John Prendergast
John Prendergast
John Prendergastis an American human rights activist, author, and former Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He is the Founding Director of the Enough Project, a nonprofit human rights organization affiliated with the Center for American Progress. Prendergast is a board member and serves as Strategic Advisor to Not On Our Watch Project. He is a member of the faculty and Advisory Board of the International Peace and Security Institute...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth21 March 1963
CountryUnited States of America
Through my years of working on war and peace in Africa, I have learned that there are solutions to some of the greatest human rights challenges, and we all can be a part of those solutions.
There is a long and successful tradition of popular movements in the U.S. and elsewhere having an impact on crises in forgotten places.
The principal strategy of all these actors, both state actors and proxy militias, is to displace people in order to undermine the support base of your opponent.
In human rights and peacemaking, it's really about having a solid concrete goal - the reduction of human suffering somewhere in the world - and then doing what is required to get that goal achieved.
Sudan policy has run off the road into a ditch.
If you repress rather than unlock the potential of large groups of Americans, what's that going to do to our economy? It's going to contract, not expand.
Wars can be resolved. Human rights atrocities can be stopped. We just have to apply the right policies.