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[Patrick F]

From CNN :

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By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN
December 11, 2009 5:51 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie wants President Obama's administration to take greater steps towards establishing peace in Sudan.

Jolie, in her role as the co-chair of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, wrote an op-ed piece for Newsweek magazine on Thursday, the day Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jolie wrote that Obama's administration has not yet announced any serious moves to bring corrupt Sudanese leaders to justice and said she is worried that the administration does not have a clear enough plan to improve the lives of the Sudanese people.

"I believe President Obama and his special envoy Scott Gration will do their best to bring peace to the region," Jolie, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, wrote. "Their policy, though, raises a number of questions. How is the Obama administration's approach to Sudan an evolution of justice? In addition, when the administration says it intends to work to 'improve the lives of the people of Darfur,' I would like to know what that means, besides the obvious point that their lives could hardly get worse."

In the piece, headlined "Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied," Jolie suggests the administration "explore ways to bring [Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir] to justice."

"This means bringing all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council on board to send the message that the international community will not tolerate mass atrocities," Jolie wrote.

She added, "I also hope we will act sooner and more powerfully to prevent future atrocities," and suggested the administration look to a Council on Foreign Relations report funded by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation that "offers recommendations to improve the U.N. Security Council's responsiveness by discouraging vetoes in cases of mass atrocities, while urging the United States to make clear its willingness to act on its own if necessary."

The actress and her partner Brad Pitt, who together have six children, created the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2006 and have used it to donate to a variety of humanitarian causes and to fund research.

Angelina Jolie has penned an op-ed piece for Newsweek the same day President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize

[Patrick F]

From JustJared this time :

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Angelina Jolie to President Obama: Help Darfur!

In observance of Human Rights Day, Angelina Jolie has taken to Newsweek to let the the Obama administration know that it’s not doing enough for the Darfur region of Sudan, where “government supported militia have left 300,000 dead and 2.7 million people internally displaced.”

In hopes of bringing down corrupt Sudanese leaders, the 34-year-old UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador writes, “I believe President Obama and his special envoy Scott Gration will do their best to bring peace to the region. Their policy, though, raises a number of questions. How is the Obama administration’s approach to Sudan an evolution of justice? In addition, when the administration says it intends to work to ‘improve the lives of the people of Darfur,’ I would like to know what that means, besides the obvious point that their lives could hardly get worse.”

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[Patrick F]

and from Newsweek :

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Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied
On Human Rights Day, a renewed argument for action in Darfur.

By Angelina Jolie | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 10, 2009 | Updated: 8:48 a.m. ET Dec 10, 2009

Today we observe Human Rights Day, founded more than half a century ago when the international community declared that respect for human rights and dignity "is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world," and resolved that the horrors of World War II should never be allowed to recur.
But they did. After Hitler, Stalin, and Franco in Europe, there was Mao and Pol Pot in Asia, and Mobutu and Taylor in Africa.
Recognizing that a declaration alone could not guarantee these rights, we created the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, then the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, and finally the International Criminal Court (ICC) in TheHague. Never again, we declared, would world leaders commit mass murder with impunity.
And then there is Darfur--where, since 2003, government-supported militia have left 300,000 dead and 2.7 million people internally displaced. The situation was so dire that in April 2007, Susan Rice, now the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, wrote, "The U.S. should press for a Chapter VII U.N. resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the U.N. force within one week, or face military consequences . . . If the U.S. fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it as [we] did in 1999 in Kosovo." The International Criminal Court then issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the first for a sitting head of state, and other Sudanese leaders implicated in the atrocities in Darfur.
Through all of this, we have been waiting and wondering what the outcome would be to save the people of Sudan and help break the cycle of impunity.
The Obama administration recently unveiled its new policy of engagement with Sudan, aimed first at securing the full implementation of the treaty that ended the north-south Sudanese civil war. While the administration maintained it will not deal with al-Bashir or any other official charged with arrest, it has not yet announced any serious moves to enforce the decision of the ICC and execute its warrants.
There will be pressure on the United States and its partners to bring stability to Sudan, even at the expense of criminal accountability. Regardless of the rationale, the end would be the same: victims left without justice while perpetrators walk away.
Even if justice is delayed, it must never be denied. The Declaration of Human Rights did not promise freedom or justice or peace.