FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact: Allyn Brooks-LaSure, 202-478-6174
May
1, 2007
or Ashley Roberts,
202-478-6181
Save
Darfur Coalition joins call for Sudan divestment with ‘Divest for Darfur’ initiative, national ad
campaign
New poll shows
overwhelming majority of Americans would withdraw investments linked to genocide
in Darfur
WASHINGTON - The Save Darfur
Coalition today launched the Divest for Darfur campaign, adding a robust print
and broadcast advertising element to the existing call for targeted divestment
from “highest offending” companies conducting business in Sudan.
Through national advertising and
direct action, the Divest for Darfur campaign will urge Fidelity Investments and
Berkshire-Hathaway to divest from PetroChina, with the ultimate goal of
pressuring the Sudanese government into seeking a peaceful resolution to the
ongoing crisis in Darfur. As part of the
campaign launch, coalition officials released recent poll results that
underscore the American public’s overwhelming support for divestment. The
advertisements and poll details are available online at www.savedarfur.org/divestnews.
“The American
people clearly don’t want their personal investments bankrolling genocide,” said
David Rubenstein, executive director
of the Save Darfur Coalition. “To the American people,
these profits just aren’t worth it. The goal of the Divest for Darfur movement is to align Fidelity and
Berkshire-Hathaway investment choices with the views of the American
people.
A national poll
released by the coalition indicates that a staggering percentage of Americans
(71 percent) believe that companies should take into account human rights abuses
such as genocide when investing overseas rather than base their investment
decisions on economic criteria only. In fact, three-quarters (77 percent) say
they would switch their investments if they learned that those managing their
funds had significant investments in firms that were active in Sudan.
[The poll was a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,022 American
adults conducted April 12-15, 2007. The margin of error is +/- 3.1
percent.]
Divest for
Darfur’s launch marks the beginning of the
coalition’s aggressive advertising campaign calling on Fidelity Investments to
cut its ties to genocide. Fidelity is a major investor in PetroChina, which is
heavily involved in Sudan’s very profitable oil industry
and is considered to be one of the “highest offenders” among international
businesses. Despite months of engagement and thousands of complaints, Fidelity
has thus far refused to accept any responsibility for these investments. Print
advertisements directed at Berkshire-Hathaway will appear on billboards in the
Omaha region in
addition to regional publications.
Broadcast ads
began airing today on CNN and targeted print ads will run in various markets
across the country. The advertisements are available online at www.savedarfur.org/divestnews.
Coalition advocates and divestment partners last week staged rallies and
protests at Fidelity Investments offices throughout the country. Similar
activities are planned as part of the Divest for Darfur
initiative.
U.S law prohibits
most American companies from operating directly in Sudan.
However, U.S. firms are
legally able to invest in foreign companies that operate in Sudan, several of which make a significant
contribution in Sudan’s economy, indirectly funding
the genocide. According to research by the Sudan Divestment Task Force,
Sudan has historically been
responsive to economic pressure when diplomatic pressure has come up short.
“Many people
ask what they can do as individuals to help stop the genocide in Darfur,” Rubenstein said. “A simple step is making sure
that they are not inadvertently supporting the genocide in Darfur through their investments. Beyond that, individuals
must encourage institutions they support, universities, investment firms, state
and local governments, to end their contributions to
genocide.”
A number of
companies, including Siemens AG, ABB Ltd. and Rolls-Royce, have already cut
their ties to Sudan in light of the genocide. Ten
states – Maryland, Colorado, Iowa,
California, Oregon, Illinois,
Vermont, New
Jersey, Connecticut and Maine – have passed
resolutions divesting state funds; campaigns are under way in 15 additional
states. Universities, such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California system, have also passed
divestment measures. Congress is currently considering legislation (S. 831 and
H.R. 180) that would support divestment.
###
About the
Coalition: The Save Darfur Coalition's mission
is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to
mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of two
million people in the Darfur region. An
alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations,
the coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages,
races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people
of Darfur.
About Divest for
Darfur: The Save Darfur Coalition’s Divest
for Darfur campaign encourages and promotes targeted divestment as a strategy to
exert financial pressure on the government of Sudan to change its policies and bring peace to
the people of Darfur. More than 70 percent of
Sudan’s oil revenue is
channeled to Sudan’s
military, which is engaged in a campaign that the U.S.
State Department, Congress, and President Bush have labeled as genocide. The campaign
is managed in close partnership with our affiliated organizations: the Sudan
Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, and
Fidelity Out of Sudan. The campaign is also coordinated with American Jewish
World Service, the NAACP, STAND, the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, and other
coalition members with divestment policies.
