GI-NET's blog

On Friday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Burma, where the military junta clings to power and continues its major counter-insurgency campaigns against ethnic minorities in the east. The Secretary-General's top three priorities for the country are:

Last week, the Fund for Peace released the Failed States Index for 2009. The Failed States Index grades countries on criteria of social, economic, and political indications of state stability. All of Genocide Intervention Network's Areas of Concern appear in the top-25 most unstable countries on this list and Somalia has the distinguished title of topping the list two years in a row.

Earlier today, the New York State Comptroller announced that the New York State Common Retirement Fund is divesting its portfolio of all investments in a set of companies operating in Sudan with another set now being monitored. The move has been made in conjunction with the Conflict Risk Network, Genocide Intervention Network's project to mitigate risk to investors in companies engaged in conflict zones.

A joint communiqué between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP) was released last week at the conclusion of a conference on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

About 200 people died in a week-long series of blasts near Shiite sites, one week before US troops are scheduled to pullout from Iraqi cities. Violence has been dropping steadily since 2007, but the death toll for June has already exceeded the May levels, which saw the fewest deaths linked to insecurity since 2003.

Today marks the beginning of the retreat for the STAND Student Leadership Team. STAND, as the student-led division of Genocide Intervention Network, has been bringing genocide awareness to college campuses and communities all over the United States since 2004. Its leadership team consists solely of students volunteering their time to raise awareness and bring about an end to genocide and other mass human rights atrocities.

17-year-old mountaineer and featured Person Who Moves the World, Johnny Strange has continued his mission to raise awareness to end genocide by appearing on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric last night. In it, they discuss Johnny's climbs both to the summit of Mt. Everest and Vinson Massif, the tallest peak in Antarctica at age 12.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s World is Witness blog has just posted a fascinating entry by Michael Graham as he explores the town of Duru, recently devastated by the LRA.

In a recent speech in The Hague, International Crisis Group President and former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans highlighted the need to improve the international response to crimes against humanity.

On June 22, Somali president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced that the country is under a state of emergency due to a deadly 6-week offensive by insurgents across the country.

In recent fighting, at least 300 people have been killed nationwide and the UN says over 122,000 people have been displaced from their homes since early May.