Pulitzer Center Update

In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur

Bethany Whitfield, Special to the Pulitzer Center

Citizens and human rights activists across the nation and the world are rallying today, April 13, for Global Day for Darfur, a 24-hour campaign designed to draw attention to the violence that continues to plague the region five years after rebels took up arms. Some of the larger events of the day include an Amnesty International human rights exhibition at D.C.'s National Mall, a demonstration in the U.K at the Sudanese embassy and a rally in Vancouver sponsored by Canadian Students for Darfur.

While this conflict has attracted global attention, critics argue key players in the international community continue to perpetuate violence by failing to undertake stronger peacekeeping operations as well as a harsher stance against the Sudanese government. A strong focus of today's Global Day for Darfur is the call for a fuller implementation of the joint U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur, a program initiated last July.

Since 2003, the United Nations estimates that 200,000 have been killed in the region and over 2 million displaced. Darfur children born at the beginning of the conflict are now approaching school age and have witnessed the world through a lens of armed conflict and refugee camps.

Additional News on Darfur

Five Years On: No Justice for Sexual Violence in Darfur
Trip to Darfur Travelogue

Creating a Peace to Keep in Darfur - A Joint Report by the ENOUGH Project and the Save Darfur Coalition

UN Peace Missions Falter in Africa

China's Genocide Games

Rape widespread in Darfur

Sudan - The Quick and the Terrible

International Crisis Group - Crisis in Darfur