DR. MOHAMMED AHMED SPEAKS AT CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTER AT KING HALL

Internationally renowned Dafuri human rights advocate and peace negotiator and 2007 RFK Human Rights Award winner Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah traveld to UC Davis with RFK Center staff to discuss the current crisis in Sudan.   His talk focused on the need for a regional solution to stop the interrelated violence in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic, the importance of protecting civilians in displaced persons' camps, and the need for a reconciliation process to help the survivors of the violence return to peaceful lives. 

Dr. Mohammed Ahmed, a Darfuri physician, also met privately with 40 U.C Davis law students preparing a report on peace and reconciliation processes around the world to aid his work.  The report is the inaugural collaboration of the newly launched California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC) and the Washington D.C.-based Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

RFK Center awarded Dr. Mohammed Ahmed, Professor of Medicine at el-Fasher University in Darfur, the 2007 RFK Human Rights Award in recognition of his tireless efforts providing treatment to survivors of torture and sexual violence in Darfur, and for his work on conflict resolution and peace building.   Since then RFK Center has partnered with Dr. Mohammed Ahmed to support the fundamental human rights of civilians in Darfur. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed is also a member of the Sudanese Organization for Rights and Peace Building, which endeavors to prevent human rights violations and promote peace and reconciliation. He is a highly respected community leader, peace negotiator and human rights advocate. Formerly, he was the Medical Treatment Director at the Amel Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture in Sudan. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed has represented the Fur, the majority ethnic group in Darfur, in national and international forums and negotiations for peace.

CILC's founding director Professor Diane Marie Amann and her former student, UC Davis Law School alumna Monika Kalra Varma, now the Human Rights Director of the RFK Center, began collaborating to provide assistance to Dr. Mohammed Ahmed last year.  Professor Amann's International Human Rights & Transitional Justice class has begun analyzing questions related to various peace and reconciliation processes around the world. 

In his King Hall lecture, Dr. Mohammed Ahmed discussed the complex history of the conflict in Darfur, emphasizing that the current crisis is not, as sometimes depicted in the media, the result of ethnic tensions or competition for Sudan's meager natural resources, but more the product of the government disenfranchisement of large portions of the population.  "Most Africans have no mechanism for participation in citizenship in their country," he said. 

The result has been a rebellion that began in 2003, as disenfranchised groups began fighting the government and government-backed militia, with horrific consequences for the civilian population, including mass killings and systematic rape.  More than 200,000 have been killed and 2.5 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

A resolution to the crisis, Dr. Mohammed Ahmed suggested, will come about if the international community can intervene to ensure equal access to government representation.  "If we believe we are all citizens and want one country, we can share citizenship," he said.

For More Details:

California International Law Center at King Hall:  http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/academics-clinicals/cilc/