Advocacy

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) brought concern over next month’s Sudanese elections to the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. As a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, she drew attention to the promise of democratic transformation offered by Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which hasn’t come to pass in the five years since the peace deal was signed. Referring to the upcoming elections as a “sham,” the congresswoman stressed the importance of bringing to justice Sudan’s president, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes in Darfur. She said:

“These elections are a sham - hijacked to legitimize the rule of a reprehensible, murderous regime. Responsible nations must work to ensure Sudan’s butcher answers for his crimes before this process moves forward.”

Tuesday marked Florida's day of action in an ongoing grassroots campaign, Sudan Sham Elections 2010. With events taking place across the United States, activists aim to generate attention to Sudan's elections in the weeks before polling begins and urge U.S. leaders at the highest levels to engage at this crucial moment in Sudan's history.

Watch Congressman Ros-Lehtinen's full remarks on the House floor:

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Omar al-Bashir Prevention Sudan Election Sudan Now

A large, energetic crowd turned out on March 8, for Washington, D.C.'s Join Me on the Bridge event. All over the world, women and men commemorated International Women's Day at events affiliated with Women for Women International by gathering on bridges to send the message that we must join together and work collectively to end global violence against women. Below is an audio slideshow narrated by Candice Knezevic, the campaign manager for RAISE Hope for Congo, about D.C.'s Join Me on the Bridge event and other gatherings held around the world.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Northern Uganda Peace Prevention Sexual Violence Somalia Violence Against Women

This post by Sylvie Maunga Mbanga originally appeared today on NBC's Production Blog.

The Congolese conflict is considered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and the deadliest since World War II. Since 1998, more than six million people have died as a result of this war. Over two million people have been forced to flee their homes, and some 400,000 Congolese have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been kidnapped, raped, and tortured.

The atrocious way that sexual violence is used in Congo is often indescribable. Women and even children are being attacked by multiple men, often in public and in front of their husbands, kids, and neighbors. After the rape, the perpetrator sometimes fires his gun into the woman's vagina.

The purpose is not just to abuse women, but also to destroy the Congolese community, and to traumatize and humiliate people. Armed groups use rape to force civilians to leave mining areas so they can exploit the illicit but lucrative trade in minerals. Specifically, armed groups are profiting from the mineral "coltan" (or tantalum), as well as gold and tin, which each of us rely on daily to power our electronic devises. The DR Congo is rich with mineral deposits, but it's the armed groups, not the Congolese people, who benefit from this wealth.

We all have a responsibility to act, in every way we can.

During my experience working with survivors of sexual violence in eastern Congo as a coordinator for the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation, I lived and breathed the suffering of women. One woman told me that all in the same day she was raped in front of her husband and kids, impregnated, and infected with HIV. How is it possible?

Please click here to read the full post.

Sylvie Maunga Mbanga, a trained lawyer, dedicated her career to working with local Congolese organizations to fight sexual violence against women in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., and continues to be a fierce advocate for women in Congo through the Enough Project's RAISE Hope for Congo. campaign.

Photo: Women gather for a town hall meeting at a camp for displaced people in eastern Congo. (Enough/Sarina Virk)

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

This post co-authored with actress Mariska Hargitay originally appeared on the front page of Huffington Post today.

The epidemic of rape and sexual violence in the Congo takes center stage in an all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, airing on Wednesday night.

Portraying the world's worst violence against women -- taking place half a world away in Central Africa -- in a TV show set in New York City is a challenge. But Law and Order: SVU creator Neal Baer and writer Dawn DeNoon have managed to convey the facts on the ground in Congo through the eyes of a Congolese woman portrayed in the episode.

Eastern Congo is the world's deadliest conflict globally since WWII. Widespread rape is used as a strategy of war and an instrument of communal terror, making this region the world's most dangerous place to be a woman or a girl. Armed groups compete to control lucrative mines and smuggling routes. Rape becomes their principal means of terrorizing local populations into passive compliance, so they can steal the mineral wealth without opposition. These crimes destroy families, decimate communities, and lethally spread HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and massive human suffering is so direct.

The armed groups perpetuating the violence generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year by trading in four main minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten (the "three Ts") and gold. These minerals are essential to our cell phones, laptops and other electronics.

As consumers, we must speak up and demand that the top electronics companies produce conflict-free products. By removing conflict minerals from the equation in Congo, we remove the fuel from the fire. Write to the top electronics companies and tell them you want them to start producing conflict-free phones and laptops.

"Witness" marks the second collaboration between SVU and the Enough Project. Last March the SVU team partnered with Enough to give viewers a deeper understanding of the plight of survivors of the 22-year war in Northern Uganda waged by the Lord's Resistance Army.

As we have seen with other war crimes and crimes against humanity around the globe, change will only come when there is a concerted effort to deal with the problem, and perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.

