Remembering Rwanda: Africa in Conflict, Yesterday and Today
Advocacy Ideas
Joining us to MAKE MORE NOISE
Support Kofi Annan’s Genocide Proposal
In a major policy development, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has raised the possibility of establishing a Special Rapporteur on the prevention of genocide. The Special Rapporteur, reporting to the Security Council, would monitor situations where there is a risk of genocide and act as an “early warning” to the Security Council and the UN Secretariat.
Send a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell or your local Congressman using the following text as a guide for your correspondence,
“I support U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for a monitor to help prevent future acts of genocide. Too many times, the world has stood by and watched as genocide was committed. Kofi Annan’s proposal would make sure that the Security Council was on notice that genocide was being planned. No one would be able to say they didn’t know. I hope that the United States will give its full backing to this proposal.”
For more information, go to www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/26/global7074.htm
Help Prevent Child Abductions in Uganda
The eighteen year civil war in northern Uganda between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has had a devastating effect on the lives of the civilian population. Chief among the victims are the thousands of boys and girls abducted by the LRA and turned into child soldiers. Since June 2002, over 10,000 children under the age of eighteen have been taken from their homes and villages, forced to march long distances and trained to fight. Armed with automatic weapons, children are often the first sent into battle and make up the majority of fighters and casualties. Child soldiers serving in the LRA are routinely beaten, tortured and sometimes forced to kill other children. Beyond fighting, children are used as porters, cooks, domestics, and made to pillage from civilians. Girl captives are additionally forced into sexual slavery as “wives” of LRA commanders and subjected to rape and sexual assault.
Join us in our campaign to help release these children. Go to http://hrw.org/campaigns/uganda to learn more about the situation in Uganda and how you can get involved.
Bring Charles Taylor to Justice in Sierra Leone
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is linked with years of conflict in West Africa and horrific abuses against civilians. Taylor gained notoriety in 1989 as a rebel leader in Liberia, while his forces committed numerous human rights violations including the use of child soldiers throughout his reign. During the Sierra Leone civil war, which lasted from l991-2002, Taylor provided training, logistical support, and funding to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebel groups. Both the RUF and AFRC committed widespread and systematic abuses against civilians including killings, rape, abduction, and mutilation, with the signature atrocity of limb amputation.
In June 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a mixed national/international court established to bring justice for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war, unsealed an indictment against Taylor. The indictment charges Taylor with responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since leaving Liberia in August 2003, Taylor has resided in Nigeria where he accepted an offer of safe haven.
The arrest and prosecution of Taylor before the Special Court would be an enormous step in restoring the rule of law in Sierra Leone and West Africa more generally. It would send the message that horrific crimes will not be tolerated.
For more information on crimes committed in Sierra Leone and Charles Taylor, see http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=africa&c=sierra
To take action to press for Charles Taylor to be handed over to the Special Court, download the following letter http://hrw.org/campaigns/rwanda/letter.htm
Support the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
On May 6th, President George W. Bush “un-signed” the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. While this act alone was unprecedented, it unfortunately appears that the Bush Administration will take measures to oppose the court beyond renouncing signature. We understand that the U.S. government has made demarches through its ambassadors in 100 countries which make clear its intent to seek and obtain agreements with other countries and with the United Nations to exempt U.S. citizens from the jurisdiction of the Court. Just as worrying, the American Servicemember's Protection Act (ASPA) is moving forward in Congress. All of these actions are aimed to threaten the good functioning of the International Criminal Court, a new institution that we believe is one of the most important developments in international and human rights law in more than 50 years. We ask you to join us in making your views known to the U.S. government.
For more information on the International Criminal Court and what you can do, please visit http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/index.htm
Support Justice for Horrific Crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo is emerging from a period of disastrous war marked by violations of international humanitarian law on a colossal scale. All parties have engaged in slaughtering civilians, raping women and girls and holding them for sexual and household service, recruiting child soldiers and using them in combat, and pillaging and destroying civilian property. According to one estimate, these wars have directly or indirectly cost more than three million civilian lives, making this the most deadly war for civilians since World War II. Even months after the implementation of a political settlement and the installation of the transitional government, armed groups continue to prey upon civilians.
On paper the country is on the road to peace, but in practice it is far from peaceful. For most Congolese people, the rights set out under international law that ought to protect them from these abuses have no meaning.
To learn more about the Democratic republic of Congo and recommendations made by Human Rights Watch to the UN Commission on Human Rights, please visit http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/29/congo7128.htm
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly.
To make a contribution, please visit: http://hrw.org/donations/
To receive Human Rights Watch news releases by email, subscribe to the HRW listserv of your choice at: http://hrw.org/act/subscribe-mlists/subscribe.htm
(Last updated on March 16, 2004 )
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