Here are the four steps you need to take to Act for Sudan:

1. Read the Sudan 2012 One Page Summary on the Sudan Peace Security Accountability Act

2. Email the following message to U.S. Representative Steve Cohen asking him to support H.R. 4169:

Subject: Please Support Important Sudan Legislation!

Letter: Greetings Representative Cohen,

I am writing you today asking you cosponsor H.R. 4169: Sudan Peace, Security, and Accountability Act of 2012.

The Sudanese Government is engaged in a full-scale military assault on the people of the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk. To address these and other grave concerns concerning Sudan, Congressman James McGovern (D-MA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) have introduced H.R. 4169, The Sudan Peace, Security and Accountability Act of 2012.

To learn more about this important legislation, please visit this link: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr4169

Please support this important legislation to make it more difficult for Sudan’s war criminals to continue killing innocents by becoming a cosponsor. To do so, please contact the offices of james McGovern and/or Frank Wolf.

Sincerely,

Name

3. Tweet this message to @RepCohen:

Hey @RepCohen! #Memphis wants you to #ActforSudan! Please cosponsor H.R. 4169 http://bit.ly/JWobcz

4. Share this link on Facebook and Twitter by using the buttons below.

Operation Broken Silence is pleased to announce that all five bills we introduced this legislative session have passed the House and Senate of the Tennessee General Assembly. We can confidently say that it is much harder to traffic persons in Tennessee because of the tremendous amount of work many persons from across the state have put into this campaign.

So what does this mean for statewide anti-trafficking efforts? Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the new laws:

The TN sex-trafficking statute, or Trafficking for Commercial Sex Acts as it is now captioned, has been bolstered significantly by its latest amendment. For example:

• Our youth are safer from traffickers. Graduated penalties have been included in this bill for sex-traffickers. If a trafficker is convicted under this law, he or she will be subject to a Class A felony if the victim is under 15 years old or if the offense occurs within 1000 feet of a school, preschool, child care, library, recreational center, or public park.
• We can go after traffickers and advertisers that facilitate sex-trafficking online.  A trafficker that advertises a minor for commercial sexual abuse is subject to a Class C felony and a minimum of a $10,000 fine. This new provision brings teeth to the fight against online classifieds ads that facilitate sex trafficking. We can go after websites like Backpage if they do not make a reasonable attempt to verify the age of the minor.
• Sex-traffickers are now included in the sex offender registry. While a sex-trafficker could be included in the sex-offender registry before, an explicit provision has been added to the Trafficking for Commercial Sex Acts statute and amended properly into the sex-offender registry.

The Labor Servitude, or labor trafficking bill, has been amended as well:

• Youth are safer from labor traffickers. The penalty for labor trafficking until now has been a Class C felony. Under the new law, victims under the age of 15 that have been trafficked for sexual servitude can take solace in that the convicted trafficker will suffer a Class B felony for his or her offense.

Victims are no longer criminalized and their convictions can be vacated.

• If someone has been trafficked, they are not a criminal. When a person is suspected of or charged with prostitution, yet they were a victim of a sex-trafficking offense, that person is immune from prosecution. Sex-trafficking victims that were erroneously charged with prostitution are free from their conviction.

Victim assistance in Tennessee is about to take off.

• Tennessee is putting together a plan to protect, assist, and identify victims of human trafficking. Under the Victim Assistance law, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Children’s Services, the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Mental Health, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have agreed to work out a plan to identify victims, identify resources for them, assist victims with benefits, coordinate delivery of services to them, and prepare educational materials to increase awareness for victims. 

Honorable Members of the UN Security Council:

We write to express our alarm at the inadequate international attention and action regarding recent events along the border of Sudan and South Sudan, in Darfur, in Abyei, in Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan, and in Blue Nile. We ask you to dedicate yourselves to a higher and sustained level of attention and escalated action to address the continuing crises emanating from the government of Sudan.

