The Harry Potter Alliance

By Andrew Slack

July 8, 2008

The HPA is waking up the UN Security Council on Darfur (this is amazing!)

I have BIG news! BIG NEWS! The UN Security Council has listened to us. To the HP Alliance!

So many of you signed the petition at wantedforwarcrimes.org/hpa and it seems to have been instrumental in getting the UN Security Council to finally make a public statement about war criminals in Sudan.

Background
Over a year ago, the International Criminal Court put out indictments against two men in Sudan who have helped engineer the genocide in Darfur. While it’s the UN Security Council’s job to turn these indictments into arrests, like the Ministry of Magic ineptitude in facing Voldemort, the Council had done nothing.

Change
Then they got 10,000 letters asking them to do something and they finally did. And do you want to know where the majority of these letters came from?!!

Here’s what Nick Donovan, the Head of Campaigns, Policy, and Research at the UK-based Aegis Trust has to say:

“You all at the HP Alliance made it possible to send almost 10,000 emails to the UN Security Council, asking for the Council to speak out and put pressure on Khartoum to hand the men over. Without your imaginative campaigns over 3/4 of these emails would never have been sent.

“The end result is the first ever UNSC presidential statement condemning Sudan‘s lack of action and demanding an end to impunity. Our actions helped, the pressure generated by other NGOs helped – and the grassroots emails sent by you all really made the difference – showing that it wasn’t just NGOs and members of the elite who care about Darfur – but people from all walks of life disgusted at impunity for mass murder and eager to see action.”

So in plain English: the UN Security has finally put out a statement condemning Sudan‘s complacency to war crimes and while it’s only a statement it looks like this is just going to be the beginning. And guess what? You helped make this happen by signing the letter at wantedforwarcrimes.org/hpa! Can you believe it?! I mean, this talk about a real world Dumbledore’s Army! We are waking the world up!

NEXT STEP
So what’s our next step? Do you think we can get 5,000 signatures to sign this pledge right here? Will you sign it and tell everyone you know to sign it?!

We have just proved that we can MOVE MOUNTAINS! Let’s not stop there. Let’s keep it going! Please be one of 5,000 signatures to sign this pledge!!!

For full text of what Nick Donovan had to say, please click below.

The Aegis Trust runs the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda, and the Holocaust Centre in the UK, both of which help people understand the enormity of genocides from the recent and not-so-recent past. We also have a long running campaign highlighting the mass atrocities in Darfur. One of the few bodies able and independent enough to speak out is the International Criminal Court which last year issued two arrest warrants for men suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity. For over a year the international community has done nothing about these two men. Yet you all at the HP Alliance made it possible to send almost 10,000 emails to the UN Security Council, asking for the Council to speak out and put pressure on Khartoum to hand the men over. Without your imaginative campaigns over 3/4 of these emails would never have been sent.

The end result is the first ever UNSC presidential statement condemning Sudan’s lack of action and demanding an end to impunity. Our actions helped, the pressure generated by other NGOs helped – and the grassroots emails sent by you all really made the difference – showing that it wasn’t just NGOs and members of the elite who care about Darfur – but people from all walks of life disgusted at impunity for mass murder and eager to see action.