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Last week, The United Steelworkers’ International Executive Board passed the following resolution on Darfur.
Since 2003, over 400,000 people have died in Darfur as a result of a Sudanese Government-sponsored campaign of violence and deliberate starvation that the State Department has rightly described as genocide. To stop the slaughter, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1706 on August 31, 2006, authorizing the deployment of 22,500 UN troops to Darfur. Yet today, a full nine months later, only a few dozen UN advisors have arrived in Darfur because further deployments have been blocked by the Sudanese Government. Crucially, Sudan has been free to ignore international pressure to admit the UN force because of the support of its largest trading partner, China, which has played a shameful role as the aider and abettor of genocide because of its thirst for Sudanese oil.
As the security situation continues to deteriorate, prompting humanitarian groups to curtail their operations, UN officials project that death rates could exceed 100,000 per month among the 3.5 million men, women and children in the western Darfur region, who are under daily attack by the Janjaweed militias directly supported by the Sudanese Government. Time is running out on hundreds of thousands of lives, and it is not enough for the international community to pass resolutions that are never implemented. Instead, it is time for both the American and Canadian Governments to support the immediate passage of tough multilateral sanctions by the United Nations to compel Sudan to permit the UN troops authorized by Resolution 1706 to deploy within Darfur. These multilateral sanctions will reinforce the unilateral sanctions announced this week by President Bush. Both governments should also increase their funding of both peacekeeping and humanitarian aid efforts in Darfur. In particular, as recommended by the Save Darfur Coalition, President Bush must make Darfur a higher priority by providing at least $186 million in additional funds for UN peacekeeping and $6 billion for humanitarian assistance.
One vital bipartisan initiative worthy of our support is the Genocide Accountability Act (S. 888), which unanimously passed the U.S. Senate on March 25 and is currently under consideration in the House of Representatives. This bill closes a current loophole in American law by insuring that perpetrators of genocide anywhere in the world can be tried in U.S. courts. In addition, we support the efforts of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and other Crimes Against Humanity to further strengthen Canada’s diplomatic and humanitarian support for ending the Darfur genocide. Finally , we commend the growing “targeted divestment” movement by public pension funds and private investors that has exerted increasing pressure on the Sudanese government by withdrawing investments from companies doing business in Sudan which do not appreciably benefit disadvantaged Sudanese citizens.
In view of the gravity of the steadily worsening situation of Darfur, and consistent with the USW’s support for human rights throughout the world:
BE IT RESOLVED, that the International Executive Board strongly condemns both Sudan for its genocidal policies and China, whose support for the Sudanese Government has made the Darfur genocide possible.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Executive Board endorses the immediate imposition of multilateral sanctions on Sudan by the United Nations to secure compliance with U.N. Resolution 1706. We urge all states, provinces, cities, institutions, and pension funds to join the movement to disinvest from companies that directly support the Sudanese government.
BE IT YET FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Executive Board supports the increase of both peacekeeping by the UN and humanitarian assistance by the Governments of the United States and Canada and pledges its assistance in securing the passage of the Genocide Accountability Act.
Adopted: June 6, 2007
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CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS
