Zurich-based financial giant, Credit Suisse, has just agreed to pay $536M to settle a suit brought against it by the U.S. government for violations of U.S. financial sanctions, with the bank having made $1.6 billion in illegal transactions to sanctioned countries including Sudan. The prosecution of cases such as this are an essential component in […]
Recurring themes
December 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I am currently immersing myself in the spectacularly useful (albeit 2217 pages long) compilation of the Travaux Preparatoires to the Genocide Convention, that the research endeavors of Hirad Abtahi and Philippa Webb have gifted the world. There are several gems in among it, and it is particularly interesting to see how close we got to […]
ICC looks at Kenya: Backgrounder on how we got here
November 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Last week the ICC Prosecutor applied to open an investigation into the post-election violence in Kenya. The three judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber will decide whether or not to allow him to begin investigating, but as the ICC is a court of last resort, I thought it would be useful give a brief summary of […]
Katanga/Ngudjolo trial begins
November 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment
With all the pre-trial questions about whether the ICC had the jurisdiction over Katanga now cleared up, the trial of DRC warlords, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, has begun in The Hague this week. You can watch it through the court’s webstream. At yesterday’s opening, both Katanga and Ngudjolo plead not guilty to seven […]
Who, exactly, represented Darfuris in Doha?
November 23, 2009 by Leave a Comment
According to news reports, “around 170 civil groups from Darfur” were engaged in consultations in Doha last week. Having heard no real “buzz” about the first-ever, long-overdue, inclusion of Darfuri civil society in peace negotiations I was curious about who these 170 groups actually were. I remember the hype and excitement in the build up […]
The hand behind camp closure proposals – a desire for legitimacy
November 12, 2009 by 2 Comments
Today the Sudan Tribune reported that in a radio interview, Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Hasabu Abdel-Rahman, said Khartoum plans to close the IDP camps in Darfur by early 2010. I have some perspective on this from recent interviews in Sudan. In short, no one will be surprised to hear my overwhelming perception is that the […]
Finally some mainstream media coverage of impact of expulsions on women
November 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Following the release of the Panel of Experts report last week that talked about this, we finally have a journalist with a major media organization writing on the impact of the expulsions on vital services for rape survivors. Better late than never. Thanks to Andrew Heavens at Reuters. Keep it up! Next step is for […]
Panel of Experts: SGBV is “rampant” in Darfur
November 9, 2009 by 9 Comments
In what is surely the least surprising news of the month, the Sudanese government has rejected the Report of the UN Panel of Experts, released late last week. To my shame I am only reading it now. Not all the way through it yet, I stopped my reading to blog on the section I’ve just […]
#AskUS: Responding to activists or managing them?
November 9, 2009 by 2 Comments
There is much hype among advocates about the meeting that Save Darfur’s Jerry Fowler and STAND’s Layla Amjadi are scheduled to have with Gen. Scott Gration and Samantha Power – a meeting that will be webstreamed in real time this coming Tuesday Nov. 10. STAND is giving advocates the opportunity to vote for what questions […]
We don’t know what is on the list of benchmarks, but we can tell what is not
It has been several weeks since U.S. activists made a concerted effort to get the collapse of SGBV services in Darfur onto the radar of Secretary Clinton, General Gration and Ambassador Rice. Letters were sent, meetings were held, follow-up was provided. I wouldn’t have expected anything to actually shift on the ground within this timeframe, […]