre

University of California (Berkeley)
Map of Darfur

United Nations, Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Map of Sudan

Famine in Darfur and the Adjacent Refugee Camps

Darfur--Livlihoods under Siege. This June 2005 report, about 200 pages in length and followed by a summary in Arabic, is "based on case studies conducted in Kebkabiya, Disa and Geneina, [and] gives detailed accounts of the attacks carried out on villages by government forces, with support from armed militias, throughout 2003 and into 2004. In all cases, there were direct asset-stripping and destruction of household and community assets. This is in breach of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the use of starvation as a method of warfare and specifies that parties to a conflict must not attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable for the survival of civilian populations. Beyond the direct impact of the crisis caused by asset-stripping are the continuing processes that indirectly cause the systematic destruction of livelihoods. These processes are attributable to the actions of key players, including the GoS [Government of Sudan] and rebel groups, and are due also to the failures of international humanitarian assistance." Read the full report at:
Darfur--Livlihoods under Siege

News Media

UN News Centre Sudan - Also available in French
UN News Centre - News Focus Sudan

Sudan Tribune is a "non profit web site. Its goals are to promote plural information, democratic and free debate on Sudan"
Sudan Tribune

CBC Radio: Canada’s Role in Sudan. What Canada could be doing to help resolve the Sudan crisis
CBC Radio | The Current

Africa Confidential: Africa Confidential is one of the longest-established specialist publications on Africa, with a considerable reputation for being first with the in depth news on significant political, economic and security developments across the continent.
Africa Confidential

Monitoring by Humanitarian and Human Rights Organizations

African Union: The Situation in the Darfur Region of the Sudan
African Union: The Situation in Darfur

Darfur Peace and Development Organization: Darfur Peace and Development Organization is nonprofit and nonsectarian. It seeks to restore reconciliation where conflict exists in the Darfur region of Sudan through humanitarian aid and services to the needy people in the region, without regard to race, religion, sex or national origin. This website has been built and published by Darfur Peace and Development Organization ( DPADO). DPADO is nonprofit organization committed to promote and restore peace and sustainable development in Darfur, Western Sudan in Africa.
Darfur Peace and Developement Organization

Human Rights Watch: Darfur Crisis
Human Rights Watch: Africa : Sudan

Amnesty International on Sudan
Sudan crisis - Amnesty International

International Association of Genocide Scholars
Current Proposals for Responding to Genocide in Darfur

Global IDP Project, Database
Recent Reports for Sudan

Refugees International (RI): Refugees International acts first and foremost as a witness to the suffering of the displaced. Their advocates spend weeks in the field interviewing and meeting with war-affected populations, non-governmental organizations and aid agencies. RI conducted missions in over 20 countries in 2004,some inregions of the world where we have never previously worked. Recent missions have included the Darfur region of Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Liberia, Haiti, Uganda, Cambodia, and the Thai-Burma border, just to name a few. See especially the spotlight on Crisis in Darfur.
Refugees International

United Nations World Food Programme - WFP; Hunger relief against poverty & famine
United Nations World Food Programme

Essays and Articles on Darfur Crisis and Solutions

Words & meanings - the consequences of defining genocide. By Alex de Waal
International: True meanings and consequences of defining genocide

W. Sudan: a complex ethnic reality with a long history. By R.S. O'Fahey
W. Sudan: a complex ethnic reality with a long history

Boston Review: Tragedy in Darfur: On understanding and ending the horror. By Alex de Waal
Alex de Waal: Tragedy in Darfur

Council on Foreign Realitons: Giving Meaning to 'Never Again' . By Cheryl Igiri
CFR Publications: Giving Meaning to 'Never Again'

The Scotsman: State-led murder and rape of villagers in Darfur uncovered. By Gethin Chamberlain
State-led murder uncovered

Special Report on Sudan from the Washington Post
washingtonpost.com: Sudan

Genocide Watch: Genocide Emergency: Darfur, Sudan. By Dr. Gregory H. Stanton President,
Never Again

Who are the Darfurains? Essay by Alex de Waal . Provides an in depth analysis of the complexities of the history and politics behind the Darfur conflict
Who are the Darfurians

Darfur: Student and Other Activist Advocacy

Students Taking Action Now (STAND): A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, an umbrella organization of over 600 high school and college chapters dedicated to putting an end to genocide, specifically the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
STAND

STAND Concordia University (Montréal, Qc)
STAND Concordia

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Staring Genocide in the Face

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Committee on Conscience
Committee on Conscience

Darfur: Management of a Genocidal Crisis (November 2004). The Aegis Trust Report on Darfur, November 2004 (Summary)

Darfur Alert: Coalition of grassroots organizations
Darfur Alert

Darfur: A Genocide We can Stop
Darfur: A Genocide We can Stop

The Passion of the Present: Sharing ideas and inspiration on how to stop the genocide in Darfur
Sudan: The Passion of the Present