The government of Sudan continues to use the same deadly methods it has employed for decades against its own people: attacking civilians on a broad scale with its army, militia, and air force; limiting and blocking humanitarian assistance to millions displaced by attacks; and focusing international attention on negotiations that are not honored and on the struggles of providing humanitarian assistance, instigating new crises, and perpetrating more war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Sudan is the only nation whose head of state is indicted by the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Only in Sudan are there senior government officials indicted by the ICC and then promoted to commit more mass atrocities in other regions of the country. Only in Sudan does the government regularly bomb its own citizens, without even the possibility of such attacks being against military targets. Only in Sudan has the government repeatedly blocked humanitarian aid and used food as a weapon of war against civilians for decades.

In the last decade, stern words and declarations from the UN and powerful member states have done little to stop the government of Sudan from continuing existing and creating additional humanitarian crises. The government of Sudan has effectively blackmailed the international community into accepting these ongoing crises by threatening to do even more deliberate harm to its marginalized, defenseless and displaced citizens. For too long, the government of Sudan has heard the international community express grave concerns without imposing consequences or enforcing UN Security Council resolutions. Worse, the international community’s concern too often devolves into a dangerous moral equivalency, blaming everyone and no one, and confusing perpetrators and victims.

The renewed threat of war between Sudan and South Sudan should not obscure the underlying problems of Sudan’s disregard of its commitments under the CPA, military occupation of Abyei, and attacks against civilians in South Sudan (including within refugee camps).

We urge you to end the moral equivalency, the impunity, and the crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide perpetrated by the government of Sudan, and to start imposing consequences for its actions. Condemnation is necessary but not sufficient. We strongly believe that only concrete, escalated action will change the calculations of Sudan’s government officials and break the pattern of grave crimes, human rights abuses and humanitarian crises.

In addition to applying increased diplomatic and economic pressures on Sudan, we respectfully call on you to take the following steps, collectively as the Security Council of the United Nations, and individually as member states, as appropriate:

Nuba Mountains Crisis and Threat of Famine

• Warn the Government of Sudan to stop the brutal ethnic cleansing ongoing in Sudan, to cease offensive military operations against civilians, to halt the deployment and attacks by the army and militia in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, and to allow unfettered humanitarian access to those in need. If the warning is not heeded, authorize and employ selective and limited force, such as the use of drones or cruise missiles, to destroy a significant Sudanese military asset deployed against civilians, such as a MiG or Sukhoi jet, Antonov bomber, attack helicopter, or multiple rocket launcher.
• Immediately initiate a cross border emergency aid program to the Nuba Mountains and prepare plans for additional such programs as may be needed for Darfur, Blue Nile, Abyei or other regions.

South Sudan

• Clearly support South Sudan against the aggression from the government of Sudan. Resolve the problem of Sudan’s air attacks against South Sudan, one way or another, so that it is no longer a factor in the escalation of violence.
• Support South Sudan’s call for an international force separating north and South Sudan in a demilitarized zone along the border and including disputed territory.
• Make a public commitment to help ensure that the Republic of South Sudan is successful in building its economy and state institutions. Support South Sudan in developing its infrastructure or other alternative means to deliver its oil to market.
• Engage in coordinated, sustained and consistent negotiations with Sudan and South Sudan to resolve the long outstanding CPA issues necessary for peace between the two countries: border demarcation, citizenship, and oil production, transport and revenues.

Protection

• Impose a no-fly or limited-fly zone over the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Darfur, Abyei and along the remainder of the border between Sudan and South Sudan for protection of civilians and humanitarian aid workers. Such no-fly or limited-fly zone need not be perfect in order to be effective and has long been requested of the international community by the affected civilians.

End Impunity and Support Justice

• Refer the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan and Blue Nile attacks and atrocities to the ICC for investigation.
• Lead effective international coordination to apprehend individuals subject to outstanding and future ICC arrest warrants, actively support the work of the ICC, and correct or sanction member states who fail to adhere to their obligations under the Treaty of Rome.
• Impose draconian financial sanctions against officials responsible for attacks against civilians, including the businesses associated with those individuals.

