Must Darfur Wait Another Year?

On July 31, 2007, the U.N. Security Council authorized 19,000 additional peacekeepers to help stop the violence in Darfur.

One year later, barely 2,000 have arrived, and those who are in Darfur lack the equipment they need to protect themselves, let alone Darfuri civilians. Just yesterday, at least seven peacekeepers were killed in Darfur in an attack most likely orchestrated by the government of Sudan.

Peacekeepers are risking their lives to fulfill the Security Council's promise to protect the people of Darfur. But the Security Council hasn't even given the peacekeepers the resources to protect themselves.

We cannot let another year pass with little more than words from our leaders.

Join our international campaign to deliver 50,000 petitions to the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on July 31, 2008. A Security Council resolution is useless without concrete action from the U.N. and the nations that lead it. It is outrageous that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—China, Russia, France, the U.K., and the U.S.—cannot produce a few hundred trucks, or even just 24 helicopters, to end the brutal genocide.

This is a failure of will, plain and simple. The world promised Darfur protection but has failed to deliver it.

Since January alone, 190,000 Darfuris have been displaced and driven from their homes. How many more deaths and displaced people will it take before the world community provides real security?

Click here to tell the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to stop dragging their feet and act immediately to deploy peacekeepers to Darfur.

Let's stand together on July 31—the one-year anniversary of the authorization of peacekeepers—to tell world leaders: No more false promises. No more delays. No more unfulfilled mandates. Just action and leadership, please.

We can't afford to simply watch the clock run out on the Bush administration. Not when people are dying every day.

Please write your elected officials to press for sufficient U.S. diplomatic efforts in concert with the rest of the international community to bring peace to and reaffirm the right to life of the people in Darfur.