John Prendergast

John Prendergast
Prendergast in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2010
Born	March 21, 1963 (1963-03-21) Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Occupation	Author, Human Rights Activist
Notable award(s)	Global Action Award United Nations Correspondents Association Citizen of the World Award Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award Princeton University Crystal Tiger Award U.S. State Department Distinguished Service Award The Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution Peace Award

John Prendergast (born March 21, 1963) is an American human rights activist, author, and former Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He is the co-founder of the Enough Project, a non profit human rights organization affiliated with the Center for American Progress. Prendergast is also a board member and serves as Strategic Advisor to Not On Our Watch.

Career

In the latter half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, Prendergast worked for a variety of organizations in the U.S. and Africa, focusing primarily on peace and human rights. At the end of 1996, he joined the National Security Council as Director for African Affairs and thereafter served as a special adviser to Susan Rice at the United States Department of State. As a special adviser, Prendergast was part of the facilitation team behind the successful two-and-a-half-year U.S. effort to broker an end to the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Prendergast left government in 2001 to become Special Adviser to the President of the International Crisis Group on Africa issues, and in 2007, with Gayle Smith he co-founded the Enough Project, housed at the Center for American Progress.

Under the Enough Project umbrella, Prendergast has helped create a number of initiatives and campaigns. With George Clooney, he helped launch the Satellite Sentinel Project, which aims to prevent conflict and human rights abuses through satellite imagery. With Tracy McGrady and other NBA players, Prendergast co-founded the Darfur Dream Team: Sister Schools Initiative to fund schools in Darfurian refugee camps and create partnerships with schools in the United States. He helped launch two campaigns under Enough: the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign, highlighting the issue of conflict minerals, and Sudan Now, focused on bringing peace to that embattled country.

Prendergast is the author or co-author of ten books. His previous two books were co-authored with Don Cheadle: Not On Our Watch, a New York Times bestseller and NAACP non-fiction book of the year, and The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes. His most recent book, Unlikely Brothers, is a dual memoir co-authored with his first little brother in the Big Brothers program.

Prendergast has appeared in four episodes of 60 Minutes, and helped create African characters and stories for two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, one focusing on the recruitment of child soldiers and the other on rape as a war strategy. Prendergast has also traveled to Africa with NBC’s Dateline, ABC’s Nightline, The PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and CNN’s Inside Africa.

He has appeared in several documentaries including: Sand and Sorrow, Darfur Now, 3 Points, and War Child. He co-produced Journey into Sunset, and is Executive Producer of Staging Hope: Acts of Peace in Northern Uganda, both about Northern Uganda, and partnered with Downtown Records and Mercer Street Records to create the compilation album Raise Hope for Congo, combating sexual violence against women and girls in Congo.

John Prendergast meeting in South Sudan during the Southern Sudanese independence referendum, 2011 with President Jimmy Carter, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and George Clooney

Books

• Unlikely Brothers by John Prendergast and Michael Mattocks, published by Random House, May 17, 2011 ISBN 9780307464842
• The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes by John Prendergast with Don Cheadle, published by Random House, 2010 ISBN 9780307464828
• Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, by Don Cheadle, John Prendergast, published by Hyperion, 2007 ISBN 9781401303358
• Crafting Peace: Strategies to Deal with Warlords in Collapsing States, by Sasha Lezhnev, John Prendergast, published by Lexington Books, 2006 ISBN 9780739117651
• Blood and Soil: Land, Politics and Conflict Prevention in Zimbabwe and South Africa, by John Prendergast, published by International Crisis Group, 2004 ISBN 9780976085300
• God, Oil & Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan, principal author, John Prendergast, published by International Crisis Group, (Africa Report, 39), January 28, 2002 ASIN: B000FPCBP
• Crisis Response: Humanitarian Band-aids in Sudan and Somalia, principal author, John Prendergast, Inc NetLibrary, NetLibrary, Inc., published by Center of Concern, 1997 ISBN 9780585380308
• Frontline Diplomacy: Humanitarian Aid and Conflict in Africa, by John Prendergast, Center of Concern (Washington, D.C.), published by L. Rienner, 1996 ISBN 9781555876968
• Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan, by Jemera Rone, John Prendergast, Karen Sorensen, Human Rights Watch/Africa, Human Rights Watch (Organization), published by Human Rights Watch, 1994 ISBN 9781564321299
• Without Troops & Tanks: The Emergency Relief Desk and the Cross Border Operation Into Eritrea and Tigray, by Mark R. Duffield, John Prendergast, published by The Red Sea Press, 1994 ISBN 9781569020036
• Peace, Development, and People of the Horn of Africa, by John Prendergast, Bread for the World (Organization). Institute on Hunger & Development, Center of Concern (Washington, D.C.), published by Center of Concern, 1992 ISBN 9780962805820

External links

• Enough Project
• Profile of John Prendergast at Enough Project
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about John Prendergast in libraries (WorldCat catalog)