59 hours and counting...

Just three days! Three days until thousands, dressed in white, will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., coming together in solidarity to create a visible petition against the ongoing atrocities being committed in Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma, Somalia and Syria. It’s been an incredible journey, bringing together thousands of participants around the world to utilize the power of a striking visual statement, the bone, as a tool to educate, engage and inspire action.

Over the last several months, we’ve been based in both Albuquerque and D.C., applying for permits, securing event equipment, recruiting volunteers, publicizing the event, and coordinating boxes and boxes of bones from across the country to be transported to the National Mall. This week, we’ll be honest, it’s been a mix of utter chaos and anticipation as we’ve been working to pull this off! 

Yesterday, our friends at UPS picked up nearly 200 boxes from one of our storage locations in D.C., after loading up another 48,000 bones last week. We couldn’t be more grateful for their help during past few weeks, visiting each hub, meeting with the State Coordinators and volunteers who organized storage and making the entire process seamless. What seemed like endless number-crunching and unique logistical obstacles were welcomed by our fearless shipping heroes and it was so lovely to see pictures and hear stories from each unique pick-up location. There’s something beautiful about imagining those bones traveling thousands of miles, carefully packed, all headed for the same place, brought together to build something so much larger than themselves. 

It’s going to be quite a culmination come Saturday. Hours spent by individuals and communities crafting, packing and sending their handmade bones off to join others, each representing a voice, a story to be shared on the National Mall. We’ve been shocked to see how many members of the OMB family are traveling to D.C. to lay down their bones in person.  Some have been with the project since its inception, many from our home state of New Mexico, and have watched One Million Bones evolve from an idea into an international social arts practice. It will also be the first time we’ve actually met many of our most dedicated volunteers, coordinators and supporters from all corners of the country…we’re both excited and grateful for the chance to thank them all in person! 

We’ll also be welcoming the Students Rebuild On Tour team in D.C. after they’ve spent months on the road, visiting schools and community events, challenging those they met to make bones for hope and healing, resulting in thousands made for the National Mall installation. They’ll be parking their interactive trailer on the Mall for everyone to check out! 

If only every participant, every set of hands that crafted a bone, could join us on June 8, to physically lay the bones they made to rest. But we know that so many will be with us in spirit and it is truly a privilege to lay down bones in their name. We encourage anyone at home to tune in for our live stream on June 8 and 9 for a chance to virtually witness the bone-laying and listen to our speaker program and evening candlelight vigil.

We can’t wait to create this visible petition for all to see, to reflect on the visual that we create and what it represents to each of us, to listen to our speakers share the experiences that brought them here, to educate with workshops led by experts and activists, to advocate on Capitol Hill for a real change in foreign policy, and most importantly, to recognize the collective effort that carried this movement and the reality the bones represent.

Personal reflections from New Orleans: Local to Global

As a follow up to our blog last Friday where we highlighted the incredible work being done in New Orleans with their 10,000 Bones: Local to Global event we asked Emily Gatehouse who is the Louisiana Co-Coordinator of One Million Bones to reflect on her experience helping organize the event.  Below are her reflections.  

Guest post by Emily Gatehouse Louisiana Co-Coordinator of One Million Bones

This is has truly been one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had. It was as much a growing and learning process for the students and community members we engaged as it was for me. Personally, this was my first time coordinating anything of this scale or importance. I learned how to reach out to new community partners, how to be a guest speaker, how to manage PR, how to book guest speakers- how to coordinate an open community event. However, these important life experiences are not what I take away from our Local to Global: 10,000 Bones installation. What I take away, what I take in, is a much deeper, more compassionate connection to the incredible people of my adopted city: New Orleans.

