by Don Cheadle
- If there is a Darfur-related event outside your area, encourage your religious organisation or other group to sponsor your travel expenses.
3. Write a letter.
There are many different ways to write to elected officials and urge them to take action to stop atrocities in Darfur. Personal letters stand the best chance of being noticed, and we gave you an example of what a letter could look like in Chapter 8.
The GI-Net website also has a great tool for quickly generating good, effective letters. http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ginetwork/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4591.
4. Call for divestment.
The website of the Sudan Divestment Task Force (www.sudandivestment.org) has a wealth of information about the status of ongoing divestment campaigns, and everything you need to know to start a new campaign if none exists where you live.
You can learn the basics of targeted divestment at http://www.sudandivestment.org/divestment.asp.
After you learn the basics, contact the Task Force at [email protected]. A Task Force/STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) representative will work with you to create a customised plan of action for your institution. You will be able to ...
- Research your institution to find how it may be invested in Sudan
- Submit a targeted divestment proposal to your institution’s investment manager (e.g., treasurer, board of trustees, controller/comptroller, president, state legislator).
- Mobilise a grassroots coalition to support your proposal.
5. Join an organisation.
Joining an existing organisation is the best way to stay up to speed on news, events, and opportunities to get involved in stopping genocide.
a. Students
Students should visit the STAND website to find out how they can get involved. http://www.standnow.org/
b. Congregations
Congregations can learn more by joining the Save Darfur Congregational Network and taking advantage of their Faith Action Packs, with specific resources to help Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities mobilise to help the people of Darfur. http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/organize_your_congregation.
For instance, here are samples of scripture, texts, and traditions that they suggest:
PROVERBS 3:27
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
ADAPTED FROM AL-QUR’AN, SURAH 5:32
He who has killed an innocent soul, it is as if he had killed all humanity. And he who has saved an innocent soul, it is as if he has saved all humanity.
JAMES 3:17–18
Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
c. Communities
Community organisations have played a critical role in pushing for action on Darfur. At the Save Darfur website, you can search for groups in your area, or learn how to organise your own group. http://www.savedarfur.org/page/group.
6. Lobby the government.
a. Find out your representative’s record on Darfur.
The first step to lobbying officials is to find out what they have or haven’t done to make a difference on Darfur. Visit www.darfurscores.org and look at a US representative’s record on Darfur and use that as a basis for checking the record of your own representative. Find out if there is a similar record for your own parliament.
b. Ask focused questions.
Attend public events featuring members of congress and ask them about their position on Darfur. Here are some tips from GI-Net:
- Investigate local media, blogs, and word of mouth to find out when a political event involving members of parliament or challengers will be held. If it is an invitation-only function, inquire about how to get invited. Usually organisers will be happy to invite people who sound co-operative and reasonable.
- Use the Darfur scorecard (www.darfurscores.org) to see where a member of Parliament stands on Darfur-related activities. With this knowledge, you will ask a more pointed and effective question.
- Your question should be short and pointed. If you think you might get flustered, write the question down on a note card ahead of time.
- Look for other chances to get your point across if you can’t ask a question directly. If you were not called on or there was no question-and-answer session, you still have options. If there is a handshake line, join it and ask an abbreviated question while getting your ten seconds with the candidate. Try to approach campaign staff after the speech and ask if you could meet with them about their candidate’s Darfur agenda. Ask local media representatives if they would be interested in writing a story mentioning the candidate’s Darfur policy.
- Be sure to follow up with the campaign, either by e-mail or phone, after the event. This will remind the candidate that yours is an important issue on which he or she needs to take a position.
c. Meet with elected officials.
Making an appointment to meet with a member of Parliament isn’t as tough as it sounds. You voted for them, and you have a right to tell them exactly how you feel about the issues that matter to you.
Five Helpful Hints for Advocacy Initiatives
There are five elements we would recommend that you keep in mind when you are talking with elected officials or making presentations to interested citizens. For this purpose, we propose the ‘KIS’ organising framework:
1. Keep It Simple: Focus on the basics of your message. Try your best to limit your pitch to three points. If you count more than three, you are officially out of control.
2. Keep It Short: Policy makers and most of the public hate history lessons. They will stop listening and start daydreaming. Maintain your focus and keep it concise.
