تكريم د. محمد احمد لعلاجه ضحايا العنف الجنسي في دارفور

Sex violence torture treatment doctor is honored as human rights defender

November 27, 3:16 PMHuman Rights ExaminerDeborah Dupre'

I also speak on behalf of my patients – 14-year-old girls who have been gang raped in front of their families, men and boys thrown into the fire that also burned their villages and all their possessions, prisoners who have spoken out against the government and paid for it with awful torture and mutilation of their bodies... I urge the United States and the international community to understand these camp liquidations for what they are: the final phase of the Sudanese government’s plan to exterminate the African tribes of Darfur. The fate of the people expelled from the camps is clear: they are left vulnerable to attacks by militias and left without access to the humanitarian aid they rely upon. Because of this situation, they will soon die of preventable disease, malnutrition, starvation or violence – unless they are protected! Dr. Ahmed Mohammed, RFK Memorial Award speech, November 16, 2007)

WASHINGTON – Today the Save Darfur Coalition is honoring Darfuri physician and human rights defender, Dr. Mohamed Ahmed, as part of an initiative associated with the internationally-observed “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.”

For each of the 16 days, the coalition’s unique campaign is honoring a leader in the stuggle to empower, protect and uplift women in Sudan, and offer a corresponding action for human rights defenders working to end the war on the third world impacting mainly women and children and benefitting people of the north developed countries.

The international movement is observed between November 25, 2009 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and December 10, 2009 (International Human Rights Day).

Dr. Mohammed Ahmed works with victims of torture and sexual violence as a physician and as a professor of Medicine at el-Fasher University in Darfur. He is also involved in negotiating a lasting peace resolution in Darfur.

Dr. Mohammed treated victims of sexual violence, gathered information about the abuses, and set-up a system to document sexual violence when he served as the medical treatment director of the Amel Center for the Treatment & Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture at the Nyala Hospital in Darfur.

While at the hospital, he built a network of health professionals in Darfur care for victims of sexual violence. Despite constant risk of intimidation by the Sudanese government, the Amel Center had treated 520 survivors of sexual violence and torture by October 2007.

To learn more about Save Darfur Coalition’s acknowledgement of Dr. Mohammed Ahmed’s leadership, visit www.savedarfur.org/pages/day-4 that explains:

Dr. Ahmed has worked tirelessly to help women who have suffered from sexual violence and torture,” said Niemat Ahmadi a genocide survivor and liaison to the Darfuri diaspora community at the Save Darfur Coalition. “Dr. Ahmed has risked his life and sacrificed to fight for those without a voice. He is a leader in pressing for better conditions for victims of sexual violence.”

The Save Darfur Coalition is asking human rights advocates to observe the 4th day of the campaign by writing a letter to one of Save Darfur Coalition’s “16 Leaders” conveying appreciation for work they do to end violence against women.

The global campaign started in 1991 at the Center for Global Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University, and is observed by thousands of organizations across the globe. The Save Darfur Coalition is raising awareness by honoring 16 trail-blazing individuals or groups who are fighting to end sexual violence in Darfur, and helping to educate their communities about the ongoing suffering in Sudan.

The coalition’s entire “16 Days” initiatives can be found at www.savedarfur.org/16days.

An example of organized violence against women in Darfur was provided in a BBC interview with a young female college student survivor of an attack by men using electric shock ####l batons on thirty students in their dorm rooms. (Mike Thomson, Government ordered Darfur attack, BBC, June 27, 2009)