Date of Award

2-24-2009

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Law (SJD)

Department

Law

First Advisor

Sompong Sucharitkul

Second Advisor

Christian Okeke

Third Advisor

Sophie Clavier

Abstract

Since early 2003, the western Darfur region of the Sudan has been subjected to a massive campaign of ethnic violence that has claimed the lives of almost 400,000 civilians, and has created nearly 2 million internally-displaced refugees or refugees that have fled to camps in neighboring Chad. Despite the unmistakable tragedy that has occurred and continues to occur, the international community has utterly failed to respond. The United Nations has taken almost no leadership role in abating or even stopping the crisis. Debate over whether the term "genocide" should be used to describe the ethnic cleansing and displacement of nearly a half of a million people in Sudan has essentially deterred any type of humanitarian intervention from other nations that have signed or ratified the Genocide Convention. Although the U.S. government has referred to the crisis as "genocide," the United Nations and the rest of the world continue to show great reluctance to do so, and have utterly failed to respond in a timely manner that could have prevented countless deaths and ended the violence. Despite the tragedy that has occurred over the past six years due to inaction, the United Nations, as the world's arbiter, could reclaim the ideal of acting as the world's "beacon" of international peace and security if it took an immediate stand to end the crisis. A number of significant events have occurred since the crisis began that in fact establish a "roadmap" in which the crisis can be abated and future crises could be avoided, which will be discussed herein.

Comments

Document is lacking p.1-2. This is a pagination error, not an incomplete document.

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