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Abstract

With relatives displaced from their homes and a fiancée who was arbitrarily imprisoned and abused in Darfur, Hayat comes to her work with victims in the refugee camps with a personal stake. ... This commitment to human rights defense and victims' advocacy led Hanifa and eight of his Sudanese colleagues to the Darfur Legal Training Program (the "Program"), a first-of-its-kind seminar in June of 2007 led by the American Bar Association Litigation Section (the "Section"), with funding from the MacArthur Foundation. ... The Program brought these lawyers to London for a week to train with a faculty of American trial lawyers and representatives of the International Criminal Court ("ICC") on advocacy skills, victims' rights and resources, and international human rights law. ... The Sudanese lawyers now look to the ICC to administer justice on behalf of the Darfur victims, but they question if the Court can redress the millions of crimes that have occurred in Darfur--a concern highlighted by the ICC Prosecutor's initial indictment, which accused only two defendants of crimes alleged to have occurred in four villages. ... Even recognizing the limitations of the ICC and the Sudanese legal system, however, the Sudanese lawyers are unwavering in their position that justice must be delivered to all of the Darfur victims, and the crimes against those victims must be acknowledged before there can be reconciliation in the Sudan. ... The participants in the Darfur Legal Training Program were men and women lawyers from throughout Sudan--all of whom have joined Salih in dedicating their careers to defending victims and challenging government oppression and atrocities. ... The Darfur Legal Training Program was designed to meet this specific need, by forging an unprecedented connection between those lawyers working on the ground in Sudan with Darfur victims, and the institution tasked with the investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. ... In story after story, the Sudanese lawyers shared the futility and tragic similarities of their repeated efforts on behalf of Darfur rape victims in the Sudan: each case brought on behalf of victims was quickly defeated as a result of government pressure.

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