John Prendergast Quotations

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.

Having a strong African leader, with the confidence of regional governments, who's backed by high-level envoys from countries that matter

I see courage everywhere I go in Africa. Fearless human rights activists in Darfur. Women peace advocates in eastern Congo. Former child soldiers in Northern Uganda who now are helping other former child soldiers return to civilian life.

Sudan policy has run off the road into a ditch.

Most Americans may not realize that the news they consume is driven in part by the media mantra, 'if it bleeds, it leads.'

When I was 19 years old, I hitchhiked across the country to San Francisco.

'Unlikely Brothers' talks about the importance of citizen action and shows why and how we can make a difference.

Those little tidbits and morsels are very important to the Sudanese.

When there are no gas chambers, no barbed wire, and no concentration camps, many don't recognize the perpetration of new genocides and other targeted mass atrocity crimes because they may not look the same.

Wars can be resolved. Human rights atrocities can be stopped. We just have to apply the right policies.

Early adopters of digital cameras most often printed at home, if they printed at all - there weren't many options yet available or convenient. Now the infrastructure to get digital prints at retail is in place and consumers are adopting this behavior more quickly, ... As the quality, functionality and ease-of-use of camera phones improve, we see users gravitating to the service, quality and cost-effectiveness of the retail destination.

Every time we have offered incentives to the government of Sudan, they've pocketed those incentives and continued on with their policies.

I spent a lot of time with President Mandela supporting his efforts in the peace process in Burundi. The thing that impressed me the most was his humility.

A fragile consensus has collapsed under the weight of the Sudan government's artful diplomacy campaign. It played chicken with the broad international community, and once again the international community drove off the road.

Africans are on the front lines of humanitarian efforts, distributing life-saving aid in dangerous environments. Africans comprise the vast majority of peacekeepers in civil conflict on that continent. Africans for the most part lead peace negotiations for the wars being fought in Africa.

Africa is going through its own historical process of state formation just as Europe and America did. It is just happening much later than other continents because of the interruption of Africa's own historical development by the colonization of Africa by Europe.

And then here come the Janjaweed on camel or on horseback, ... They come rolling into the town, shooting and torching the village, often bringing women to the side and raping women indiscriminately. And in order to ensure that the destruction is complete, the government either sends ground forces to oversee the operation, or the attack helicopters, which often are the most deadly things.

Americans' perceptions of Africa remain rooted in troubling stereotypes of helplessness and perpetual crisis.

There isn't one celebrity I've worked with who doesn't have major doubts about what impact they are having. I am glad when they question the impact, because it shows they are based firmly in the reality that peacemaking isn't the same as changing a streetlight or distributing mosquito nets.

The biggest road block to action on genocide and other human rights crimes is ignorance. Most people just don't know that such things are happening, and often, if they have a vague idea they are happening, there is a feeling that there is nothing that can be done to stop these crimes.

I've had a number of near misses during my travels that in retrospect seem of greater concern than they did at the time. I guess that is what happens with age.

It turns out, all the studies show you invest a little time in another person's life, often a younger person, and all of us have that capacity to do it, just an hour a week, an hour every couple of weeks, and you can make a tremendous difference in a kid's life over their lifetime.

The U.S. has not been forward-leaning on this issue. It's disingenuous to claim that the United Nations is not doing all it should.

They would give away the one card they have, which is military pressure, before being certain of movement implementing the peace deal.

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.

I'm probably a little too impatient with ensuring that the networks and organizations I'm part of are doing the right thing, and pushing the right thing the right way.

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.

Garang's death impacts the peace process in northern Uganda because he was a strong advocate for a comprehensive solution for the north,

Slavery, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, subordination, and human rights abuse transform and adapt with the times.

I see courage everywhere I go in Africa.

What we (U.S.) have done, is undertaken diplomacy through public assertions that tend to alienate everyone.

A government-made hurricane hit Darfur ... using these Janjaweed militias, ... And the human debris has washed up on the shores of Chad.

The diplomatic coalition should work for change in Zimbabwe,

All South Sudanese deserve consistent and unimpeded humanitarian assistance, regardless of if they live in areas held by rebel or government forces.

The Janjaweed are like a grotesque mixture of the mafia and the Ku Klux Klan, ... These guys have a racist ideology that sees the Arab population as the supreme population that would like to see the subjugation of non-Arab peoples. Theyre criminal racketeers that have been supported very directly by the government to wage the war against the people of Darfur.