Secure Peace, Leading to Democratic Transition

• Refocus the disparate ongoing “peace” negotiations from multiple regional processes favoring the government of Sudan’s “divide and rule” tactics to one, comprehensive process including all marginalized Sudanese populations and their concerns.
• Support the inclusion of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (the Kauda Alliance) in discussions, planning, and negotiations for the reform of the government of Sudan.
• Provide tangible political, logistical and financial support for marginalized and reform-minded Sudanese organizations urging democratic reform, the rule of law and civil rights.
• Coordinate the necessary regional and multinational support for internationally observed elections.

The Eradication of Slavery

• Refocus attention on the tens of thousands of people still enslaved in Sudan by committing to the eradication of government-sponsored slavery and making a focused effort to ensure all remaining slaves be set free.

The international community has for too long failed the people of Sudan and South Sudan with empty rhetoric and partial “solutions” doomed to fail. Millions of lives, the viability of the world’s newest nation, and the security of the region hang in the balance. Please put aside political differences and focus on effective action to protect the civilians and bring justice, sustained peace, and freedom to Sudan and South Sudan.

Sincerely,

Act for Sudan

Martina Knee, Co-Founder San Francisco, CA, USA

Alliance for the Lost Boys of Sudan

Joan Hecht, Founder and President Jacksonville, FL, USA

Beja Organization for Human Rights and Development

Ibrahim Tahir Ahmed, Co-Founder and Executive Director Washington, DC, USA

Brooklyn Coalition for Darfur & Marginalized Sudan

Laura Limuli, Coordinator Brooklyn, NY, USA

CASTS-Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan

Norman L. Epstein, Co-chair Toronto, Canada

“Change the world. It takes cents.” TM

Sara Kornfeld, Founder/Mentor/Educator Denver, CO, USA

Christian Solidarity International – USA

The Reverend Heidi McGinness, Director of Outreach Denver, CO, USA

Collectif Urgence Darfour

Dr Jacky Mamou, President Paris, France

Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action

Roz Duman, Founder/Director Denver, CO, USA

Community Empowerment for Progress Organization

Edmund Yakani, CEPO Program Coordinator Juba, South Sudan

Community of South Sudanese and American Women/Men (CSSAW)

Micklina Kenyi, CSSAW Executive Director Boulder, CO, USA

Darfur Action Group–Northwest Bronx/Yonkers

Gene Binder, Member–Steering Committee New York, NY, USA

Darfur and Beyond

Cory Williams, Co-Founder Phoenix, AZ, USA

Darfur Community Organization

Bakheit A. Shata, Founder/Executive Director Omaha, NE, USA

Darfur Human Rights Organization of the USA

Abdelgabar Adam, Founder and President Philadelphia, PA, USA

Darfur Interfaith Network

Martha Boshnick, Co-Chair Washington, DC, USA

Darfur People’s Association of NY (DPANY)

Ahmat Nour, President Brooklyn, NY, USA

Darfur Reconciliation & Development Organization

Adeeb Yousif, General Manger Kampala, Uganda

Darfur Rehabilitation Project

Elnour Adam, President Newark, NJ, USA

Darfur Union, UK & Ireland

Hussain Begira, Chairperson London, United Kingdom

Darfur Women Action Group

Niemat Ahmadi, President Washington, DC, USA

Dear Sudan, Love Marin

Gerri Miller, Founder and Coordinator Tiburon, CA, USA

Elizabeth Blackney

Author and Anti-Genocide Advocate Virginia Beach, VA, USA

Eric Reeves

Sudan Researcher Northampton, MA, USA

Genocide No More

Marv Steinberg, Coordinator Redding, CA, USA

Genocide Watch

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President, Coordinator, The International Alliance to End Genocide, Professor of Genocide Studies and Prevention, George Mason University Arlington, VA, USA

Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide

Melanie Nelkin, Chair and Carl Wilkens Fellow Atlanta, GA, USA

Help Nuba

Rabbi David Kaufman, Founder Des Moines, IA, USA

Human Rights & Advocacy Network for Democracy (HAND)

Abdalmageed S. Haroun, Chairperson Brooklyn, NY, USA

Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust

The Baroness Caroline Cox, Independent Peer, House of Lords, UK Parliament and CEO United Kingdom

Idaho Darfur Coalition

A.J. Fay, Co-Founder Boise, ID, USA

Investors Against Genocide

Eric Cohen, Co-founder and Chairperson Boston, MA, USA

Iowa Center for Genocide Prevention

Kristen Anderson, Founder and Carl Wilkens Fellow Des Moines, IA, USA

Iowa United Nations Association

Yashar Vasef, Executive Director Iowa City, IA, USA

Jewish World Watch

Fred Kramer, Executive Director Los Angeles, CA, USA

Jews Against Genocide

Eileen Weiss, Co-founder New York, NY, USA

Joining Our Voices

Jack Slater Armstrong, Founder/Director Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Keokuk for Global Awareness and Aid

Blake McGhghy, Founder Keokuk, IA, USA

Long Island Darfur Action Group

Nancy Walsh, Coordinator Farmingdale, NY, USA

Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur

William Rosenfeld, Director Boston, MA, USA

My Sister’s Keeper

Sarah Cleto Rial, Program Director Boston, MA, USA

Never Again Coalition

Diane Koosed, Co-chair Portland, OR, USA

New York Coalition for Darfur and All Sudan

Neiki Ullah, Communications Director New York, NY, USA

Nigrizia Magazine

Fr. Franco Moretti, Editor Verona, Italy

Nuba Mountains Advocacy Group-USA

Gogadi Amoga, Chair Batavia, OH, USA

Nuba Mountains American Advocacy Group

Mario Angelo, Secretary General Fresno, CA, USA

Operation Broken Silence

Mark C. Hackett, CEO Memphis, TN, USA

San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition

Mohamed Suleiman, President San Francisco, CA, USA

Society for Threatened People

Sharon Silber, US representative New York, NY, USA

South Sudan Volunteer Initiative (SSVI)

Elizabeth Kuch, SSVI-USA Head Envoy Harrisburg, PA, USA

South Sudan Volunteers Initiative (SSVI)

Hakeim Mayol Jouk Dusseldorf, Germany

South Sudanese Disapora Forum Norway

Dr. Stanley Josephson Mogga, Moderator Norway

Stop Genocide Now

Gabriel Stauring, Founder and Director Redondo Beach, CA, USA

Sudan Advocacy Action Forum, Trinity Sudan Ministry

Bill Andress, Moderator Lexington, SC, USA

Sudan Human Rights Network

Ismail Kardoly, Vice President Washington, DC, USA

Sudan Unlimited

Esther Sprague, Director San Francisco, CA, USA

Sudanese Fellowship

Samuel Dilla, Pastor Portland, OR, USA

The Institute on Religion & Democracy’s Church Alliance for a New Sudan

Faith J. H. McDonnell, Director Washington, DC, USA

THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy

Joseph K. Grieboski, Founder and Chairman of the Board Alexandria, VA, USA

Unite For Darfur

Bahar Arabie, CEO Rockville, MD, USA

Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI

Sandra Hammel, Director Portsmouth, RI, USA

Village Help for South Sudan

Franco Wol Majok, Executive Director Lynn, MA, USA

Voices for Sudan

Jimmy Mulla, Founder and President Washington, DC, USA

Waging Peace

Olivia Warham, Director London, United Kingdom

World Without Genocide at William Mitchell College of Law

Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., Executive Director St. Paul, MN, USA

With that said, we wanted to put this informational page together to further your understanding of the Atrocities Prevention Board.

What is the Atrocities Prevention Board?

