Okay so I'm a little late on the bandwagon, I watched the first video on facebook in March, became inspired and enthused by their cause, shared the video on facebook, signed the pledge and then went back to living my normal life. Feeling slightly guilty for my earlier apathy I'm now writing this in the hope of promoting Kony 2012 further.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about and with the spot for London Mayor up for grabs you'd be excused for thinking Kony 2012 is an election campaign. This could not be further from the truth. Joseph Kony is an international war criminal. He has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court and for as long as I have been alive (23 years) he has abducted over 30,000 children in Central Africa and forced them to be child soldiers in his Lord’s Resistance Army.

Kony's actions do not just affect the abducted children, their friends and families suffer, people who these children are sent to fight against suffer but another less obvious group of victims are the endangered mountain gorillas.

I travelled round Eastern Africa during my gap year and visited Uganda to see the mountain gorillas. It was truly an amazing experience sitting in the mountains watching a troop of gorillas. We were very close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and were strongly advised not to travel further due to the fighting. Unfortunately there are no such people to warn the mountain gorillas, gorillas have no concept of national borders and their habitat, the Virunga National Park unfortunately spans across Uganda, Rwanda and into the DRC. As a battleground for militia groups the conservation effort is severely inhibited and poachers operate in the area aswell.

There are many arguments raging across the internet as to the merits of the Kony 2012 campaign and I by no means think that the arrest of one man will bring Central Africa's troubles to an end. However I do think that the arrest of an international criminal is a goal that is worth supporting.

Kony 2012 aims to raise international support for his arrest from ordinary people like you and I. We in turn can raise further support and put pressure on our governments to bring Kony to justice. I sometimes forget that we do live in a democracy, we are the electorate, our opinions and wishes do matter and if we band together and make those heard then our leaders in government will listen and will take action.

Check out the website for more information and see what you can do to help: http://www.kony2012.com/index.html
For some quick facts on the International Criminal Court check out this BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11809908