5 Stories You Might Have Missed This Week
A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...
New Evidence Confirms Mass Graves in South Kordofan
Evidence of mass graves and systematic mass killing of civilians in South Kordofan, Sudan has been mounting. The latest report by Satellite Sentinel Project released today confirms with visual evidence and new eyewitness reports the collection and burial of human remains in and around Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan. The report presents evidence of two additional mass graves in the area—bringing the total number of alleged mass graves to eight thus far ...
Cover Up: New Evidence of Three Mass Graves in South Kordofan
Dovetailing with the recent U.N. report calling for investigations into human rights violations in Sudan, the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, released a report today that identified three new alleged mass grave sites in and around Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan, where heavy fighting has taken place since June ...
Southern Kordofan Bishop Briefs Journalists at U.N.
As the Sudanese government continues to systematically target and attack civilians in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan’s South Kordofan region, the retired Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail who serves as the Anglican bishop of Kadugli, has become a voice of urgency for the region and its people. On Friday, a day after testifying before an emergency U.S. Congressional hearing, Bishop Andudu gave a press conference at the U.N., organized by Avaaz, Human Rights Watch, and Sudan Now ...
The Congo Connection between Slavery and Conflict Minerals
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by a history of widespread violence, often fueled by a deadly scramble for the state’s natural resources. In eastern Congo today, the mines have become a source of not only conflict minerals, but also a source of human slavery. Last week Free the Slaves, a partner organization of Enough, released The Congo Report: Slavery in Conflict Minerals, which documents slavery in and around Congo’s mines. Research teams from Free the Slaves and two local Congolese groups conducted surveys and community consultations in the Kivu Provinces of eastern Congo to determine the ...
Women Press for More Prominent Role in New South Sudan
Less than two months away from South Sudan’s independence, women in the soon-to-be state have united together to ensure their rights and gendered concerns are incorporated into the new constitution. Over the weekend the South Sudan Women’s Coalition—made up of a number of women’s professional and civil society groups—held a two-day workshop in Juba to discuss the draft transitional constitution and the constitutional review process ...
Congo’s Murhabazi Namegabe Awarded Children’s Rights Prize
Children around the world recently had the opportunity to vote for their favorite child hero for 2011. After a “Global Vote” of 3.2 million children, Murhabazi Namegabe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was announced as the winner of the 2011 World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child “for his dangerous struggle to free children forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves.” He will be presented with the award today in Sweden ...
Civil Society Groups Back Mixed Court in Congo
Impunity has plagued the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades, particularly in the east. Citizens and government officials have recently taken action to address the lack of justice for human rights violations committed in the Congo since 1990, including specific abuses described in the 2010 U.N. Mapping Report. Representatives of Congolese civil society organizations from all 10 provinces and Kinshasa, international civil society organizations, government officials, and diplomats, hosted by Human Rights Watch and the Congolese Coalition for Transitional Justice, met in Goma earlier this month to discuss the creation of a mixed court system ...
‘Breaking the Silence’ about LRA Violence: Invisible Children’s 25 Campaign
Silence may not seem to be the most effective way to spread the word about violence waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army, but Invisible Children is banking on the idea that if nearly 30,000 vocal young activists keep quiet for 25 hours, their point will come across loud and clear ...
Upsurge in LRA Attacks against Civilians in Congo
Although northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo is no stranger to violence, a recent spike in civilian attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, has raised international concern ...
