The UN Security Council is holding a press conference on the Lord’s Resistance Army on Tuesday, June 26 at 3pm EDT, and Invisible Children will be there representing you (watch it live online).
3,729,815 people from countries all over the globe signed this pledge:
Joseph Kony is one of the world’s worst war criminals, and I call on my leaders to support the international efforts now led by the United Nations and African Union to arrest him and his top commanders, bring the child soldiers home, and restore lasting peace.
On Tuesday we get to deliver those signatures. The UN Security Council is meeting this week and working on a strategy for stopping Joseph Kony and the LRA. That means figuring out which country can contribute what. It also means setting up a to-do list. We are excited to see this strategy and even more excited to hold the world’s leaders accountable to seeing it through.
Tuesday’s news conference and this week’s meetings are an opportunity to emphasize the urgency of this mission. And who better to do that than Father Benoit Kinalegu and Sister Angelique Namaika? They are community leaders from DR Congo and they are here on behalf of the communities that continue to be attacked by the LRA. Both of them work on the front lines. Father Benoit’s organization, CDJP, runs an early-warning radio network that warns communities of the LRA’s whereabouts. Sister Angelique‘s organization, Mama Bongisa, works with women who have been abducted by the LRA.
When Invisible Children first talked about this event, we imagined a large rally outside of the United Nations, but as June drew closer we realized that in this particular case, more people didn’t translate to more influence. Rather, this event required that the right people be there. And that’s exactly what is going to happen: delegates from the region that is currently terrorized by the LRA will be connected with the people who have the power to do something about it, including the AU Special Envoy on the LRA issue, Francisca Madeira, and the UN Special Representative to Central Africa, Abou Moussa.
This is the dream. These are the conversations that need to happen if the LRA is ever going to be stopped. This press conference comes a week after Father Benoit and Sister Angelique spoke at a congressional hearing on the LRA, 11 days after the UN Secretary General released a report saying that the mission to stop the LRA is underfunded, and a day before the United Nations Security Council meets. June has been a momentous month, and it gets us excited for what is to come. After all, 2012 isn’t even half over.
Watch the press conference online at 3pm EDT.
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