UN Ambassador Angelina Jolie's TIME op-ed, The Case Against Omar al Bashir, speaks to the intensity and relevance of the conflict in Darfur. Today, the UN Security Council will meet to discuss the requested results of the International Criminal Court's Darfur investigation. Ambassador Jolie states, "Their response will determine whether there is going to be an international standard of justice that holds perpetrators accountable for the worst crimes in the world."

She continues, "Darfur has almost disappeared from the news, and experts now call it a 'low intensity' conflict. But the intensity of the crisis has not lessened for those who are struggling to survive. More than 250,000 people from Darfur have lived destitute lives in refugee camps in Chad for six years now. Camps with more than two million internally displaced persons inside Darfur are even worse. Thirty percent of those displaced are school-age children. Girls leaving the camps are raped; boys leaving the camps are killed. They want an education; they want to go back to their villages, to their land; they want peace. But they also want justice." (Read TIME's 2004 cover story, "The Tragedy of Sudan.")

The travesties that have affected millions of innocent people remain some of the most blatant acts of crime reported by the media. In the center of the criminal conflict, Sudanese President Omar al Bashir's response to his being indicted on five counts of crimes against humanity and seven counts of war crimes, further indicates the complicated and heartbreaking nature of the conflict. "He kicked 16 international aid groups who were desperately trying to save his citizens out of his country. He even appointed one of the suspects, Ahmed Haroun, to a committee supposedly investigating human rights abuses in Darfur. You'll struggle to find a better illustration of the culture of impunity that reigns in Khartoum" (Jolie).