8.31.12 UPDATE: We have fantastic news. Thanks to all of our amazing JWW activists who signed our petitions, shared this story on Facebook and helped to raise the alarm about Sudan’s outrageous bid to sit on the UN Human Rights Council, the Sudanese government has now withdrawn its bid. In a letter to the African Candidacy Commission at the UN, the Sudanese government has requested that its candidacy be officially withdrawn. Make no mistake: Sudan has only withdrawn because the persistent pressure from activists like you made it clear to all member nations of the UN that allowing a genocidal regime to sit on the commission responsible for assessing human rights violations was an embarrassment the institution could not afford. This could not have happened without your support.

UPDATE: Initially, a “clean slate” of African nations was presented, where the number of candidates matched exactly the number of vacant seats available for the region.  According to Amnesty International, Kenya has since been submitted as a candidate, creating a contested election.  While the threat of a Sudanese seat on the UNHRC remains, they no longer have a de facto nomination.

The idea is so ridiculous, it’s almost farcical: Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for ten counts war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, is bidding for a seat on the UN’s Human Rights Council.

Read more here.

Horrified? Sign our petition to US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon AND JWW partner UN Watch’s petition to the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN.

Extra credit:  Let Ambassador Susan Rice know how horrified you are directly.

1. “Like” Ambassador Rice’s Facebook Page here.

2. Post this message:

Under no circumstances should Sudan, ruled by a genocidal regime that is actively and purposefully starving its own people, be allowed to sit on the UN’s Human Rights Council. Please use your influence with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to urge them to speak out immediately against this travesty.

Not on Facebook? Visit the US Mission to the United Nations contact form to send a message to Ambassador Rice here.