International Day of Human Rights

Global Day for Darfur – 10th December ’06

International Human Rights day was this year marked by worldwide protests at the ongoing human rights violations in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The Global Day for Darfur focused on the widescale rape and sexual violence that has been perpetrated in this conflict.

Here in London, people first gathered near the Sudanese Embassy.

This guy was using his own blood on a placard of Sudan’s president, Omar Hasan al-Bashir.

I don’t think this idea worked as I wanted it to – you can’t really tell those are protestors in the reflection but I tried! At least 3 of the other camera crew people came to this area after I did, to try out the same thing ¬__¬ copy cats. Wonder if their shots turned out any better!

We then proceeded towards Downing Street.

I’m not sure who this woman was, but she reminded me of Michael Jackson

The girl on the left was great – really animated and loud.

Opposite Downing Street..

..they gave out rape alarms to people to let off simultaneously at midday to have a ‘minute’s noise’.

This was meant to represent the call for the international public to stop the mass rape of women and girls in Darfur.

They gave out earplugs as well to protect us from the noise.

These policemen were going for the subtle look.

BBC London presenter..whatever her name is

This was a pretty good protest, although it was a bit ironic that there weren’t many women in the crowd. I haven’t been to a dynamic one like this in quite a while – there was a good atmosphere and the protestors definitely made their voice heard. This wasn’t reflected in the media though.
The event wasn’t given much publicity at all. There was a BBC and Sky News crew present for a bit, but I don’t think much coverage was given, if at all.

It’s a shame really. People actively try to raise awareness on important issues of this sort, but their pleas often go unheard. If this protest had been related to Iraq, the media coverage would have been much more widespread.

Today the London Metro had nothing on the story, and the London Paper featured one measley shot with a tiny caption.

More info here.