PetroChina, the Chinese oil company that is the largest underwriter of the Darfur genocide, must be feeling the heat this week as a big US pension fund announced its decision to accelerate pressure on PetroChina to help end the genocide. This move is the latest victory for Investors Against Genocide, a client of Pax Communications. Read more…here
Activist in Boston - photo by Jo Read
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact -Susan Morgan, 617-797-0451
susan@paxcommunications.org
WITH MILLIONS IN IMMINENT DANGER IN DARFUR, ACTIVISTS NATIONWIDE SEND TEXT MESSAGES TO CLINTON AS PART OF WEEK OF ACTION
Grassroots rallies, vigils, and protests urge U.S. action in face of humanitarian emergency
LA, NYC, Boston, SF – March 17, 2009 – This week Darfur activists across the country are holding local events to urge the State Department to act immediately to restore humanitarian aid to Darfur after the Sudanese government’s decision to expel 16 humanitarian organizations from Darfur. These organizations are some of the largest aid groups in Darfur and sustain an apparatus that provides the last remaining lifeline for 4.7 million conflict-affected Darfuris. At all these events, participants are being asked to send an urgent text message to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at 90822 asking her to take immediate action to restore humanitarian aid to Darfur.
In Los Angeles, Katie-Jay Scott, Gabriel Stauring and fellow activists pitched a tent like those used in Darfur refugee camps in front of the Federal building. In New York City, activists are holding a peace vigil for Darfur in front of the US Mission to the United Nations. In Boston, activists will converge on Boston’s City Hall Plaza with signs. In San Francisco, they will gather in front of the Federal Building. And in Redding, California, congregants at The First United Methodist Church will be asked to take the unusual step of taking out their cell phones and texting during services.
More events in cites and houses of worship nationwide are also being planned as Americans nationwide unite to urge action by the Obama Administration in the face of genocide by starvation in Darfur.
Organizations represented in the Week of Action for Darfur include: Genocide No More-Save Darfur, HOPE, Jewish World Watch, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, New York City Coalition to Save Darfur, San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, and Stop Genocide Now among others.
State department officials have said that there is a “policy review” underway. Activists want Secretary Clinton to make the Darfur emergency and peace in Sudan a top priority immediately. During the campaign, Obama stated, “I will make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority from Day One.”
Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir who was recently indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, has expelled 16 humanitarian organizations from Sudan, placing millions of Darfuri civilians at immediate risk. With the rainy season quickly approaching, organizations are expecting widespread death from disease and starvation as millions lose access to food, water, medicine and adequate shelter.
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I hope you will read the latest Huffington Post piece from Pax Communications here.
Pax Communication’s client Investors Against Genocide, together with the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO,) today wrote supporters with an update regarding recent positive developments in their engagement with the UN Global Compact over the complaint against PetroChina. According to the complaint, PetroChina, a UN Global Compact participant, should engage with the Government of Sudan to help end the genocide in Darfur.
On February 9, the group received a letter from Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, vice chair of the Global Compact Board. In the letter, Mr. Moody-Stuart says that the Board will discuss the matter “fully” at its next meeting and that it will “review the processes described” in the Compact’s Integrity Measures.
Following the refusal by the Global Compact Office to accept and act upon the allegations against PetroChina, a participant in the Compact, we had decided to write a letter to all the members of the Board, asking them to reconsider the ill-advised initial response. This approach seems to have had a positive impact.
This is one of the most relevant passages of Mr. Moody-Stuart’s letter:
“I have followed this issue with great interest and been involved in many discussions on the subject. I can assure you that this matter, including your letters, the communications of the Global Compact Office and this letter, will be fully discussed at the next board meeting of the Global Compact. We will also review the processes described in the integrity measures to see whether greater clarity is needed.”
According to the Global Compact website, the next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place in the second quarter of 2009. Due to the urgency of this and other issues, we have replied to Mr. Moody-Stuart requesting that Board schedule and convene a meeting in the first half of this year, and that they allow time for our organizations to present to the Board and respond to questions. We are now awaiting a reply.