The majority of people we engaged were at-risk students K-12. A lot of the students we talked to know and live the harsh realities of the New Orleans streets, which frequently resemble third world war-zones rather than first world neighborhoods. These students, these children, grow up with the very real fact that they could get shot walking to school, they could start dealing drugs in elementary school, they could simply follow the path that has been followed so many times before them. However, every single time we went into a school and gave our opening presentation I saw their hope, their strength and their bravery. They were able to open up and connect on a deep personal level with people they have never met, who live half way around the world, because they understand their struggles. For many kids this was their first exposure to the everyday struggles of people outside of New Orleans. For many it was their first time hearing the word genocide, or even realizing that there are ways, artistic, fun, interesting ways to help people- that not all hope is lost. I will never forget one 6th grader coming up to me saying "this is my 6th bone that means my 6th dollar". I will never forget 15 kids yelling "the bone lady is here! Are we going to make more bones?!" I will never forget the high schoolers questioning me and getting frustrated and saying "well what can I do about it". To put it simply, Claude asked me why I kept pouring so much of my time and energy into this project, my answer was simple "the kids".

 

Emily on far right wearing her OMB shirt with Devin, Ms. Janelle, Emmanuel, Brielle and Sonya (L-R).  You guys ROCK!

Following the Election...

Post by Leigh Durham

Now that election fervor has settled and President Barack Obama has been elected for a second term, we move forward and hope that our priorities here at OMB become those of the U.S. government: preventing future atrocities and utilizing our resources to put an end to ongoing conflicts. Our friends at STAND sent a post-election open letter to the Commander in Chief, outlining what must be done in order to make mass atrocity prevention a major concern of U.S. foreign policy. Their three major policy recommendations are:

• Expand the Atrocities Prevention Board, an interagency body created to detect and respond to growing threats, and allow for non-governmental actors to advise policy-makers.
• Continue to financially support successful U.S. conflict prevention programs, including U.N. peacekeeping and the State Department’s Complex Crises Fund despite repeated budget cuts on foreign assistance.
• Take a multilateral approach to peacebuilding by including key regional partners to gain a local lens when assessing crises.

Another interesting piece to consider is a report by Freedom House, released earlier this year as the candidates campaigned, titled “Ten Critical Human Rights Challenges for the Next American President.” Throughout the list, there are several points that are specifically relevant to our work, including preventing genocide and mass atrocities and providing access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, while ensuring accountability for those who commit these heinous crimes. Also necessary are regulatory measures to see that corporations are not contributing to these conflicts in their operational practices and supply chains, something that is truly critical in the DRC. 

We have great hope for the future and the role an administration can play in protecting the lives of all people, but we will also be keeping in mind that real change often occurs between elections, when the collective voice is too strong to ignore and local communities work together to create their own realities.

10,000 Bones: Local to Global

Today I want to highlight the work that is being done in New Orleans by the NOLA chapter of One Million Bones and their many community partners.

Last year when I went to New Orleans, I was amazed at how the community responded with such generosity and enthusiasm for both our mission and our approach for raising awareness about genocide and conflicts happening around the world.  While there, I met and worked with so many incredible people in the city —many of whom have continued the work of One Million Bones. Truly this blog is to honor these individuals for all they do, and how they inspire us.

One of the reasons the project had such a deep impact in this community is because New Orleans, like the south side of Chicago, like parts of Baltimore and many other places in our country, is riddled with violence.  That violence is so entrenched that it tears apart communities, families and the fabric of the societies living in them.

Last night the One Million Bones NOLA chapter and St. Anna’s Episcopal Church laid out 10,000 bones to honor victims lost to conflicts happening around the world as well as to honor victims lost to violence in the New Orleans streets.  The bones were made by students in 30 local schools, and were crafted in the context of discussions about how the local violence has affected these students.  These conversations created a space for dialogue to happen about the scale and scope of violence happening in places like Sudan, and Congo. 

Since 2007, St Anna’s Church has been compiling a list of local murder victims; to date they have over 200 names.  Each of these names was honored in the installation in a large banner exhibited behind an alter of candles. Tonight there will be a candlelight vigil during which the names will be spoken.  Tomorrow’s events will include a preview showing of Shell Shocked, a documentary on the NOLA murder rate; and a speaker line-up which includes Elane, a mother whose son was murdered, a Sudanese relief worker, and Claude Gatebuke, a Rwandan genocide survivor; and performances by the Treme choir.

As our State Coordinator in Louisiana best put it “If we strip down to our bare bones, we are exactly the same. We all have the exact same right to live and the responsibility to protect the right of others to live. Especially in New Orleans.”

