The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Room 7226
Washington, DC 20520                    


Dear Secretary Clinton:

We applaud your leadership and commitment to addressing sexual violence in armed conflict. As you continue to monitor the situation in Sudan and work to facilitate effective humanitarian operations for Darfuris displaced in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic, we the undersigned organizations urge you to ensure that programming for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGV) is recognized as essential and incorporated into the basic needs objectives for humanitarian operations in the region. We hope that you will make the restoration of SGV programming a priority alongside the “life-saving sectors” of protection and food security, and we believe that with U.S. assistance programming can be immediately restored to pre-expulsion levels.

Many of the 13 international aid agencies expelled from Darfur in March 2009 worked to provide comprehensive humanitarian services, including support for women and girls who have experienced sexual violence.  Such attacks have been documented during the initial Government of Sudan/Janjaweed campaign in Darfur in 2003-2005, and both within and outside UNHCR Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps since their establishment in 2004.  These agencies were involved in painstaking negotiations with the Government of Sudan in order to provide SGV services, and since their expulsion SGV services have been eliminated in Darfur. The Government of Sudan controls the authorization of humanitarian operations under their domestic jurisdiction and had relentlessly obstructed the negotiation of technical agreements with these agencies in order to stymie SGV programming. The al-Bashir government continues to maintain that mass sexual violence has not occurred in the Darfur region and obstructs SGV programming in order to avoid even indirect recognition of these atrocities.

We request that you prioritize the restoration of SGV programs that were severed in March 2009 due to the expulsion of international aid agencies.  These services include emergency assistance for injuries, documentation of injuries sustained during these brutal attacks, access to HIV/AIDS prophylactic treatment, pregnancy testing, and psychological and social support. Furthermore, we ask that you work to achieve the following goals:

• Humanitarian organizations must be supported by the U.S. as they renegotiate technical agreements with the Government of Sudan to incorporate SGV programs into their operations in Sudan.
• Government obstruction of SGV services must be monitored in Khartoum and on the ground: SGV services must be restored and made available to all IDP populations, including West and South Darfur where humanitarian operations function at a lower level than in North Darfur state.
• Coordination between aid agencies, camp residents and UNAMID gender desk officers is essential. The recruitment of gender desk officers must involve camp residents, and the work of gender experts should fully utilize the expertise and resources of aid agencies as well as camp residents, to ensure the establishment of culturally competent services.

As you know, the U.S. is the primary donor to the humanitarian operations in Darfur, and the recent engagement of the al-Bashir government by the Obama administration now presents the opportunity to ensure that SGV services are provided to survivors in Darfur, and across the Sudan-Chad border in Eastern Chad.  We need urgent action to protect the rights of victims and to ensure the Government of Sudan is no longer able to obstruct the delivery of these essential services.

Sincerely,

African Centre for European and Peace Studies
American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan
American Friends Service Committee
American Islamic Congress
American Jewish World Service
Americans Against the Darfur Genocide
Amnesty International USA
Arab Coalition for Darfur
Champion Darfur
Darfur and Beyond
Darfur Reconciliation & Development Organization
Darfur Urgent Action Coalition of Georgia
Dear Sudan, Love Marin
Defend Darfur Dallas
Enough Project
Genocide Intervention Network
Human Rights Watch
Idaho Darfur Coalition
International Refugee Rights Initiative
Investors Against Genocide
Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce on Darfur
Keokuk for Darfur
Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur
North Jersey Coalition for Darfur
Orange County for Darfur
Physicians for Human Rights
Refugees International
San Antonio Interfaith Darfur Coalition
San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition
Save Darfur Coalition
Save Darfur of Redding, CA
Save Darfur Washington State
Save Darfur: Central PA
Shine a Ray of Hope for Darfur
STAND at Stanford University
STAND at UC Berkeley
STAND at UC Davis
STAND UCLA
Stop Genocide Now
Texans Against Genocide


cc:     Major General J. Scott Gration (Retired), Special Envoy to Sudan