What's being done about Darfur?

United States

The only government to actually declare Darfur a “genocide,” the U.S. has given most of the funding for the African Union peacekeepers working in Darfur. Since Secretary of State Colin Powell and President George W. Bush called the situation genocide in 2004, critics say they’ve done very little since then to get involved. In 2006, Bush appointed a special envoy to Darfur, who worked African Union and the UN peacekeepers to work together in 2007.

ICC

The International Criminal Court was put on the case of Darfur in 2005 by the UN. The court launched an investigation into war crimes, which is the largest investigation they have ever done. In March 2009, the ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, torture, and others. The ICC is a tricky organization because technically they don’t have the ability to enforce arrest warrants. The warrant was still a big step – it was the first ever arrest warrant for a sitting head of state.

European Union

In 2004, when the U.S. called the crisis a genocide, the EU called the crisis “tantamount to genocide,” but has not done much to pressure the Sudanese government to accept UN forces. Though the EU talks about the situation more openly and actively then other countries, they come under fire for not turning this into action.

African Union

The AU has a 7,000 person peacekeeping force in Darfur which became part of the joint UN/AU peacekeeping force in 2007. Politically, the AU has increased its power in Darfur, refusing to elect Sudanese President al-Bashir as its head, but some think its influence is too limited.

United Nations

The UN strategy with Darfur consists of:

• Stationing a joint UN / AU peacekeeping force
• Encouraging peace talks between rebel groups in Darfur and the Sudanese government
• Helping promote economic development in Darfur
• Sudan first refused to accept UN intervention, but in 2007 they accepted the joint AU/UN force, as long as it remains mostly African. The UN has refugee camps all over Sudan and neighboring countries. The camps are run by UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.
• Responsibility to Protect: A recent development in the Untied Nations is the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine which aims at changing the attitude towards foreign aid. It was adopted at the world summit in 2005. At the moment, we refer to any assistance in the area as "humanitarian intervention." The R2P hopes to both change this militaristic attitude as well as introduce a more immediate, action orientated plan for relief by simply changing the way we talk about it.

Arab League

The Arab League has stood back from the crisis in Darfur and gone back-and-forth with their opinions on the matter. The Arab League supported al Bashir’s refusal to accept UN troops in 2006. This was surprising because earlier, in 2006, the secretary general of the Arab League urged Bashir to accept the peacekeeping force. The Arab League did not really play a role in the lead-up to the May 2006 peace agreement with some rebel groups. In 2007, several Arab states pressured the government to support a AU/UN force

China

China has been criticized for not pressing the government to accept a UN peacekeeping presence and has remained largely uninvolved. China has a lot of business interests in Sudan, and they buy around 2/3 of Sudan’s oil exports.

Sudan

The government has denied a role in the genocide and after months of resisting attempts to send UN peacekeepers into Darfur, they agreed in July 2007 to the joint AU/N force. Before July ’07 the government signed, and broke, four agreements that OK’ed peacekeepers in Darfur. In April 2007, the UN reported that Khartoum had shipped arms to Darfur in planes that looked like humanitarian planes, a violation of UN policy – Sudan denied this charge.

Advocacy groups

Nongovernmental, advocacy and humanitarian orgs have taken a huge and visible role in the Darfur crisis. Aid organizations support over 2.5 million people in the Darfur region. Human Rights Watch has played a big part in bringing the conflict to light by smuggling out a video of the atrocities in 2004.

Sources:
CFR.org
Amnesty International
Catholic Relief Services
Doctors Without Borders
Globe for Darfur
Human Rights Watch
International Rescue Committee