Obama issued his Presidential Directive on Mass Atrocities in August of 2011. The initiative set in motion “a comprehensive review to strengthen the United States’ ability to prevent mass atrocities.” The Directive arrived at a conclusion anti-genocide activists have long called for: the need for the Atrocities Prevention Board.

The Board represents a whole of government approach to resolving issues surrounding mass atrocity crimes. The Board includes senior level members of the U.S. intelligence community, military arms, Department of Defense, and the Department of State.

The members of the Atrocities Prevention Board joined together on the announcement date to talk about how they will work together and the ideas they are already pursuing.

Why An Atrocities Prevention Board?

Since the Holocaust, the U.S. government has failed time and time again to prevent mass atrocity crimes when it was in a place to do so. Cambodia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan have gone down in history as some of the greatest failures of humanity.

The idea behind the Atrocities Prevention Board is to eliminate the obstacles that prevented the United States from doing nothing. For example, it is widely accepted today that the United States and broader international community should have intervened in some form during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Due to a mix of wide-ranging issues including a lack of communication chains throughout the U.S. government, a lack of technology to monitor the catastrophe, and a lack of capacity to respond, the world failed to intervene. Over 800,000 people died because of it.

What is the Purpose of the Atrocities Prevention Board?

The purpose of the Atrocities Prevention Board is to systematize the U.S. approach to mass atrocity prevention. Every U.S. attempt to prevent mass atrocity crimes up to this point has been ad hoc and met with varying degrees of success, or more often so failure. The Board will begin working on overcoming consistent barriers, such as those listed above, that have been faced in the past.

One of the interesting components of the Board will be to examine how new technologies can be used to help deter mass atrocity crimes and hold individuals who use technology to commit these crimes accountable.

_

Additional Resources:

• What Are Mass Atrocity Crimes?
• Watch President Obama’s Introduction of the Atrocities Prevention Board
• Panel Discussion of Sudan, South Sudan, and the LRA

RSS Letter to UNSC 22 April 2012

via The White House:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

April 23, 2012

Remarks by the President at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Washington, D.C.

10:00 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everyone.  It is a great honor to be with you here today.  Of course, it is a truly humbling moment to be introduced by Elie Wiesel.  Along with Sara Bloomfield, the outstanding director here, we just spent some time among the exhibits, and this is now the second visit I’ve had here.  My daughters have come here.  It is a searing occasion whenever you visit.  And as we walked, I was taken back to the visit that Elie mentioned, the time that we traveled together to Buchenwald.

And I recall how he showed me the barbed-wire fences and the guard towers.  And we walked the rows where the barracks once stood, where so many left this Earth — including Elie’s father, Shlomo.  We stopped at an old photo — men and boys lying in their wooden bunks, barely more than skeletons.  And if you look closely, you can see a 16-year old boy, looking right at the camera, right into your eyes.  You can see Elie.

And at the end of our visit that day, Elie spoke of his father.  “I thought one day I will come back and speak to him,” he said, “of times in which memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.”  Elie, you’ve devoted your life to upholding that sacred duty.  You’ve challenged us all — as individuals, and as nations — to do the same, with the power of your example, the eloquence of your words, as you did again just now.  And so to you and Marion, we are extraordinarily grateful.

To Sara, to Tom Bernstein, to Josh Bolten, members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and everyone who sustains this living memorial — thank you for welcoming us here today.  To the members of Congress, members of the diplomatic corps, including Ambassador Michael Oren of Israel, we are glad to be with you.

And most of all, we are honored to be in the presence of men and women whose lives are a testament to the endurance and the strength of the human spirit — the inspiring survivors.  It is a privilege to be with you, on a very personal level.  As I’ve told some of you before, I grew up hearing stories about my great uncle — a soldier in the 89th Infantry Division who was stunned and shaken by what he saw when he helped to liberate Ordruf, part of Buchenwald.   And I’ll never forget what I saw at Buchenwald, where so many perished with the words of Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil on their lips.

