CRISIS IN SUDAN: THE INTERVENTION IMPERATIVE
Friday, September 24, 2004
Poster | Program (including bios) | Press Release
On September 24, 2004, the Center hosted a day-long conference to spotlight and discuss the issues involved in the current Crisis in Sudan. Panel discussions included reports from experts and officials recently returned from Darfur and refugee camps in neighboring Chad, a discussion of the legal and moral imperatives for intervention, and an analysis of US policy in the region with key diplomats, policy makers and activists. Please find the full itinerary listed below.
Full Itinerary:
.9:00am – 9:15am Welcome and Opening Remarks
• Dean Claudio Grossman, Washington College of Law
• Hadar Harris, Executive Director
WCL Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
9:15am – 10:30am Recent Reports from Sudan (Overview and Context)
• Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International
• Stefanie Frease, Coalition for International Justice
• Jerry Fowler, Director, Committee on Conscience, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
10:30am – 10:45am Break
10:45am – 12:30pm Legal and Moral Imperatives for Intervention
• Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Embassy of Sudan
• Dean Claudio Grossman, Washington College of Law
• Gayle E. Smith, Center for American Progress
12:30pm – 1:15pm Lunch 
1:15pm – 2:45pm United States Policy and Intervention in Sudan
• Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
• John Prendergast, International Crisis Group
• William J. Garvelink, Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID
• Holly Burkhalter, Physicians for Human Rights
2:45pm – 3:00pm Wrap Up and Conclusion
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.
