The Genocide Intervention Network (or GI-NET) was a non-profit organization aiming to "empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide". Founded in 2004, in 2005 the Genocide Intervention Fund changed its name to Genocide Intervention Network, and in 2011, it merged with the Save Darfur Coalition to form a new organization, United to End Genocide.
History
In October 2004, two Swarthmore College students, Mark Hanis and Andrew Sniderman, established the Genocide Intervention Network in hopes of empowering citizens to protect civilians from the atrocities occurring in Darfur. GI-Net's mission and policy goals were greatly influenced by the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, drafted by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, in order to create a permanent anti-genocide grassroots movement.
In 2011, GI-Net and the Save Darfur Coalition merged to establish United to End Genocide.
Supporting the African Mission in Sudan
Mark Hanis, Andrew Sniderman, Sam Bell, Cara Angelotta, Susannah Gund, Janessa Calvo-Friedman, Rita Kamani, Elisabeth Jaquette and others wanted the genocide in Sudan to be treated as a security issue, not as a humanitarian disaster, and did so by directly supporting the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), an underfunded peacekeeping force.
GI-Net's controversial idea of supporting military force for foreign intervention attracted the attention of Gayle Smith, who had two decades of experience in Africa and had been the senior director of African Affairs in Clinton's National Security Council. Smith provided the first positive interest in GI-Net's work. Smith helped GI-Net raise over $300,000 to support AMIS.
After several disagreements on how to organize the fundraising money, GI-Net, in collaboration with the African Union, funded the Africa Humanitarian Action to support patrols that would protect displaced women, who put themselves at risk of rape when they left the internally displaced persons camps to collect firewood in order to prepare food. The program was canceled due to a lack of additional support and financial resources.
The Divestment Movement
In 2006, GI-Net looked for new methods to increase economic pressure on the Sudanese government. However, after the U.S. government had already maxed out the economic sanctions it could apply alone, GI-Net increased its involvement in the divestment campaign that had begun on Harvard's college campus in 2004.
The goal behind the divestment campaign was simple: to engage students to pressure their universities to withdraw investments providing revenue to Sudanese government. This financial support allowed the Sudanese government to expand on their military assets.
By April 2005, the student activism prompted college officials to change its investment policies. Harvard University declared that it would withdraw support in China National Petroleum Corporation, a business partner of the Sudanese government. Companies in the oil industry were the perfect target for divestment since oil is an essential source of revenue for the government, but is an industry that provides little benefit or relief to Sudanese civilians.
By September 2006, the divestment movement grew substantially and adopted larger goals. The group eventually became known as the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which drafted legislation to influence state legislatures around the United States to divest.
Feeling pressured by the U.S.-based advocacy campaign, the Khartoum spent close to a million dollars on an eight-page spread in the New York Times encouraging companies to invest in Sudan, a country with "peaceful, prosperous and democratic future".
Dream for Darfur
As the official Olympic torch made its way around the world prior to the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Dream for Darfur team, a campaign to bring mass attention to the conflict in Darfur, began its own symbolic relay. The Dream for Darfur team had one and only goal: to convince China that the continuation of the Olympic Games in Beijing was at risk unless it withdrew support for Sudan's regime. Genocide survivors joined the relay led by Mia Farrow and traveled to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Cambodia.
This led to the formation of a U.S.-based relay in September 2007. Jill Savitt and Mia Farrow organized and led the event, supported by GI-Net, the Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project.