Amnesty resorts to shock tactics

Amnesty International is launching a hard-hitting advertising campaign to draw attention to the human rights violations in Darfur.

The press campaign features a bayonet and two grenades in the shape of a penis and testicles with the strapline “Rape is a weapon of war”. The accompanying text says rape continues to be used “systematically” by armed groups in Darfur, which is in western Sudan, and in neighbouring eastern Chad, to terrorise the Darfuri population.

Amnesty International says it has had to resort to shock tactics because of the “continuing failure” of the international community to make the Sudanese Government accept an effective peacekeeping force to protect civilians.

The charity’s UK women’s rights campaigner Heather Harvey says: “The new advert is shocking but what is more shocking is the inability of the international community to deal with the fact that woman and girls are being systematically targeted in Darfur – that rape is literally being used as a weapon of war.”

The ad was created by Different Kettle and breaks this week.