Darfur advocacy groups launch “Power to Protec”t Campaign
Jan 27, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The Genocide Intervention Network and Students Taking Action Now: Darfur today launch the “Power to Protect” campaign, focused on bringing a unified student voice to bear on the United States’ inaction in the face of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Power to Protect, accessible online at PowerToProtect.org, is the first broad-based student initiative to help resolve the ongoing crisis in Darfur. The campaign will help unify students within the Darfur advocacy movement, show the United States government that there is a vocal and active anti-genocide constituency, and pressure the government to take action.
The campaign demands that President Bush and the U.S. Congress use all diplomatic means necessary to immediately deploy a larger, stronger multinational force to protect civilians in Darfur.
“Many people who are active on the issue of Darfur have focused on educating about the problem,” says GI-Net Director of Education Rajaa Shakir. “We believe that it is time to start educating our communities about the solution.”
Shakir argues that the United States can exercise its influence on the international community and take concrete steps to end the genocide, without committing any U.S. troops.
“There has been some basic discussion about a United Nations multinational force in Darfur, but the Security Council is stalled and no real action will take place until influential member countries such as the United States make a definite statement in support of this force,” Shakir says.
The U.S. Congress unanimously declared the crisis in Darfur a genocide in July 2004, and President Bush made his own declaration of genocide in September of that year. The African Union is currently conducting a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, where genocidal militias enabled by the Khartoum government have killed nearly half a million civilians since 2003.
The Genocide Intervention Network works to mobilize an anti-genocide constituency in the United States and Canada to raise the costs for inaction by politicians in the face of genocide. Accessible online at GenocideIntervention.net, GI-Net empowers its members with the tools to support initiatives that prevent and stop genocidal violence, in particular by protecting civilians in Darfur, Sudan.
Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) is a student initiative that seeks to create awareness about, take political action on and raise funds to relieve the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The National STAND Coalition, accessible online at STANDNow.org, brings together over 200 colleges and high schools in the United States and Canada.