Genocide Intervention Network Launches Darfur Advocacy Campaign Focusing on Presidential Candidates

Genocide Intervention Network Launches Darfur Advocacy Campaign Focusing on Presidential Candidates

Brownback, Obama, Edwards and Giuliani First to Divest from Sudan

Twenty-One Iowa State Legislators Urge Other Candidates to Follow Suit

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2007 — The Genocide Intervention Network today announces the launch of Ask the Candidates, an interactive nationwide campaign to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, by asking all 2008 presidential candidates to make specific pledges to stop the violence.

Since 2003, the crisis in Darfur has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 civilians and displaced at least two million people, according to the United Nations. President Bush and the US Congress unanimously declared the situation genocide in 2004, finding the government of Sudan culpable in the attacks.

“After four years of ongoing genocide, Americans are demanding their leaders take action to stop the violence,” says Genocide Intervention Network Executive Director Mark Hanis. “While we continue to hope President Bush will follow through on his commitment to Darfur, we must ensure that the next president recognizes the world’s responsibility to protect civilians from genocide.”

The new anti-genocide campaign is designed to allow Americans to directly engage with presidential candidates on the subject of Darfur, by visiting AskTheCandidates.org and sending messages to all campaigns asking the candidates to make a series of commitments to help end the genocide. A December 2006 poll by the Genocide Intervention Network showed 62 percent of Americans believe ending genocide should be a high or the top priority.

The first such commitment asks all candidates to ensure that their own personal investments are not tied to foreign companies providing financial support to the Sudanese government.

The Genocide Intervention Network also organized Iowa state legislators, who in April made Iowa the eighth state to divest from Sudan, to write to the presidential campaigns urging them to personally divest. To date, 21 Iowa legislators have sent letters to the candidates on Darfur.

Heeding the call of citizens and policymakers, four candidates — Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Barack Obama of Illinois, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — have committed to divesting their personal investments from Sudan. In addition to the state of Iowa, 11 other states — as well as 7 cities, 45 universities and thousands of individuals — have divested from Sudan.

“The first step in taking a strong position against genocide is to halt any indirect profiting from the atrocities,” Hanis says. “We commend the four candidates who have recognized this moral obligation, and hope the other presidential contenders will go beyond empty rhetoric and ensure they are not helping to fund the Darfur genocide.”

Individual Americans can screen their own mutual funds for investments in Sudan by visiting AskTheCandidates.org.

The Genocide Intervention Network is working to build the first permanent anti-genocide constituency in the United States, mobilizing the political will to stop genocide when it occurs. Accessible online at www.GenocideIntervention.net, GI-Net empowers individuals with tools to stop genocide through education, fundraising for civilian protection and advocacy efforts.

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The Genocide Intervention Network is working to build the first permanent anti-genocide constituency in the United States, mobilizing the political will to stop genocide when it occurs. Accessible online at www.GenocideIntervention.net, GI-Net empowers individuals with tools to stop genocide through education, fundraising for civilian protection and advocacy efforts.

Contact: Ivan Boothe, Director of Communications, Genocide Intervention Network
(202) 481-8220