Smallest Witnesses –
 The Crisis in Darfur Through Children’s Eyes

Photo taken by Jonas Steengaard for Human Rights Watch

Leila, Age 9
Human Rights Watch: What is going on here?
Leila: My hut burning after being hit by a bomb.
Human Rights Watch: And here?
       [Pointing to the drawing of what looks like an upside-down woman]
Leila: It’s a woman. She is dead.
Human Rights Watch: Why is her face colored in red?
Leila: Oh, because she has been shot in the face.
Human Rights Watch: What is this vehicle? Who is this in green?
Leila: That is a tank. The man in green is a soldier.

One of the world’s gravest human rights and humanitarian crises is unfolding in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, one of the poorest and most inaccessible regions on the planet. Under the pretext of suppressing an internal rebellion, Sudanese soldiers and government-backed militias known as Janjaweed have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and "ethnic cleansing" against civilians. Human rights groups have documented massacres, executions of civilians - including women and children , acts of sexual violence, the burning of towns and villages, and the forcible displacement of an estimated 2.4 million people. According to U.N. estimates, as many as 200,000 people may have died since the beginning of the conflict in February 2003.

On a recent mission to the refugee camps along Darfur’s border with Chad, Human Rights Watch researchers, Dr. Annie Sparrow and Olivier Bercault, gave children pens and crayons to draw while their families were being interviewed. Without any instruction or guidance, the children - some as young as 8 - began to draw vivid and disturbing scenes of the violence and atrocities they had witnessed: the attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the rapes, the burning of entire villages, and their flight to Chad.

Young children from seven refugee camps and the border town of Tine shared drawings from their school notebooks with Human Rights Watch researchers. Scenes of animals and flowers depicting their ordinary village life were juxtaposed with horrible images of violence. The children insisted that Annie and Olivier take their drawings with them in the hope that the rest of the world could see their story - the indelible effect of a manmade crisis on its youngest victims.

The exhibition is organized by the Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research and Human Rights Watch.

The Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research, administered by Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was established to preserve, display and provide access to an expansive array of primary documents that will enable people to better understand human rights issues. The Center’s archival resources, based primarily on the documentary heritage of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, will provide the basis for scholars from many disciplines to examine the rise of the human rights movement in the 20th century, assess its impact and legacy, and explore particular human rights struggles.

Butler Library, 6th Floor East, (212) 854-8480, cs2316@columbia.edu

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.

We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.

We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.

We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.

We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.

A list of selected online resources and readings on Darfur and the Sudan is available here.