Over at the Wonk Room, the Enough Project's David Sullivan offers a nice run down of Omar al Bashir's career low lights.

- From 2000-2001, systematically depopulated the oil fields of western Upper Nile. According to the UN: "government bombers, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery were used against unarmed civilians to clear a 100-kilometer area around the oils fields. Witnesses reported that over 1,000 government soldiers swept through Ruweng county, wreaking human and material destruction, including destroying 17 churches."

- Continually used aerial bombing of women and children, aid workers, and hospitals. Among the hundreds of air strikes from 2000-2001 were a World Food Program airlift, a church school, a hospital, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

- In 2003, organized the creation of the Janjaweed militias to commit genocide in Darfur. On the Today Show, Bashir claimed: "I would confirm that we have never targeted civilian citizens and we can never target citizens." Of Musa Hilal, the notorious Janjaweed commander, Bashir said: "He has contributed to peace and stability." Also: "The so-called Darfur conflict is an invention by foreign interests."

One final thought on the big news of the day after the jump.

The big question on people's minds is whether or not the ICC's actions will be deleterious to the prospects for peace in Darfur. To that I answer: what prospects?

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord (that ended the north-south war) has pretty much collapsed. The Sudanese government never committed to peace--and just last month, open conflict broke out in the Abyei region between government proxies and southerners. In Darfur, the government has arguably abandoned any pretense of seeking a political, rather than military solution to the conflict there. True, the rebels are partly to blame--but from the very beginning, the Sudanese government has been obstructing the deployment of UNAMID and hindering humanitarian access to the region. The janjaweed attack on a UN convoy, which killed seven peacekeepers on Tuesday, is just one latest tragic example of how the government is totally uncommitted to peace.

Until now, the international community has, out of necessity, viewed Bashir as a potential partner for peace--not as the obstacle to peace that he has become. However, the Security Council wisely approved the ICC investigation in Darfur in March 2005. Now, over three years later, the prosecutor has just handed the international community a significant point of leverage over Bashir. Incidentally, this also gives the international community a ready justification for abandoning the pretense that Bashir can be a partner for peace...And if, on the off chance that Bashir sees the light, the Security Council can suspend ICC proceedings for a year a time.

One key variable is the 2009 national elections called for in the Comprehensive Peace Accord. Bashir's ruling National Congress Party is poised to do poorly in those elections. If the international community plays this correctly, I could foresee a Serbia-like situation in which a few years from now a new government in Khartoum hands Bashir over to the ICC for their his in court.

Referring to ICC action against the Sudanese president, international law scholar Kevin Jon Heller asks in the comments: "Is this the way to ratchet up the pressure? To be honest, I really don't know how I feel about the Prosecutor's decision -- I just know it makes me very nervous..." It makes me nervous too. That said, one recurring theme over the past, sad four years of conflict in Darfur is that the international community was never able to muster the requisite pressure to alter the decision making calculus in Khartoum. Powerful countries like the United States and China failed to summon the will (in the American case, to put their money where their mouth is; in the Chinese case to put their mouth where their money is) to take actions that would make obstructing peace in Darfur more painful for the Sudanese government than cooperating with the international community.

The Security Council came close a few times with sanctions packages, but ultimately these sanctions never targeted the real decision makers. To the Council's great credit, though, it did decide to let loose the ICC prosecutor on Darfur. So now we have an alternative way to press the Sudanese into staking a more cooperative posture on Darfur. For this I am glad: all other diplomatic means have so far failed to do so.

Today is United Nations World Population Day. This year's theme: "Family Planning: It's a Right, Let's Make it Real." Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund explains the critical nexus between maternal health, family planning and poverty alleviation

Maternal death and disability could be reduced dramatically if every woman had access to health services throughout her lifecycle, especially during pregnancy and childbirth. Today millions of women lack access to health services, which puts their lives at risk.

Now is the time to accelerate action to ensure that health services reach women in the communities in which they live. Three reproductive health services are vital for maternal health: skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care and family planning to time and space births.

Family planning is also essential to women's empowerment and gender equality. When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life. Information and services for family planning allow individuals and couples to realize their right to determine the number, spacing and timing of their children.

All true. Maternal heath is the foundation upon which other public health solutions in the developing world can emerge. Unfortunately, the United Nations says it has only received about half of the $1.2 billion necessary to provide critical maternal health and family planning services to the developing world this year.

Over at On Day One, users have their own ideas on how the next American administration can promote women's health across the world. Have your say.

Column Lynch and Nora Boustany have the blockbuster scoop that the ICC prosecutor plans to charge the President of Sudan Omar al Bahsir with genocide. This is the first time the ICC prosecutor has brought up charges of gencoide and the first time he has targeted a head of state.

Let me echo Kevin Jon Heller: To say this is a bold move -- and one fraught with danger -- is an understatement. There is serious concern that this accusation might undercut an already fragile peace process and make peacekeepers the target of government reprisal. In fact, the deadly attack on UNAMID this week may be considered something of a pre-reprisal; UN officials believe the Sudanese government was behind the ambush that killed seven peacekeepers on Tuesday

The attack on UNAMID was just one indication that the peace process has been dead for a long time now in large part due to Sudanese intransigence. This is the right time to ratchet up the pressure.

"Bashir will certainly use the indictment to justify some awful reactions, such as humanitarian aid restrictions and further barriers" to the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, said John Prendergast, co-chairman of the Enough Project, an initiative to end crimes against humanity. "But if the international community stands firm and makes it clear that these kinds of responses will only make matters worse for Bashir...then he will relent."

ICC advocates contend that such court actions contribute to peace efforts. Previous indictments of world leaders -- such as former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and former Liberian president Charles Taylor -- by other U.N. tribunals have ultimately contributed to stability in those countries, said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice office at Human Rights Watch.

We will certainly follow this story very closely.