Our hearts are filled with gratitude to Dana Nguyen, Emily Gatehouse, Stacy Lee and so many others working tirelessly in New Orleans, and around the country to continue this work and to their passion for healing their communities and those living far away.

You can read more about the work happening in New Orleans in this article from The Advocate.

The Details

posted by Susan

Admittedly, what I’m about to post for you is DRY and kind of DULL “wonk” reading, but here’s the thing:  If we, as a world, are ever going to work out the kinks and disagreements on when and how R2P can be used as an appropriate strategy, I expect this is where it’s going to happen. Also, I have to remind myself, and thereby remind you, that the main disagreement seems to come when the use of military action starts being considered.  That’s not to say that disagreements don’t occur between the powerbrokers in the UN over definitions, resolutions and sanctions, but it seems to me the real sticking point, and the place where even supporters of the norm have trouble, is when there is any question that a country’s sovereignty may be infringed upon. And so, if we have an interest in this issue at all, if we believe that we have a responsibility to act or if we believe we don’t, this is how we find out what the people who are making the case are saying. So friend, pour yourself a hot cup of coffee, and read on.

In 2009, the UN General Assembly held the first Informal Interactive Dialogue on R2P.  This is a link to the Secretary General’s report on that first annual event.

The report was followed by the second annual UN General Assembly Informal Interactive Dialogue, a recap of which can be found here.

And now, just around the corner, the third annual — I’ll call it I-I-D on R2P:

“General Assembly informal interactive dialogue on RtoP

The UN General Assembly will convene its 3rd annual informal interactive dialogue of RtoP on 12 July 2011, which will focus on the role of regional and sub-regional organizations in implementing the Responsibility to Protect. 

The dialogue will be an opportunity to advance the General Assembly's consideration of RtoP, specifically regarding the role that regional organizations play in preventing and halting mass atrocities and how to strengthen regional capacity to protect. The dialogue is to be based on a report of the Secretary-General, to be released in the coming weeks. While no details have been released concerning the format of the dialogue, we expect it to feature a panel of experts, including the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Francis Deng and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, Ed Luck as well as other officials from regional and sub-regional organizations. We also expect civil society to be able to contribute to the dialogue.”

Now, if you live in New York or can get there easily, the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect is co-hosting a civil society panel on the role of regional organizations and RtoP. The information is below:

Civil Society Perspectives: The Role of Regional and Sub-Regional Organizations in Implementing the Responsibility to Protect and Reflections on Application of RtoP to Country Cases 

Church Center, 2^nd floor

UN Plaza, 44^th and 1^st Avenue

9:30-2:00

In preparation for the July 12 General Assembly interactive dialogue, ICRtoP, in association with the Stanley Foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, will host a half day panel open to the general public on 11 July entitled: Civil Society Perspectives: The Role of Regional and Sub-Regional Organizations in Implementing the Responsibility to Protect and Reflections on Application of RtoP to Country Cases. Panelists will examine how RtoP has been strengthened and implemented by regional organizations as well as reflect on the application of RtoP in country situations such as Libya, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, and Kenya. Edward Luck, Special Advisor on RtoP will open the event and Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, will provide the keynote address. Other speakers include: 

On The Role of Regional and Sub-regional Organizations in Implementing RtoP:

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Emmanuel BOMBANDE, Executive Director, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Ghana

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Dr. Pranee THIPARAT, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

European Union (EU)

Daniel FIOTT, Research Fellow, Madariaga- College of Europe Foundation, Belgium

Organization of American States (OAS) and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)

Dr. Andres SERBIN, Executive Director, Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES), Argentina

African Union (AU)

Don DEYA, Executive Director, Pan African Lawyers Union, Tanzania

Reflections on the application of RtoP to country cases: Libya, Cote D’Ivoire, + non military cases such as Kenya, Guinea and Sudan

Mr. Kenneth ROTH, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Dr. Gilles Olakounlé YABI, West Africa Project Director, International Crisis Group, Senegal

Dismas NKUNDA, Co-Director, International Refugee Rights Initiative/Darfur Consortium, Uganda

Dr. James PISCATORI, Professor of International Relations and Head of School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, United Kingdom

For more information or to rsvp, you can contact info AT responsibilitytoprotect DOT org.

Anyone thinking of attending?