Gandhi once said, "Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it." Once you finish reading this blog or watching tomorrow's episode, you have an opportunity to be not just readers, not just viewers, but agents of life-saving change. As we celebrate International Women's Month this month -- of all months -- no matter who you are, no matter where you are, your role as a witness who takes action is crucial. Seize the opportunity to take action on behalf of Congo's women and girls. "It is most important that you do it."

To learn more visit www.raisehopeforcongo.org.

Mariska Hargitay is an advocate, actress, and activist who appears in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska is the Founder and President of the Joyful Heart Foundation. www.joyfulheartfoundation.org.

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

Conflict minerals are steadily gaining prominence in the public debate over how to address the conflict in eastern Congo, paving the way for meaningful advocacy directed at the companies that benefit from Congo’s turmoil.

A piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe emphasized the importance of new legislation championed by Washington State Congressman Jim McDermott (D) that addresses the complex path minerals take from mines in eastern Congo all the way to electronics devices. Currently, the minerals pass through so many hands, undocumented, that it is difficult to hold companies responsible for doing business with warlords in eastern Congo – or certify that their electronics products are conflict-free. But the atrocious conditions in the mines and the unspeakable violence against women and girls that the mineral trade is helping to fuel demand accountability.

Armed groups “are simply stealing ore and selling it to the international market,’’ McDermott said, according to the Boston Globe, and “everyone who has a cell phone has a piece of the action.’’ The Conflict Minerals Bill would set up a system to audit the trade in three minerals prevalent in Congo – tin, tantalum, and tungsten – and certify whether they originated in a conflict-free mine or not. U.S. companies would then have to indicate whether their products contain conflict minerals before importing them into the United States.

A representative from Cabot, one of the world’s leading producers of tantalum products, was quoted as saying that a challenge the industry faces is ensuring their supply chain is conflict free without sidelining the legitimate companies dealing in minerals. (Importantly, Cabot doesn’t do business anywhere in the region, according to the article.) Some mining companies are “just trying to make a living like the rest of us,” Cabot’s Andrew O’Donovan said. However, “today there is no system in place to determine the good from the bad,’’ he added.

The link between Congo’s minerals and the conflict in the east also came out clear in the U.S. State Department’s 2009 human rights report on Congo, issued last week:

“In North and South Kivu, the illegal exploitation by some FARDC units, armed groups such as the FDLR, and PARECO of natural resources--including cassiterite (a tin oxide) and columbite-tantalite (or coltan), both of which were used in the global electronics industry---continued to prolong the conflict, facilitate the purchase of small arms to commit abuses, and reduce government revenues needed for increasing security and rebuilding the country. FARDC and FDLR forces in both Kivu provinces forced civilians to work for them or relinquish their mineral production and extorted illegal ‘taxes.’”

Drawing from a number of high-level reports written by U.N. affiliates and NGOs, the State Department expanded upon these details, reiterating some of the recommendations made by the U.N. Group of Experts that would serve to address the abuses. The report also highlighted the U.N. Experts’ finding of "strong indications of high-level protection and in some cases complicity in the illicit gold trade by government officials."

Granted, few people will dig deep into State Department reports to realize how the U.S. government officials are drawing these connections, but it’s important that they are. The combination of growing public awareness, as evidenced through the increasingly frequent articles like the one in the Boston Globe, and government acknowledgement of the problem should send the message to U.S. companies that they would be wise to clean up their mineral supply chains – if not to prevent the exploitation of civilians and the perpetuation of war in Congo, then because a legal gauntlet is likely headed their way.

Photo: Gold in the palm of a miner's hand (Grassroots Reconciliation Group/Sasha Lezhnev)

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

This guest post by Naomi Natale originally appeared on the Genocide Intervention Network blog.

As a 2010 Carl Wilkens Fellow, I am excited for the opportunity to introduce a new project to the anti-genocide community. I am thrilled to announce that on March 14, 2010, the One Million Bones project officially launched in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

One Million Bones is a fundraising art installation designed to recognize the millions of victims who have been killed or displaced by ongoing genocides, creating a visual demand for solutions to this issue. Our mission is to increase global awareness of these atrocities while raising the critical funds needed to protect and aid displaced and vulnerable victims.

The goal of One Million Bones is for one million people to each create one bone to represent one victim of genocide. In the spring of 2013, each bone will be installed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Like a mass grave, the installation will recall the millions of victims of genocide, and demand action from the American people, our policy makers, and the worldwide community to end ongoing atrocities.

To raise funds, One Million Bones requests a sponsorship of $5 for each bone submitted in hopes of generating $5 million. Proceeds will be donated to our beneficiary organizations – Genocide Intervention Network, Enough, and Women for Women International.

