John Prendergast

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For the soldier, see John Prendergast (soldier).

John Prendergast

John Prendergast is an American human rights activist focused on bringing international attention to the genocide in Sudan and the atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. An adviser to the White House and the State Department in the mid-1990s, he later served as a Senior Adviser at the International Crisis Group. He currently works for the ENOUGH Project, whose mission is to "prevent genocide and mass atrocities by promoting Peace, providing Protection, and Punishing the perpetrators".[1]

[edit] Authorship

Prendergast has written a number of books on Africa, most recently a volume with Hotel Rwanda actor Don Cheadle, called Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond [2]. With Gayle Smith, he helps direct the ENOUGH Project and is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network. In the last few years, he has also produced numerous broadcast pieces with advocates-actors including Angelina Jolie [3], Don Cheadle and Pulitzer Prize-winner Samantha Power. He has been interviewed for major news networks including CBS [4], NBC, ABC, PBS, and CNN. Demonstrating his general appeal to the public, Men's Vogue focused a piece on him in one of their latest issues.[5]

He gave the commencement speech for the Simmons College Class of 2007 on May 19, 2007. He also received an honorary doctorate in Public Service at the ceremony.[6] He also gave the commencement speech for Proctor Academy Class of 2007 on June 2, 2007.[7]

In 1997 John Prendergast, head of East African Affairs in the National Security Council, stated: “the Sudanese government is the principal threat to U.S. security interests on the continent of Africa today.”

John Prendergast currently holds the position of Joan B. Kroc Peace Scholar at the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. Mr. Prendergast will hold this position from January 28th, to March 2, 2008. During his tenure, Prendergast will give many presentations concerning genocide and other atrocities abroad durings several film viewings and discussions. In addition to this, Mr. Prendergast also holds regular office hours.