Some Good News on Sudan

At least for Illinois residents... Today as I was pondering which actions I plan to take to try and help Sudan, I came across the Sudan Divestment Task Force webpage. Because there is not much leverage left for the international community to pressure Sudan's government, some people came up with the idea of removing money invested in the stocks of companies which help support the government, but don't support the people. From the website:

"Targeted divestment is the removal of invested money from companies that are directly or indirectly helping the Sudanese government perpetuate genocide. Since the ultimate intent of Sudan divestment is to protect the victims of genocide, it is important to tailor divestment to have maximal impact on the government of Sudan's behavior and minimal harm to innocent Sudanese (and to the financial health of institutional investments in the US). Divestment should therefore be targeted to those companies that provide revenue (or arms) to the government, impart minimal benefit to the country's underprivileged, and have expressed no significant corporate governance policy regarding the Darfur situation (so-called targeted divestment). Such targeted divestment implicitly excludes companies involved in agriculture, production and distribution of consumer goods, or engaged solely in the provision of goods and services intended to relieve human suffering or to promote welfare, health, religious and spiritual activities, and education."

So here is the good news. Illinois is one of only 4 states in the nation to have passed any divestment bill. Our bill (passed in 2005) essentially divests the entire Illinois pension system out of these targeted companies! Wow! You can see the text of the bill here. Halfway down the page is the underlined section which is particularly relevant.

The other good news is that the student government of the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, has passed a resolution for divestment and is preparing a formal proposal this semester. Now this makes me proud to be an alumnus as there are only 42 universities in the country with formal divestment campaigns. I plan on emailing the contact person for this campaign and asking what I can do to help. I will post any updates as I have them.