3. Keep It Sound: Give a short overview and a clear list of what your audience or interlocutor can do.
4. Keep It Smart: Keep the focus on what your country can do. Don’t talk about oranges to the director of apples. Know your audience.
5. Keep It Special: Tell an amazing and/or personal short story that everyone will remember to illustrate your point.
Seven Deadly Sins of Human Rights Advocates
Beware of the Seven Deadly Sins of would-be human rights advocates like us. We can get pretty sanctimonious, long-winded, and overzealous. So here are some things to avoid when you are trying to make your case, whether to a politician or to a group of people you are trying to educate.
1. Don’t be too boring! Advocacy is not like an academic conference. We need to think through how to make our presentations stand out. Tell a story, tell a joke, make what you have to say interesting. Don’t paint in black-and-white; paint in colour!
2. Don’t be too long-winded! Most of us who get involved in advocacy could hardly be accused of being shy. We often tend to drone on just a little too long about the issues that fire us up. Zero in on the main points and be concise!
3. Don’t be too unilateral! We often just make long presentations or speeches at our meetings and events. We need to focus on interaction with our interlocutors or audiences. After initial presentations, engage people by asking questions. Be interactive!
4. Don’t be too complex! We often overload our message by telling everything about our subject of interest in all its glorious complexity. Pick the highlights. Make a few simple points!
5. Don’t be too unstructured! There’s often so much to be said about our topics that we have the temptation to just blurt it all out in a stream of consciousness, sort of like hurling mud (or any other similar substance) against a wall and hoping it sticks. Instead, it is important to make a tight situation report and then present a focused set of recommendations. Make it flow!
6. Don’t be too random! To a government policy maker or any audience, we need to remain focused somewhat on what the government of our country can do. So
make sure you focus your audience or interlocutor on the two or three most important things the government in your country can do, and how that person or group can help make it happen. Be focused!
7. Don’t be too touchy-feely! We have to match our advocacy agenda to the big picture. We can’t just rely on the ‘because it’s the right thing to do’ argument, or simply hope that for humanitarian reasons people will respond. We also have to connect our issues to larger national interests and what politicians and citizens care about. For example, if our longer-term counterterrorism agenda is being undermined by the way in which our own country pursues this agenda in the short term, we need to shout that from the rooftops. If our promotion of freedom is going to be a central objective, then we need to demonstrate how these freedoms are being undermined and not promoted by our counterterrorism policies. Be relevant!
International Organisations
EUROPE
Crisis Action
http://www.crisisaction.org/
This is an international, non-profit organisation, which aims to help avert conflicts, prevent human rights abuses and ensure governments fulfil their obligations to protect civilians.
Collectif Urgence Darfour
http://www.urgencedarfour.info/
A coalition supported by over 100 organisations based in Paris.
The Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC):
http://www.darfurcentre.ch/
An independent, apolitical and non-governmental organisation based in Geneva.
Italian Blogs For Darfur (IB4D)
http://www.savetherabbit.net/darfur/
An Italian movement that attempts to mobilise public opinion in favour of Darfur.
Aegis Trust (Holocaust Centre, UK)
http://www.aegistrust.org/
AUSTRALIA
Darfur Australia Network
http://myspace.com/darfurAustralianetwork
ASIA
Olympic Dream for Darfur
http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/
A global advocacy campaign established in May 2007 to reach out to the Government of China to urge its leaders – as the host of the 2008 Summer Olympics – to persuade the government of Sudan to consent immediately to true UN participation in a large peace support and civilian protection operation in Darfur.
CANADA
Save Darfur Canada / Sauvons le Darfour Canada
http://www.savedarfurcanada.org/
Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND)
http://www.standcanada.org/index.php/about_stand
A national student organisation dedicated to inspiring student activism and advocacy addressing the crisis in Darfur.
INTERNATIONAL
Globe for Darfur
http://www.globefordarfur.org/about_us.html
A network of international organisations working together to protect the people of Darfur and end the crisis.
