PILPG Analyzes the Legal Basis for Genocide in Darfur

The Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) has been heavily involved in analyzing the legal basis for a declaration of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

 

In September, PILPG released a document entitled "Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis " which examined the allegations of genocide in light of the Genocide Convention of 1948 and determined that the qualifications matched the events in Darfur.

 

The analysis was based on a careful examination of the Genocide Convention and case law produced by the International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. First hand accounts from refugees were also used to make the determination. Jamal Jafari, a Senior Research Associate at PILPG, traveled to the UN Refugee camps in eastern Chad last August to interview refugees for the State Department's Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project administered by the Coalition for International Justice. This information was used to merge legal analysis with the facts on the ground to determine that the definition of genocide under the Convention was satisfied. The document has been widely disseminated and used within government circles both in the U.S. and abroad to support the finding that the crimes in Darfur amounted to genocide.

In February, Jamal Jafari addressed a conference on Darfur sponsored by the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Museum . The Conference focused on the discrepancies between the U.S. and UN positions on Darfur and discussed both public and governmental responses to the situation.

Media Commentary
Professor Paul Williams and Jamal Jafari recently published an opinion piece in the Jurist entitled "Word Games: The UN and Genocide in Darfur" available at
(http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2005/03/word-games-un-and-genocide-in-darfur.php)

Jamal Jafari was recently interviewed on developments in Darfur by Radio Sawa and WOL 1450am in Washington, DC /XM 866-801 TALK (8255)
Mr. Jafari's article entitled "'Never Again', Again: Darfur , the Genocide Convention, and the Duty to Prevent Genocide" appeared in the Human Rights Brief in the Fall of 2004, available at http://wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/12/121.pdf

About the Public International Law & Policy Group
The Public International Law & Policy Group is a non-profit organization that operates as a global pro bono law firm providing free legal assistance to developing states and states in transition involved in conflicts.   The Public International Law & Policy Group was founded with the support of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is a UN-designated Non-Governmental Organization. PILPG receives funding from a number of sources, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, United States Institute of Peace, the Ploughshares Fund, and the Compton Foundation.

The Managing Board of PILPG includes

Paul Williams - Executive Director,
Michael Scharf - Managing Director,
James Hooper - Managing Director, and

To learn more about the Public International Law & Policy Group, please visit our website at http://www.publicinternationallaw.org