RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT: THE CASE OF SUDAN
September 29, 2006
Poster | Program (including bios) | Press Release
In 2005 , the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on the Responsibility to Protect, uniformly asserting that the international community has a responsibility to act when governments fail to protect their most vulnerable population. However, large scale humanitarian crises and genocides continue and worsen around the world.
In 2006, the Center organized a conference to assess how the adoption of the Responsibility to Protect is being implemented. No case is better to discuss than the ongoing crisis in Sudan. With the mandate of the African Union peacekeeping force coming to an end in Darfur, the Sudanese government rejecting a new UN Peacekeeping force for the area and the implementation of several peace agreements in the region hanging in the balance, conference attendees examined what the Responsibility to Protect really means. Among the issues discussed were the conceptual framework of the Responsibility to Protect, the complexities surrounding the Darfur conflict as well as the challenges to meaningfully implement the Responsibility to Protect. In this context, panelists will also discuss prospects for a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Sudan and the need to expand the peacekeeping mandate in the region to fulfill the Responsibility to Protect. Please find the full itinerary listed below.
Full Itinerary:
9:30am - 9:45am Welcome/Introduction
- Dean Claudio Grossman, American University Washington College of Law
- Hadar Harris, WCL Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
9:45am - 10:30am Overall Context of the Situation in Sudan
- Ted Dagne, Africa Specialist, Congressional Research Service
- Sarah Margon, Policy Advisor for Humanitarian Response at Oxfam America
10:30am - 10:45am Phone Update from Darfur
- Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Founder and Chairperson, Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO)
10:45am - 11:00am Coffee Break
11:00am - 11:45am Conceptual Framework: The Responsibility to Protect
- Lee Feinstein, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and International Law, Council on Foreign Relations
- Ken Hurwitz, Senior Associate, International Justice Program, Human Rights First
11:45am - 12:00pm Lunch Buffet Pick Up
12:00pm - 1:30pm Lunchtime Panel: Critiques of the Responsibility to Protect
- Nicole Deller, Program Advisor, World Federalist Movement
- Tod Lindberg, Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
- Ken Hurwitz, Senior Associate, International Justice Program, Human Rights First
- Lee Feinstein, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and International Law, Council on Foreign Relations
1:30pm - 3:00pm How to Protect: Observers/Peacekeepers/Mandates
- Ariela Blatter, Director of Crisis Prevention and Intervention, Amnesty International USA
- Roberta Cohen, Co-Director, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Brookings Institute
- Abderrahim Sabir, Former UN Human Rights Monitor, Darfur, Sudan
3:00pm - 3:15pm Coffee Break
3:15pm - 4:30pm Peace Prospects and Comprehensive Solutions
- Colin Thomas Jensen, Advocacy and Research Officer for Africa, International Crisis Group
- Mark Hanis, Executive Director, Genocide Intervention Network
Background Information
The current conflict in Darfur started in February 2003 when two groups of rebels mounted a rebellion against the Sudanese government. In response, the government supplied militias called the Janjaweed with weapons, uniforms and air support to fight against the uprising. This fight, however, has been turned against the civilian population of the region and has led to a campaign of violence where villages have been torched to the ground, people have been forced out of their homes, many have been murdered and more have been raped. More than half of the villages in Darfur have been completely destroyed. Over 400,000 people have died as a result of the violence and more than two million people have been driven from their homes. The United States has declared the situation to be genocide. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, there is a legal imperative to act to prevent further bloodshed.