World Evangelical Alliance
http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.com/
Above: When Don and John travelled to eastern Chad in 2004 to film an episode of ABC’s Nightline, they met the victims of the conflict. Most of the refugees in the camps are women and children. (© Rick Wilkenson)
Above: This girl lives with other displaced people in Riyad Camp, West Darfur. Amidst all the violence and suffering, she remains hopeful that someday she and her family will return home. (© Doug Mercado)
Above: In the middle of the night, the government of Sudan bulldozed a camp for displaced people to send a message to the residents. The message: non-Arabs are not welcome here. (© Brian Steidle)
Above: Nijah Ahmed, only four, is carrying her little brother, Nibraz, who is 13 months old and malnourished. They fled from Darfur after their parents, uncle and older brother were either killed or went missing when the Janjaweed attacked their village. (© Nick Kristof)
Above: At a World Food Programme warehouse in West Darfur, workers carry bags of donated food, but humanitarian band-aids are inadequate to address the gaping human rights wounds in Darfur. (© Doug Mercado)
Above: Most of the displaced people in Sisi Camp, West Darfur, were farmers or herders before the Janjaweed and Sudanese government forces drove them off their land. (© Doug Mercado)
Above: This Janjaweed militiaman was attacked and tied up by the people of the village he had raided in March 2006. He later told the New York Times that he had been paid to participate in the attack. (© Nick Kristof)
Above: Helicopter gun ships and Janjaweed militia fighters attacked Mihad Hamid’s village, Allieta, in October 2004. Mihad’s mother picked her up and fled, but a bullet hit Mihad and punctured her lungs. Mihad’s story is not uncommon. (© Brian Steidle)
Above: A Sudanese army helicopter looms over a village during an attack. (© Brian Steidle)
Above: Someone stole 15 animals from a group of Janjaweed, and they burned 15 non-Arab villages in retaliation. This is one of those villages. (© Brian Steidle)
Above: John speaks at a rally to support stronger action to resolve the crisis in Northern Uganda. (© Keri Shay)
Above: Don and John speaking about the Darfur genocide at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). (© Bridget Smith)
Above: People walk for hours through the desert to take water from this well in North Darfur, which has not yet been poisoned or destroyed by the government or the Janjaweed. (© Mark Brecke)
Above: Activists in Washington, DC, make a banner on 9 September 2006, the Global Day for Darfur. (© Lindsay Joiner)
Above: An exhausted Sudanese mother and her seven children arrive at a refugee camp in eastern Chad. (© Mark Brecke)
Above: The kids in the refugee camps are being scarred by violence, hate, and genocide. (© Sally Chin)
Above: At a refugee camp in eastern Chad a child’s finger dipped in ink verifies the receipt of a family’s food ration, limited to one per day. (© Mark Brecke)
Above: Don and Paul Rusesabagina met with diplomats in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, before visiting Darfur refugee camps in eastern Chad. The making of the film Hotel Rwanda, based on Paul’s heroic true story, was the beginning of Don’s journey out of apathy. (© Rick Wilkinson)
Above: Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney, flanked by Senator Barack Obama, right, and Senator Sam Brownback, takes part in a news conference in Washington on 27 April 2006, to raise awareness for Darfur. (© AP Photo/Mannie Garcia)
Above: A tense SLA rebel stands guard following a Sudanese army ambush. (© Mark Brecke)
Above: This is a genocide victim outside a village called Adwa. Near the body, African Union military observers found a field 50 yards by 50 yards filled with human bones. Many of the mass graves in Darfur may never be found. (© Brian Steidle)
Above: A government soldier burns the food surplus in a village called Marla. The residents had fled, and burning the food ensures they won’t come back. All across Darfur, government troops and Janjaweed destroyed food supplies and poisoned wells. (© Brian Steidle)
Glossary of Abbreviations
ACOA: American Committee on Africa
AFL-CIO: American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations
AIC: American Islamic Congress
AJWS: American Jewish World Service
ARV: Antiretroviral
ASAP: Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project
AU: African Union
CalPERS: California Public Employees Retirement System
CODEL: Congressional Delegation
DAC: Darfur Action Committee
DATA: Debt AIDS Trade Africa
ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States
EU: European Union
FDA: Food and Drug Administration
FOTC: Friends of the Congo
G-8: Group of Eight
GIF: Genocide Intervention Fund
GI-Net: Genocide Intervention Network