Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
Foreign Policy’s Turtle Bay blogger Colum Lynch covers the election of the United States to the U.N. Human Rights Council, asking, “Does the U.S. deserve its new seat?” and quoting several human rights defenders who were relieved by the selection.
The South Africa-based research group Institute for Security Studies analyzes the unnerving rhetoric by the Ugandan government regarding its threats to pull troops out of the African Union mission in Somalia in reaction to allegations that Kampala is backing the M23 rebels in Congo. In short, ISS reasons it’s “a political strategy to highlight the contributions Uganda is making to international peace and security without the country actually intending to pull out.”
Writing on Huffington Post, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) offers a defense of U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, who has come under fire from several Republican leaders for her handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Boxer commends Rice for a number of tough positions she has staked out, calling her “a remarkable public servant who has served our country for 20 years with grace and strength.”
The newly created Sudd Institute in Juba published its first Weekly Digest, in which scholar Jok Madut Jok provides a commentary on the slated visit of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to Juba, in light of the hopes of some that South Sudan would respect the spirit of Rome Statute of the ICC.
In a detailed new report published by the U.S. Institute of Peace, Jérôme Tubiana, Victor Tanner, and Musa Adam Abdul-Jalil examine and explain the role of traditional community leaders in conflict resolution and peace building in Darfur. They remark, and then seek to edify:
[F]oreign actors tend to misconstrue the nature of what was known as the Native Administration (idara ahliya) system. They imagine hierarchies frozen in time that apply Darfur-wide and neglect the complex