I’ve stood with survivors, in the old Warsaw ghettos, where a monument honors heroes who said we will not go quietly; we will stand up, we will fight back.  And I’ve walked those sacred grounds at Yad Vashem, with its lesson for all nations — the Shoah cannot be denied.

During my visit to Yad Vashem I was given a gift, inscribed with those words from the Book of Joel:  “Has the like of this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?  Tell your children about it, and let your children tell theirs, and their children the next generation.”  That’s why we’re here.  Not simply to remember, but to speak.

I say this as a President, and I say it as a father.  We must tell our children about a crime unique in human history.  The one and only Holocaust — six million innocent people — men, women, children, babies — sent to their deaths just for being different, just for being Jewish.  We tell them, our children, about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma and gay people and so many others who also must never be forgotten.  Let us tell our children not only how they died, but also how they lived — as fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters who loved and hoped and dreamed, just like us.

We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen — because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts, and because so many others stood silent.  Let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations.  Among them was Jan Karski, a young Polish Catholic, who witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself.

Jan Karski passed away more than a decade ago.  But today, I’m proud to announce that this spring I will honor him with America’s highest civilian honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  (Applause.)

We must tell our children.  But more than that, we must teach them.  Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture.  Awareness without action changes nothing.  In this sense, “never again” is a challenge to us all — to pause and to look within.

For the Holocaust may have reached its barbaric climax at Treblinka and Auschwitz and Belzec, but it started in the hearts of ordinary men and women.  And we have seen it again — madness that can sweep through peoples, sweep through nations, embed itself.  The killings in Cambodia, the killings in Rwanda, the killings in Bosnia, the killings in Darfur — they shock our conscience, but they are the awful extreme of a spectrum of ignorance and intolerance that we see every day; the bigotry that says another person is less than my equal, less than human.  These are the seeds of hate that we cannot let take root in our heart.

“Never again” is a challenge to reject hatred in all of its forms — including anti-Semitism, which has no place in a civilized world.  And today, just steps from where he gave his life protecting this place, we honor the memory of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, whose family joins us today.

“Never again” is a challenge to defend the fundamental right of free people and free nations to exist in peace and security — and that includes the State of Israel.  And on my visit to the old Warsaw Ghetto, a woman looked me in the eye, and she wanted to make sure America stood with Israel.  She said, “It’s the only Jewish state we have.”  And I made her a promise in that solemn place.  I said I will always be there for Israel.

So when efforts are made to equate Zionism to racism, we reject them.  When international fora single out Israel with unfair resolutions, we vote against them.  When attempts are made to delegitimize the state of Israel, we oppose them.  When faced with a regime that threatens global security and denies the Holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel, the United States will do everything in our power to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Never again” is a challenge to societies.  We’re joined today by communities who’ve made it your mission to prevent mass atrocities in our time.  This museum’s Committee of Conscience, NGOs, faith groups, college students, you’ve harnessed the tools of the digital age — online maps and satellites and a video and social media campaign seen by millions.  You understand that change comes from the bottom up, from the grassroots.  You understand — to quote the task force convened by this museum — “preventing genocide is an achievable goal.”  It is an achievable goal.  It is one that does not start from the top; it starts from the bottom up.

It’s remarkable — as we walked through this exhibit, Elie and I were talking as we looked at the unhappy record of the State Department and so many officials here in the United States during those years.  And he asked, “What would you do?”  But what you all understand is you don’t just count on officials, you don’t just count on governments.  You count on people — and mobilizing their consciences.

And finally, “never again” is a challenge to nations.  It’s a bitter truth — too often, the world has failed to prevent the killing of innocents on a massive scale.  And we are haunted by the atrocities that we did not stop and the lives we did not save.

Three years ago today, I joined many of you for a ceremony of remembrance at the U.S. Capitol.  And I said that we had to do “everything we can to prevent and end atrocities.”  And so I want to report back to some of you today to let you know that as President I’ve done my utmost to back up those words with deeds.  Last year, in the first-ever presidential directive on this challenge, I made it clear that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.”

