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"Mass Atrocities in Sudan and the Road to Elections: New Risks and Responses"
Jerry Fowler
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Planned Remarks:
The Sudanese government’s military campaign against marginalized ethnic groups in Darfur has led to as many as 300,000 civilian deaths, 400 destroyed villages, and millions of civilians forced to flee their homes. Since the conflict started, the government of Sudan has been hindering aid to victims, blocking peacemaking efforts, and diverting international attention through continued violence, broken agreements and unfulfilled commitments. In 2010, Sudan will hold its first elections in 24 years presenting additional complexity and risks. President Al-Bashir’s government is pursuing a victory at all costs, and the possibility of free and fair elections is rapidly diminishing. Without an appropriate response from the international community, the results could lead to legitimacy for a genocidal government and a return to war throughout Sudan.
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Speaker's Biography:
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| Jerry Fowler
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In January 2008, Jerry Fowler - a recognized authority on the problem of responding to genocide and related crimes against humanity - was selected to serve as president of the Save Darfur Coalition. In this role, Fowler leads the multi-million dollar advocacy organization and its staff of 30 professional organizers, policy advisors and communications specialists. He is charged with increasing coordination of joint Darfur advocacy efforts among the coalition's more than 180 member organizations. Fowler also directs communications with more than one million Darfur activists, more than one thousand community coalitions, and joint efforts within a strong global movement in 50 different countries.
Prior to his role at the coalition, Fowler served as the founding director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience. Under his guidance, the museum's genocide prevention efforts attained worldwide prominence. On Fowler's recommendation, the museum issued a Darfur "Genocide Warning" in January 2004 following streaming reports of mass violence and displacement. He traveled to the Chad-Darfur border region in May of 2004 to document the destruction and suffering and later that year co-convened the seminal meeting of faith-based and human rights activists - a meeting which marked the Save Darfur Coalition's founding. He participated, along with other leading Darfur activists, in an April 2006 White House meeting with President Bush. Fowler also served on the coalition's board of directors since its inception.
His publications include "Out of that Darkness: Preventing Genocide in the 21st Century," in Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views (Routledge, 2004). He also directed the short film A Good Man in Hell: General Romeo Dallaire and the Rwanda Genocide. He created and hosted Voices on Genocide Prevention, the museum's award-winning interview program and podcast series. His media appearances have included CBS, Fox, National Public Radio, CNN and a host of other national and international outlets.
Fowler has taught at George Washington University Law School and George Mason University Law School and has been a Scholar-in-Residence at American University's summer Human Rights Institute. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Princeton University. From 1983 to 1987, he was stationed in Germany as an officer in the United States Army. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Special Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice. Before joining the museum, Jerry was legislative counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, where he worked on a broad array of human rights issues, including international justice and refugee and asylum policy. In 2006-2007, he was the William F. Podlich Distinguished Visitor at Claremont McKenna College, where he remains a senior research associate at the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights.
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World Affairs Council of the Florida Palm Beaches
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