March 4, 2013–Fours years after the first ICC arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, we are launching BashirWatch – a grassroots international rapid-response network to pressure policymakers, government representatives, court officials, and other key decision makers, especially in Africa and the Middle East, to support the ICC’s arrest warrants for Bashir and the other accused, bring them into custody, and transfer them to the ICC for trial.
Together, we will create the international pressure necessary to turn those who welcome Bashir onto their territory into international pariahs. “There is no greater affront to the system of international justice than the failure of the international community at large and some members of the Assembly of States Parties to bring Bashir and other accused to trial at the ICC. The undertaking by this coalition of NGOs is an important step in generating and increasing popular support to correct that affront,” noted Raymond M. Brown, Co-Founder of IJP and Legal Representative for Victims in the Bashir case.
Accountability for international crimes must be a priority! The victims of the Darfur genocide deserve justice. We know exactly where Bashir and the other accused are, we know where and when they travel, and we have an international justice mechanism in place ready to try them for their crimes.
Read more and join the Rapid Response Network here!
Follow the IJP and Bashir Watch on Facebook and Twitter (@BashirWatch).
And, read the Rights Groups’ first joint statement to the UN Security Council.