That does not mean that we intervene militarily every time there’s an injustice in the world.  We cannot and should not.  It does mean we possess many tools — diplomatic and political, and economic and financial, and intelligence and law enforcement and our moral suasion — and using these tools over the past three years, I believe — I know — that we have saved countless lives.

When the referendum in South Sudan was in doubt, it threatened to reignite a conflict that had killed millions.  But with determined diplomacy, including by some people in this room, South Sudan became the world’s newest nation.  And our diplomacy continues, because in Darfur, in Abyei, in Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile, the killing of innocents must come to an end.  The Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan must have the courage to negotiate — because the people of Sudan and South Sudan deserve peace.  That is work that we have done, and it has saved lives.

When the incumbent in Côte D’Ivoire lost an election but refused to give it up — give up power, it threatened to unleash untold ethnic and religious killings.  But with regional and international diplomacy, and U.N. peacekeepers who stood their ground and protected civilians, the former leader is now in The Hague, and Côte D’Ivoire is governed by its rightful leader — and lives were saved.

When the Libyan people demanded their rights and Muammar Qaddafi’s forces bore down on Benghazi, a city of 700,000, and threatened to hunt down its people like rats, we forged with allies and partners a coalition that stopped his troops in their tracks.  And today, the Libyan people are forging their own future, and the world can take pride in the innocent lives that we saved.

And when the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony continued its atrocities in Central Africa, I ordered a small number of American advisors to help Uganda and its neighbors pursue the LRA.  And when I made that announcement, I directed my National Security Council to review our progress after 150 days.  We have done so, and today I can announce that our advisors will continue their efforts to bring this madman to justice, and to save lives.  (Applause.)  It is part of our regional strategy to end the scourge that is the LRA, and help realize a future where no African child is stolen from their family and no girl is raped and no boy is turned into a child soldier.

We’ve stepped up our efforts in other ways.  We’re doing more to protect women and girls from the horror of wartime sexual violence.  With the arrest of fugitives like Ratko Mladic, charged with ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the world sent a message to war criminals everywhere:  We will not relent in bringing you to justice.  Be on notice.  And for the first time, we explicitly barred entry into the United States of those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Now we’re doing something more.  We’re making sure that the United States government has the structures, the mechanisms to better prevent and respond to mass atrocities.  So I created the first-ever White House position dedicated to this task.  It’s why I created a new Atrocities Prevention Board, to bring together senior officials from across our government to focus on this critical mission.  This is not an afterthought.  This is not a sideline in our foreign policy.  The board will convene for the first time today, at the White House.  And I’m pleased that one of its first acts will be to meet with some of your organizations — citizens and activists who are partners in this work, who have been carrying this torch.

Going forward, we’ll strengthen our tools across the board, and we’ll create new ones.  The intelligence community will prepare, for example, the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on the risk of mass atrocities and genocide.  We’re going to institutionalize the focus on this issue.  Across government, “alert channels” will ensure that information about unfolding crises — and dissenting opinions — quickly reach decision-makers, including me.

Our Treasury Department will work to more quickly deploy its financial tools to block the flow of money to abusive regimes.  Our military will take additional steps to incorporate the prevention of atrocities into its doctrine and its planning.  And the State Department will increase its ability to surge our diplomats and experts in a crisis.  USAID will invite people and high-tech companies to help create new technologies to quickly expose violations of human rights.  And we’ll work with other nations so the burden is better shared — because this is a global responsibility.

In short, we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities — because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people.  (Applause.)

We recognize that, even as we do all we can, we cannot control every event.  And when innocents suffer, it tears at our conscience.  Elie alluded to what we feel as we see the Syrian people subjected to unspeakable violence, simply for demanding their universal rights.  And we have to do everything we can.  And as we do, we have to remember that despite all the tanks and all the snipers, all the torture and brutality unleashed against them, the Syrian people still brave the streets.  They still demand to be heard.  They still seek their dignity.  The Syrian people have not given up, which is why we cannot give up.

