Human Rights FIRST

This is a great place to find a good deal of information regarding some of the more serious human rights abuses that are currently underway around the world.


If you scroll down on the sidebar, You'll note there is a powerpoint slideshow that gives a detailed introduction to the conflict in Darfur. It's a powerful way to give a presentation and has an incredible amount of information. To fully appreciate the slideshow, Either email me or get the powerpoint from the site. It has notes in the footer below each slide that tell you what to say during the presentation of this slideshow.

www.HumanRightsFirst.org

8th Annual Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival

- 8th Annual Human Rights Film Festival -
(now over, check for next years dates on the website)
February 21st to March 1st.
"Informative and Inspirational Films from around the world."
See the website: Visit www.whrtf.org/filmfest
and www.myspace.com/bellinghamhumanrightsfilm



Each night of the Festival, Someone from a Human Rights Class or from the Fairhaven College at Western Washington University put an insert in the program to highlight some more information or links to more information about the topic of that night's film.

I worked on a film called De Nadie. About the life and immigration of Central Americans attempting to get into the United States. Here's my insert. Below the Insert is another slideshow I put together, just for flashy looks and to gain attraction to the subject. None of the photos are mine, most are readily searchable on Google.com with no references to who they taken from originally.

De Nadie

SLIDESHOW

For More Information. Please see the Insert above. or Email me above for a high-quality version of the slideshow in Powerpoint or PDF format.


Genocides.Ending@gmail.com

Banning Cluster Munitions

BAN CLUSTER MUNITIONS by 2008.

So Far: 75 Countries have signed the Treaty.

Is your country one of them?


To get in on the action: Visit the Human Rights Watch Website (Click the Link above or visit) http://hrw.org/campaigns/clusters/index.htm

Follow up needed.

Letter to President George W. Bush

After debating for months on whether or not I should write a letter to the current president, I found myself browsing the African Policy page on www.whitehouse.gov to which I realized, not ONE single main page headline dealt with mass atrocities.

They were all headlines promoting heath and awareness of malaria and financial/economic benefits we are providing to the country. Immediately I felt take aback that the primary objective of our government was not to end the immediate threat of genocide, but to forget the mass atrocities, and focus promoting healhy lifestyles.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for the initiatives that help provide healthcare, education and financial responsibility for these countries, but if there are no people left to educate, what then? I would have hoped our president had a better sense of priority than what I have seen today. I promplty forgot about all of my reservations towards writing a letter to President Bush and wrote this letter in less than 10 minutes.


1 December 2007

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

During the course of my daily research on African affairs, I wanted to know more about what our government was doing to protect the lives of millions of men, women and children who are being systematically killed, tortured and mutilated by the gang warfare being conducted on behalf of the Sudanese government. No one in this day and age can deny that the mass atrocities in this area constitute genocide. The north and south Sudan civil war has raged on and become much more complicated since 2005 and yet foreign policies of our government and governments like ours, have done little more than promote economic sanctions.

Economic sanctions are a step, but are certainly not the solution. I have searched the website presented by the White House and have found nothing to suggest that anything further is being heavily researched and pursued towards finding a feasible solution to this conflict. It is our responsibility, as citizens of a first world government and P-5 member of the United Nations that we continually seek out ways to promote peace around the world. There should be no question as to our responsibility for allowing genocide to continue to be allowed to ravage the country and spread like wildfire to the surrounding countries like Chad and Ethiopia.

While studying what our government finds important in regards to African Policy, I see the many great initiatives, programs and projects to promote the welfare of education and malaria resistance, even ways to support the failing financial situation and create investment opportunities for African countries. All of these issues are important, but they will all eventually fail if there are no people for which those policies apply to. The children are the next generation and they are important as their health and education is also vitally important; however, if the children are being systematically raped, forced into camps, trained as soldiers and killed by being thrown into the fires that burn their villages down, there will be nothing left to save.

As a citizen of this country, I ask that as our president, you take command and organize the people of our country to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and other countries facing similar problems. If you just walk down the cobblestone pathways between the buildings of any college in the United States, you will see there are millions of students, just like myself, who write letters to congress or hold signs that say “Save Darfur” and other slogans. These students desperately want to help end these crises. We will never win our fight if we continue to be activists that are fractured, unorganized and spread out across the country. Our government needs to unify them, bring them a common goal and purpose and give them the ability to not lose hope that our cause is worth the time and effort we put into it. You have that power, use it.

Very truly yours,



Sara Lori Cartwright
1440 10th Street #207
Bellingham, Washington 98225
Western Washington University
www.EndingGenocide.co.cc

The Humanitarian Hybrid.

A minor improvement? Or Delay... Peacekeepers from the United Nations is the appropriate action to take. A hybrid UN and AU team of Peacekeepers has been allowed to enter Darfur, Sudan. So far so good. We'll see if they make it there or not. And where these "peacekeepers" are actually coming from is another question entirely. But it does seem like a positive step.

However, as hopes rise, doubts do as well. Humanitarian aid workers who have been around long enough to see this strategy work its way out before raise doubts as to the genuine effort being put forth by the Sudanese government.

The hybrid connection between African Union workers and United Nations Workers is a noteworthy cause and even though the best interest of the nation may not be the most important concern for Kig Abdullah, it is beginning to be for the international community. Potential agreements cause stirs, stirs cause attention.

Attention will undoubtably cause actions or so we activists would like to hope. So whether the intentions of this agreement were met by honorable eyes on both sides is practically irrelevant in some sense. Should this agreement fail, I believe we would see an even larger momentous force brought about by the international community and the worlds people becoming more willing to sacrifice what we have to save the lives of the 2.3 million IDP's and Refugee as well as giving peace of mind for the lost lives of nearly 400,000.