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Many human rights champions around the world have responded with anger at the news that China will be receiving Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir this week. The argument is that by hosting Bashir, a figure indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, China only reinforces Bashir’s sense that there are no consequences for his brutal actions against his own people. President Hu Jintao and other top government officials will personally meet with Bashir during his visit ...

Representatives from government, industry, and civil society gathered at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars last week to participate in an Enough Project-hosted panel on the issue of conflict mineral certification in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Following the historic referendum in Southern Sudan, Google, The World Bank, UNOSAT, RCMRD and Satellite Sentinel are co-hosting an event in Nairobi, Kenya on June 30, 2011 to demonstrate the power of mapping and support the building of the world’s soon-to-be-newest independent nation on July 9, 2011. Without basic geospatial information, it is difficult for the government, civil society, development partners, and all stakeholders to evaluate the current needs, target their planning efforts, and mobilize proper resources. At times like these, it is critical to have good maps of roads, settlements, buildings and other services, with both local and official ...

The conflict in eastern Congo may not seem obvious fodder for a cartoonist, but in his graphic novel Roza or the Courage to Choose Life Congolese artist Seraphin Kajibwami from Bukavu does a masterful job telling a powerful and uplifting story aimed at educating and inspiring youth about the many challenges that civilians – particularly women and girls such as Roza – face in eastern Congo ...

In his latest dispatch from the field, the Enough Project’s Goma-based field researcher Fidel Bafilemba reports on a coalition of prominent Congolese civil society organizations working to address the linkage between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses in the region. Their partnership is known as the Support Platform for Traceability, and Transparency in the Management of Natural Resources, or GATT-RN ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

In the wake of impotent response from U.N. peacekeepers to the Sudan Armed Forces bombing and storming of Abyei last month, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing, optimism in reaction to the latest Abyei agreement was measured. While international leaders and diplomats tried to sound upbeat, congratulating the northern and southern governments for “taking this step toward peace,” people from the displaced communities voiced heavy skepticism about this new paper agreement ...

Nearly three weeks into intense fighting in the Sudanese border state of South Kordofan the Sudanese government appears intent, in the face of international condemnation, to add to the already long list of serious international law violations that reports say its forces are committing on the ground ...

Establishing a country requires more than just drawing lines on a map (obviously). As the international community prepares to welcome what will be the newest nation in the world, the citizens of South Sudan are formalizing their own distinct national identity, built upon a pride rooted in the long journey to independence. The soon-to-be Republic of South Sudan has released its national anthem - fittingly written by young people, who will be so critical to the country’s future ...

Born out of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Congo, a group of prominent civil society organizations recently formed a coalition to address the linkage between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses in the region ...