And so with allies and partners, we will keep increasing the pressure, with a diplomatic effort to further isolate Assad and his regime, so that those who stick with Assad know that they are making a losing bet.  We’ll keep increasing sanctions to cut off the regime from the money it needs to survive.  We’ll sustain a legal effort to document atrocities so killers face justice, and a humanitarian effort to get relief and medicine to the Syrian people.  And we’ll keep working with the “Friends of Syria” to increase support for the Syrian opposition as it grows stronger.

Indeed, today we’re taking another step.  I’ve signed an executive order that authorizes new sanctions against the Syrian government and Iran and those that abet them for using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence.  These technologies should not empower — these technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them.  And it’s one more step that we can take toward the day that we know will come — the end of the Assad regime that has brutalized the Syrian people — and allow the Syrian people to chart their own destiny.

Even with all the efforts I’ve described today, even with everything that hopefully we have learned, even with the incredible power of museums like this one, even with everything that we do to try to teach our children about our own responsibilities, we know that our work will never be done. There will be conflicts that are not easily resolved.  There will be senseless deaths that aren’t prevented.  There will be stories of pain and hardship that test our hopes and try our conscience.  And in such moments it can be hard to imagine a more just world.

It can be tempting to throw up our hands and resign ourselves to man’s endless capacity for cruelty.  It’s tempting sometimes to believe that there is nothing we can do.  And all of us have those doubts.  All of us have those moments — perhaps especially those who work most ardently in these fields.

So in the end, I come back to something Elie said that day we visited Buchenwald together.  Reflecting on all that he had endured, he said, “We had the right to give up.”  “We had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one’s life with dignity, in a world that has no place for dignity.”  They had that right.  Imagine what they went through.  They had the right to give up.  Nobody would begrudge them that.  Who’d question someone giving up in such circumstances?

But, Elie said, “We rejected that possibility, and we said, no, we must continue believing in a future.”  To stare into the abyss, to face the darkness and insist there is a future — to not give up, to say yes to life, to believe in the possibility of justice.

To Elie and to the survivors who are here today, thank you for not giving up.  You show us the way.  (Applause.)  You show us the way.  If you cannot give up, if you can believe, then we can believe.  If you can continue to strive and speak, then we can speak and strive for a future where there’s a place for dignity for every human being.  That has been the cause of your lives.  It must be the work of our nation and of all nations.

So God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

• Date: April 26, 2012
• Time: 6:00PM-8:00PM
• Location: 1177 Poplar Avenue, Memphis TN, 38104
• What to Wear: We ask that everyone come wearing comfortable clothing. We’ll be dealing with clay so things might get a bit messy.
• What to Bring: Two friends!
• Let us know you are coming by joining the Facebook event page!
• OBS will provide the clay. We need at least 20 people to pull this off so please save the date!

If you missed the memo on our upcoming One Million Bones event in Memphis all the details are here. 

Check out the video from our last bone-making event!

To apply for any of the following internships, please email your resume and which one you are interested in to info@operationbrokensilence.org. An OBS staffer will follow up with you to setup an interview.

Mass Atrocity Department: Refuge Research Intern

The Mass Atrocity department currently has one position available for local research in Memphis concerning the refugee status in the city. This intern position will coordinate with local partners to setup meetings, gather data, and build the Memphis Refugee Report due in Fall of 2012. The report will focus on current refugee living conditions, potential solutions, and statistical data concerning the whereabouts and numbers of refugees living in Memphis.

While not all are needed to apply, the requirements include:

• Good time management
• Willingness/ability to meet with people of diverse background
• Exciting, contagious attitude
• Previous report gathering/writing experience
• Undergraduate, recent graduate or graduate student with a minimum GPA of 3.0
• Ability to work well in a group setting as well as on your own