To open the project up to a larger audience of people and to raise further funds, the project offers a second way to participate. This option will allow individuals who would like to be a part of the project but who cannot create a bone to make a $15 contribution that will enable a bone to be manufactured and sponsored in their name. These manufactured bones will be constructed of biodegradable materials impregnated with seeds. When the installation is completed, One Million Bones will distribute these bones to be buried with a foreseeable future of growth. That way this project will not end with the installation; rather, it will renew itself the following year. Hopefully, this regeneration will celebrate the end of one or more outbreaks of genocide; if not, it will reinvigorate the movement calling for an end to the atrocities.

The importance of this project within the anti-genocide movement lies in its mission to create a visual movement that is based on civic engagement and participation. One Million Bones offers an open, creative and educational environment in which students can address the issue of genocide. The project also offers an opportunity for individuals to find their voices in this movement, while creating a visual space where that voice will be heard and understood in a tangible way. But the most important component of this project is to use the momentum and participation to change the behavior of the international community regarding genocide.

I am excited for the opportunity to introduce this project to the anti-genocide community and to ask for your support. On behalf of the One Million Bones project, I invite all of you to be a part of it… to find your voice through your actions, your hands, your eyes, and your vision.  For more information please visit our website at www.onemillionbones.org

Photo courtesy of One Million Bones

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Darfur and Southern Sudan Genocide

This week’s all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit once again takes on an issue we at Enough are passionate about: ending the epidemic of violence against women in eastern Congo.

In the second half, the episode “Witness” highlights the searing story of a young Congolese woman who escaped the violence in eastern Congo and now lives in the United States. Although she is many thousands of miles away from her home, a turn of events forces her to confront her own experience with rape in Congo. Her story highlights the fact that the trade in conflict minerals from Congo is helping perpetuate the violence, and as consumers, we bear responsibility for helping to end the sordid trade so that Congo’s people can benefit from their country’s resource wealth.

In the gripping, highly fictionalized style that regular followers of SVU love, scriptwriters (with some input from Enough) incorporated this tragic and underreported theme into a story that will reach hundreds of thousands of viewers in the United States on Wednesday night. Please tune in at 10/9c. After watching this account of the character’s experience, learn about the work being done daily to empower the real women of Congo and reform the conflict minerals trade.

Please help spread the word about Wednesday night’s episode and the resources available that explain the real-life dimension of the tragedy unfolding right now in eastern Congo. On Twitter and Facebook, please post:

Law&Order #SVU this Wed takes on war over conflict minerals in #Congo. Learn about real-life drama: http://bit.ly/9zraNG

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Conflict Minerals Eastern Congo Prevention Protection Sexual Violence Violence Against Women

Today is World Day Against Cyber Censorship. In a world of anonymous commenting, pirated movies, and 4chan, some may ask, what is cyber censorship? It manifests itself in a variety of forms, and this week The New York Times and others highlighted the removal of certain censorships that prohibited technology companies from exporting their products and services to Sudan, Iran, and Cuba.

If you happened to catch the news stories, you would have seen this couched as the "lifting of certain sanctions" against these countries. The removal of such sanctions ostensibly allowed tech companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter to begin offering locally customized versions of their services in these markets.

It would be logical to assume then that a person going online in one of these countries would have previously been unable to access Hotmail or send their latest Tweet off into the cloud. However, this is not actually the case and that should come as no surprise to anyone who recalls the State Department asking Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance last summer during the Iranian election. The nature of the internet is such that if an online product is publicly available on the web, anyone can access it from any location. That is, as long as their government or internet service provider does not censor the content, in the more palpable form of "cyber censorship" that many of us initially conjure up when we hear the term. 

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship, it's important for us to see beyond these more obvious forms of cyber censorship and also examine subtler manifestations that are evidenced in such moves by the U.S. government. By previously barring consumer web companies from customizing their already accessible online products for these regions, the U.S. government was implicitly depriving these citizens of the means of expression that could prove so valuable. While the Obama administration has now realized the national security gains to be had from relaxing certain censorship, we should not forget that this happened only after these tools had been mainstream for years and could have been more effectively used in a variety of conflict zones had they been tailored to the local region when it mattered. 

This reality is only more heartbreaking on the eve of the highly controversial Sudanese election. With less than a month before polling begins, it's unlikely that these platforms and services will be optimized for the small percentage of Sudanese civilians that could actually make use of them. Because of the quiet American cyber-censorship that has existed for years, activists and civil society members in Sudan will not have access to highly developed and optimized tools that could aid their efforts to form an effective democracy. 

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship, let's call for an end to the notion that any government, for any reason, can or should restrict the right of global citizens to communicate and access information. For whatever reason, to whatever end, access to communication tools are a fundamental human right. 

Technorati Tags: Advocacy United Nations Technology Censorship Online Social Media