#Sudan

When the International Criminal Court finally came into existence in 2002, it was lauded as a serious step towards universal justice and accountability for the worst international crimes. Ten years later, some of that excitement has worn off. Nowhere has that been more the case than Africa, the continent that has so far been the […]

Posted by contributor Andres Santamaria. Sudan and South Sudan continue to clash, with each side seeking to control lucrative oil fields near their border. However, as the crisis persists, there are many efforts to relieve some of the humanitarian problems that have emerged in South Sudan, according to Action Against Hunger. “Nearly half the population […]

Hollywood on the Potomac–movie actors deserting Tinseltown to remind the Big Dogs back east that every time an A-list celeb is arrested for picketing a foreign embassy an angel gets his wings.

Actor George Clooney, his father Nick, and four Congressional Democrats were among more than a dozen protesters who descended on the Sudanese Embassy on March 16 for the purpose of crossing, in a disorderly fashion, a police line.
The cast of characters? Along with Clooneys I and II, it included Reps. James Moran (D-VA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), John Olver (D-MA) and Al Green (D-TX). NAACP President Ben Jealous was also arrested, along with Martin Luther King III.
Clooney’s mid-day performance on Mass Ave was the finale to a 3-day tour in DC that included an impassioned plea to a standing-room-only crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations, and dramatic testimony delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the miserable state of affairs in the border region of Sudan.
Omar al-Bashir’s military, operating out of Khartoum, is working assiduously to wipe out mostly Christian populations hunkered down on some highly contested, oil-rich real estate to the south.
Clooney, who has frequently taken on the role of the world-weary activist in his films, accuses Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the ‘same criminals responsible for Darfur’ of conducting a genocidal war against his own people, of starving, maiming, raping, and murdering them.

And he says it as if no one has ever heard it before. . .

  Person of the Year – Fatou Bensouda The face of international war crimes prosecution is now an African woman.  Fatou Bensouda was chosen to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor in December.  Bensouda has formerly served as Solicitor-General in Gambia, and as an adviser and trial attorney at the International […]

  Once a year, as mandated by the Constitution, the President of the United States gives an address to Congress updating them on the state of the union. Over time, much ceremony and tradition has been attached to the State of the Union and every year it is broadcast on television, radio, and internet with […]

Among other things, 2010 marked a number of national elections gone wrong. From Guinea to Haiti, Rwanda to the Philippines, Madagascar, Burundi and Belarus to name just a few, elections that were fair, free, non-violent and undisputed have been difficult to find this past year. Even elections in the US and UK took on more […]

South Sudan is set to vote itself into independence. But can it get there? A number of problems confront the government of South Sudan in preparation for a January referendum on independence.Voter registration is underway, but a delay in the vote could push Africa’s largest nation back to civil war. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary […]

The spotlight is on Chinese weapons this week. The Washington Post reported that the Obama administration has gathered evidence of Chinese companies helping Iran develop its missile technology and nuclear weapons. One U.S. official associated with this investigation said the companies may be acting without the knowledge of the Chinese government. UN sanctions currently restrict […]

Last week President Barack Obama granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians for a period of 18 months. This applies those already living in the US, but without legal papers. It prevents their detainment or deportation, and enables them to work legally. The purpose of this status is to protect persons who cannot return to […]

Governments and religions around the world remain intensely interested in what women, but not so much what men, are wearing in public. On September 6, 2009 I wrote about the proposed parliamentary ban on the public wearing of the niqab in France. On September 8, media outlets lit up with discussions of the recent trial […]

Shareholders for two Fidelity Investment mutual funds chose yesterday not to pass proposals that would prevent them from investing in companies that do business in Sudan.  The Sudanese government is accused of committing various war crimes in relation to the conflict in Darfur.  This past March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for […]

On Friday the African Union (AU) announced it will not co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in enforcing its March decision to charge Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under the Rome Statute establishing the court, any party to the statute is required to arrest al-Bashir if he enters […]