NEW YORK - November 30 - On November 30, 2005, Amnesty International will host the second panel in a year-long series in New York City to bring greater attention to war crimes against women. From 7:00 to 9:00pm at Judson Church, adjacent to New York University Law School, panelists Sandra Krause, Rachel Mayanja, Peter Takirambude, and Alex de Waal will address the ongoing brutalization and murder of women in Darfur, Sudan, and the legal and practical challenges in bringing criminals to justice and treating survivors. Darfur is a devastating example of how state-sanctioned violence against women has emptied the land of habitants, creating an ethnic apartheid and a state of impunity.

The series is one part of Amnesty's campaign to raise public awareness about rape and other violence against women as weapons of war, and to mount action to bring to justice perpetrators of war crimes against women. Our government has called the killings in Darfur a genocide, and whether one agrees or calls it ethnic cleansing, the rape of women is an integral method to the destruction of life and community ongoing there. Just as in Bosnia and Rwanda, government-sponsored combatants are targeting women to eliminate specific groups of people," said Denise Bell, an Amnesty activist working on the issue. "Our government and others will not act to stop the killings until there is a political cost to inaction. Citizen pressure is the remaining course of action. History shows that genocide will continue until there is sufficient public outrage to compel leaders to act. Amnesty is acting to press governments to hold perpetrators accountable, and the series is one way of galvanizing public pressure so the killings and rapes in Darfur are stopped and the perpetrators are brought to justice."

DETAILS:

WHO:
Pamela Shifman, moderator, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF.
Sandra Krause, Director of the Reproductive Health Project at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, an affiliate of the International Rescue Committee.
Rachel Mayanja, United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement for Women
Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.
Alex de Waal, Fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University and a Co-director of Justice Africa in London, and was Chairman of Mines Advisory Group when it was named a 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Co-Laureate.

WHEN:
Wednesday, November 30, 2005, 7:00 - 9:00PM
Admission free.
RSVP (optional) at AmnestyRSVP@yahoo.com

WHERE:
Judson Memorial Church, Assembly Hall
239 Thompson Street (Washington Square South)

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