Genocide Intervention Network

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". In 2005 the Genocide Intervention Network changed its name from the Genocide Intervention Fund, and in 2011, it merged with the Save Darfur Coalition to form a new organization, United to End Genocide.

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.

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.

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.

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