Eastern Congo

Not only do universities educate students on issues of social justice, but they also serve as venues for students to organize around these issues and generate substantive change in society. Today, student leaders at Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale are seizing their opportunity to stimulate change by releasing a joint statement calling for responsible investment policies in relation to conflict minerals sourced from eastern Congo. Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale all participate in the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, or CFCI, a network of more than 150 campuses worldwide, in this rising call for action.  Read More »

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday.   Read More »

On Tuesday, April 16, John Prendergast, Co-founder the Enough Project, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs on the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Guest blogger Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of World Without Genocide at William Mitchell College of Law.  Read More »

This morning the Wall Street Journal published an exposé on the conflict gold trade from eastern Congo, which is worth an estimated $285-400 million per year. The article details the lucrative trade in conflict gold as it is transported from mines in eastern Congo to smugglers in Uganda and Burundi and then to jewelers and dealers in Dubai and India. As the piece highlights, conflict gold is an increasingly important issue for jewelers and the gold industry, as there now exists a “shadowy chain of smuggled gold that stretches from the conflict zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the markets of Dubai and jewelry shops around the world.”  Read More »

On April 11, the Group of Eight, or G8, a forum of the world’s wealthiest countries, pledged to spend $35.4 million on preventing rape and sexual violence from being used as a weapon of war. The new fund will also benefit initiatives that put women and women's rights front and center in conflict resolution and devote resources to deterring and investigating wartime sexual atrocities and bringing the perpetrators responsible to justice. The U.S. will contribute $10 million to the new fund, which is spearheaded by British Foreign Minister William Hague and film star and U.N. Special Envoy Angelina Jolie. This initiative marks unprecedented commitment from the international community to the issues facing women during wartime.  Read More »

The Enough Project is excited to announce its’ partnership with One Million Bones, a large-scale social arts practice founded by Naomi Natale that uses education and art to raise awareness of genocide and mass atrocities. From June 8-10, 2013, they are hosting an installation on the National Mall as a unique symbol of our common humanity and a call to action, followed by an Advocacy Day hosted by the Enough Project. The installation will consist of one million “bones,” made by activists around the country and meant to symbolize and honor lives lost through genocide and those still under threat in current crises.  Read More »

On Wednesday, March 13, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, or ABA ROLI, hosted a conference on emerging issues in the rule of law. Panelists from ABA ROLI, international development organizations, the U.S. government, and U.N. agencies covered topics including the effects of the “youth bulge” – when populations are comprised of a large share of children and young adults – on democracy and governance promotion, human rights accountability for extractive industries, NGO’s use of technology to fight corruption, and structural gender-based discrimination in health care systems. Audio highlights from the day can be accessed here.  Read More »

There is good news out of Africa. Some of the world's fastest growing economies are African. International investment is growing.   Read More »

The new peace enforcement brigade approved by the UN Security Council on March 28, 2013 to operate under the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission for the Democratic Republic of Congo, or MONUSCO, presents an opportunity to significantly reduce the strength of illegal armed groups if paired with special forces training, a robust defections program , and a comprehensive peace process led by new U.N. Envoy Mary Robinson.   Read More »