Day for Darfur - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Day for Darfur is an international advocacy campaign that works to bring together activists in cities across the globe in calling for action on the crisis

Darfur conflict

The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...

in Darfur

Darfur

Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...

, western Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

.

The Day for Darfur was originally conceived by a group of NGOs working on Darfur concerned about the slow response of the international community to the crisis. Key participating organisations include Aegis Trust

Aegis Trust

Aegis Trust, founded in 2000, is the leading British NGO which campaigns to prevent genocide worldwide. Based at the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Centre, which opened in 1995, the Aegis Trust coordinates the UK Genocide Prevention All-Party Parliamentary Group , funds the Genocide Prevention Group ...

, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

, International Crisis Group

International Crisis Group

The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world through field-based analyses and high-level advocacy.-History:...

, and Save Darfur Coalition

Save Darfur Coalition

The Save Darfur Coalition is an advocacy group calling for international intervention in the Darfur genocide in the Eastern African state of Sudan...

. There have been four Days for Darfur called since the first took place on September 17, 2006, each focusing on a call to governments and international bodies.

First Day for Darfur

On September 17, 2006 the Globe for Darfur coalition marked the first anniversary of the signing of the 2005 UN World Summit

2005 World Summit

The 2005 World Summit, 14–16 September 2005, was a follow-up summit meeting to the United Nations' 2000 Millennium Summit, which led to the Millennium Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals...

Outcome Document by holding the first Global Day for Darfur. More than 60 events in 42 cities were held, calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to the Darfur

Darfur

region of Sudan to support the chronically understaffed AMIS

African Union Mission in Sudan

The African Union Mission in Sudan was an African Union peacekeeping force operating primarily in the country's western region of Darfur with the aim of performing peacekeeping operations related to the Darfur conflict. Originally founded in 2004, with a force of 150 troops, by mid-2005, its...

force.

Second Day for Darfur

December 10, 2006 raised the issue of rape and sexual violence in Darfur and called on world leaders to work with the African Union

African Union

The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

and its member states to make protecting women from rape a priority for AMIS, including an increase in the number of female AMIS police officers and translators in Darfur and extension of firewood patrols around all IDP

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...

camps. Further calls were made towards the Government of Sudan, to allow humanitarian organisations to have free and unfettered access to help victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence

Sexual violence

Sexual violence occurs throughout the world, although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem. Due to the private nature of sexual violence, estimating the extent of the problem is difficult...

and to hold perpetrators of rape and sexual assault accountable for their crimes.
A number of leading stateswomen released an open letter on the day, calling for the immediate deployment of a robust international peacekeeping force to protect Darfuri women and children. Signatories included: Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...

, Graca Machel

Graça Machel

Graça Machel, DBE is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the third wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel...

, Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...

, Carol Bellamy

Carol Bellamy

Carol Bellamy has been Director of the Peace Corps, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund , and President and CEO of World Learning. In April, 2009, Bellamy was appointed as Chair of the International Baccalaureate Board of Governors...

, Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégé and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East...

, Glenys Kinnock

Glenys Kinnock

Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock and Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead is a British politician....

, Edith Cresson

Édith Cresson

Édith Cresson is a French politician. She was the first and so far only woman to have held the office of Prime Minister of France.- French Prime Minister :Cresson was appointed to the prime ministerial post by President François Mitterrand on 15 May 1991...

, Sigrid Rausing

Sigrid Rausing

Sigrid Rausing is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of Granta magazine and its publishing arm, Granta Books.Rausing grew up in Lund, Sweden, and studied...

, Professor Fatima Babiker Mahmoud, Wendy Ruth Sherman, Professor Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin

Herta Däubler-Gmelin

Herta Däubler-Gmelin is a former German Minister of Justice. Amid controversy, she resigned in 2002 after a remark about George W. Bush.-History:...

, Nicole Fontaine

Nicole Fontaine

Nicole Fontaine is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Île-de-France. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party...

, Agnes Nyoka Peter, Yakin Erturk, Emma Bonino

Emma Bonino

Emma Bonino is an Italian politician, former Member of the European Parliament and current Member of the Italian Senate. She is a leading member of the Italian Radicals, a political party that supports economic and social libertarianism, and human rights...

, and Hina Jilani

Hina Jilani

Hina Jilani is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a human-rights activist from Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan.-Work:Jilani is internationally recognized for her expertise in critical human rights investigations. She started practising law in 1979, when Pakistan was under martial law...

Third Day for Darfur

On April 29, 2007 the Globe for Darfur coalition marked the fourth anniversary of the Darfur crisis with events taking place in more than 200 cities calling on the UN Secretary-General to demand that governments pressure all sides to stop the violence, respect the ceasefire and end opposition to the hybrid force. Activists were joined by a number of high profile figures who called on the international community to protect the civilians of Darfur, including: George Clooney

George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...

, Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

, Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof

Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...

, Don Cheadle

Don Cheadle

Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...

, Sir Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

, David Furnish

David Furnish

David James Furnish is a Canadian/British filmmaker, former advertising executive, and now a film director and producer most known for his documentary Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras...

, Sir Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....

, Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

, Thandie Newton

Thandie Newton

Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W....

, Emmanuel Jal

Emmanuel Jal

Emmanuel Jal is a South Sudanese musician and former child soldier.-Childhood:Born in the village of Tonj in Southern Sudan, Jal was a young child when the Second Sudanese Civil War broke out. His father joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army and when he was about seven years old his mother...

, Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...

, Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup is a Norwegian-born journalist and television presenter, well known on British TV and radio, mainly for arts programmes. Her 'gravelly' voice was once voted the sexiest female voice on TV, and research to find 'the perfect voice' has indicated that Frostrup's voice is one of the...

, and Alex James

Alex James (musician)

Professionally known as Alex James is an English musician, songwriter, journalist and cheesemaker. He is best known as the bass player and occasional vocalist of band Blur...

Fourth Day for Darfur

September 16, 2007 was held in anticipation of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly

For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

in New York, calling on the UN General Assembly to keep the Darfur crisis in the spotlight and ensure the full and expeditious deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping force. Prior to the Day for Darfur events, a group of high profile women visited Darfuri IDPs in camps across the border in Chad and a number of women called on world leaders to step up pressure on all parties in the conflict to agree to an immediate ceasefire. This group included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer.Her family is of Igbo descent. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life and education:...

, Hon. Asha Hagi Elmi Amin, Maria Barroso

Maria Barroso

Maria de Jesus Simões Barroso Soares, GCL is a Portuguese actress, daughter of Alfredo José Barroso and wife Maria da Encarnação Simões.É prima do pai do Dr...

, Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett

Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...

, Herta Däubler-Gmelin

Herta Däubler-Gmelin

Herta Däubler-Gmelin is a former German Minister of Justice. Amid controversy, she resigned in 2002 after a remark about George W. Bush.-History:...

, Bineta Diop, Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow

, Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup

, Ana Gomes, Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

, Isabel Jonet, Musimbi Kanyoro

Musimbi Kanyoro

Well known for her leadership in international non-government organizations , Musimbi Kanyoro is passionate advocate and popular speaker for the promotion of health, sustainable development and human rights, with a special focus on women, children and minority groups...

, Angelique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...

, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend , is an American attorney who was the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. In 2010 she became the chair of the non-profit American Bridge, an organization that will raise funds for Democratic...

, Kerry Kennedy

Kerry Kennedy

Mary Kerry Kennedy is an American human rights activist and writer. She is the seventh of the eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. She was known as Kerry Kennedy Cuomo from 1991 until 2003.-Early life:...

, Manuela Ferreira Leite

Manuela Ferreira Leite

Maria Manuela Dias Ferreira Leite , commonly known as Manuela Ferreira Leite , is a Portuguese economist and politician.-Background:...

, Elle MacPherson

Elle Macpherson

Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...

, Rosa Mota

Rosa Mota

Rosa Maria Correia dos Santos Mota, GCIH, GCM is a Portuguese former marathon runner, one of her country's foremost athletes. She is also considered to have been one of the best marathon runners of the 20th century....

, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed in July 2011 as Nigeria's “de facto prime minister” and the new Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Prior to this appointment, she was the Managing Director of World Bank and has also held the position of a Finance Minister and Foreign...

, Eva Padberg

Eva Padberg

Eva Padberg is a German fashion model, singer, and actress.Padberg was born in Bad Frankenhausen and grew up in Rottleben, Germany. In 1995, she applied for Bravos Boy & Girl contest; she made it among the best ten models and gained the opportunity to do a test shooting for Louisa Models in Munich...

, Sigrid Rausing

Sigrid Rausing

, Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

, Dame Anita Roddick

Anita Roddick

Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism...

, Deborah Scroggins

Deborah Scroggins

Deborah Scroggins is an American journalist and author. A graduate of Tulane University and Columbia University, she was a reporter and editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1987 to 1998...

, and Jane Wales.

There was also a song released on the Day for Darfur by UK group Mattafix

Mattafix

Mattafix are a UK duo, made up of Marlon Roudette and Preetesh Hirji. Their sound is a fusion of hip hop/rap, R&B, reggae, dancehall, blues, jazz, soul and world...

. The video for the song was filmed in Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

and features Matt Damon

Matt Damon

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...

, Don Cheadle

Don Cheadle

, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elle MacPherson

Elle Macpherson

, and The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...

. The project was funded by Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....

.

Watch the video: http://www.whudat.com/newsblurbs/more/rewind_that_don_cheadle_fergie_and_matt_damon_living_darfur_1680918073/

Participating organisations

24 Hours for Darfur
Aegis Students
Aegis Trust
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish World Service
Amnesty International
Bahrain Society for Public Freedom and Democracy Support
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Centre for Minority Rights Development
Collectif Urgence Darfour
Darfur Australia Network
Darfur Call
Darfur Consortium
Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre
Darfur Union
Dream for Darfur
ENOUGH
European Union of Jewish Students
FEMNET
FEMNET
FEMNET, also called the African Women's Development and Communication Network, is an organization established in 1998 to promote women's development in Africa....
Fidelity Out of Sudan
Genocide Intervention Network
Habonim Dror
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
Independent Advocacy Project
International Crisis Group
International Federation for Human Rights
International Refugee Rights Initiative
Investors Against Genocide
Italians for Darfur
Med Bridge
Minority Rights Group
Mothers' Union
National Association of Seadogs International
National Union of Students (UK)
Pears Foundation
People Against Injustice
Physicians for Human Rights
RADDHO
CCJO.RenéCassin
Rettet Darfur
Sauver Le Darfour
Save Darfur Canada / Sauvons le Darfour Canada
Save Darfur Coalition
Service for Peace
Silent Masses
Society for Threatened Peoples
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project
Soroptomist International
STAND Canada
STAND USA
Stop Genocide Now
Sudan Organisation Against Torture
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
UNA-UK
UN Watch
Waging Peace
Women Initiative Nigeria
World Evangelical Alliance

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.