A Day for Darfur: Stop the Genocide, Protect the People
Contact: Ann-Louise Colgan, Africa Action (202-546 7961)
“A Day for Darfur: Stop the Genocide, Protect the People”
On One-Year Anniversary of Bush Administration’s Finding of Genocide in Darfur, Powerful Event will Draw Hundreds to Demand White House Action
WHAT: A special event to mark the one-year anniversary of the Bush Administration’s recognition of genocide in Darfur, Sudan and to demand immediate action from the White House to stop the genocide and protect the people of Darfur.
WHO: Civil & political leaders, celebrity figures and advocacy groups will join hundreds of activists. Invited speakers include:
– Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon
– Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches
– Fatima Haroun, Darfurian Representative of Sudan Peace Advocates Network
– Ruth Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service
– Rev. Jim Wallis, Founder and Editor in Chief of Sojourners Magazine
– Salih Booker, Executive Director, Africa Action
– David Rubenstein, Executive Director, Save Darfur
– Members of Congress
WHEN: Thursday, September 8, 2005, 12pm – 1pm
WHERE: Lafayette Park in front of the White House
(near the intersection of 16th Street & H Street, NW, Washington DC)
One year after the Bush Administration’s declaration that genocide is occurring in Darfur, Sudan, the genocide continues. More than 400,000 lives have been lost, and yet the President has done little to provide protection to the people of Darfur. “A Day for Darfur” will bring hundreds of people together to express their outrage and to demand that the President take every step necessary to ensure an immediate multinational intervention to support the African Union and provide security to the people of Darfur.
This powerful event will feature musical performances, dramatic visuals, and remarks from leadership figures and celebrities, who will lead a call to conscience and urge immediate action from the Bush Administration to stop the genocide in Darfur. The event will close with a coordinated calling campaign at 1pm, where participants in the park will pull out their cell phones, and thousands across the country will pick up their own phones to call President Bush and pressure him to take immediate steps to stop the genocide.
This event accompanies a nationwide grassroots petition effort, which has gathered tens of thousands of signatures in recent weeks, and which also calls on the White House to support an urgent multinational intervention to stop the genocide in Darfur.
This major event is the latest of more than 1,000 actions on Darfur held around the U.S. in the past 6 months alone. “A Day for Darfur” will kick off a period of renewed activism by people of conscience across the country, who will increase their pressure on President Bush in the coming weeks to take action to stop the genocide in Darfur.
“A Day for Darfur” is organized by a diverse coalition of advocacy groups.
EVENT SPONSORS AND ENDORSERS: Africa Action, American Jewish World Service, Armenian National Committee of America, Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Faithful America, Greater Washington Jewish Task Force on Darfur, Human Rights First, NAACP, National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Save Darfur Coalition, Sojourners, STAND, Sudan Peace Advocates Network, TransAfrica Forum, and the United Methodist Church.