In the Blogs

It's easy to forget how the products we use are tied to stories of the hands that made them.

The buttons on our jackets, sewn on by a teenage girl from China’s Sichuan Province who works 16 hours a day to pay for her younger brother's school fees.

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 When Kat Kramer announced the launch of her "Films That Changed the World" series, she got a mostly enthusiastic response, but there were a few naysayers.

"You've got to be kidding me!" some said to Ms. Kramer, "Films don't change the world!"

As Kramer shared this story at the premiere luncheon for her series, groans of disagreement from approximately 100 women (and a handful of men) in the entertainment industry echoed throughout a "writer's garden" area on the Sunset-Gower Studios lot in Hollywood. 

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The Congressional Black Caucus welcomed actress and activist Mia Farrow Tuesday for the launch of the Darfur Fast for Life Campaign. According to a press release form Congressman Donald Payne’s office, the campaign calls on the CBC and others “to fast in solidarity with the Darfuri people who are suffering at the hands of the Omar al-Bashir regime in Sudan.”

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The underlying issue of gender inequality that leads to violence against women in civil conflicts is a problem in many parts of the world, but there is a difference in "scope and intensity" of the violence in some African nations, a State Department official told Congress May 13.

Gender-based violence "as a tool of war is in no way limited to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan, or in Africa," Ambassador Melanne Verveer told a joint hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues and the Subcommittee on African Affairs. 

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At 2 p.m. today, the Senate foreign relations committee holds a hearing called “Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California and Sen. Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin will preside over the hearing, which will include testimony from 2 panels of experts, including John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project; and Eve Ensler, founder of the women’s rights group V-Day who’s best known for writing and starring in The Vagina Monologues.

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Washington, DC — Five members of the United States Congress were among a group of people arrested Monday in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC during a protest against the violence in Darfur.

The representatives – Donna Edwards (Democrat-Maryland), Keith Ellison (Democrat-Minnesota), John Lewis (Democrat-Georgia), Jim McGovern (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Lynn Woolsey (Democrat-California) – were arrested for crossing a police line, a misdemeanor. They were processed at a Washington, DC police station and released Monday afternoon. 

Five House Democrats, including civil rights pioneer John Lewis of Georgia, were among the eight people arrested during a demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy Monday morning.

The representatives were protesting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s expulsion last month of 16 aid groups from war-ravaged Darfur. 

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 Huffington Post relays video of a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. which resulted in the arrest of five members of congress, including civil rights legend John Lewis. 

Watch the video here.

During Sunday’s Honor the Past - Act Now for Darfur Genocide Prevention Month event leading advocates for Sudan spoke about the power of activism, and what needs to be done now for Darfur.

Click here to watch a video of John Prendergast speaking at the rally in front of the White House on April 19, 2009. 

Yesterday, hundreds gathered in front of the White House to 'Honor the Past' and to 'Act NOW for Darfur.' Survivors from past and current genocides and mass atrocities, including Darfur, South Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, the Holocaust, and Armenia, joined together with faith leaders, leading anti-genocide advocates, and local activists; united. And as we stood there among those whose very lives speak to the world's failure to uphold its sacred promise of never again, we couldn't help but wonder how many more years we will have to gather to remind ourselves and others to 'Act NOW for Darfur?'

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