OPPOSITION TO THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

WHEREAS, the ethnic African peoples of the Darfur region of the Sudan—especially the Fur, the Zaghawa, the Massalit and the Aranga—have been the target of an ongoing state-controlled and directed campaign of "ethnic cleansing"; and

WHEREAS, to date, this campaign has claimed 400,000 lives in Darfur and forced more than 2 million people from their homes in Darfur, either into internal exile or into neighboring Chad; and

WHEREAS, this campaign has employed mass rape and torture, the systematic destruction of villages and crops, and indiscriminate attacks on and mass murder of unarmed civilians; and

WHEREAS, in 2004, the U.S. Congress passed resolutions declaring this campaign "genocide," and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before Congress that the U.S. government had “concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed [government organized militia] bear responsibility”; and

WHEREAS, under international law, the United Nations and individual governments have an affirmative obligation to act to end genocide; and

WHEREAS, two years after the finding of the U.S. government that genocide was being perpetrated in Darfur, that genocide continues unabated, without a concerted effort by the United Nations, the United States government or the governments of other nations throughout the world to bring it to an end; and

WHEREAS, the United Nations, the government of the U.S., and the governments of other nations throughout the world failed to act on their obligations under international law to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and are now repeating this abdication of legal and moral responsibility; and

WHEREAS, two years ago, the AFT’s national convention went on record decrying the violence in Darfur and condemning the government of the Sudan for its violations of human rights; and

WHEREAS, as men and women of conscience and as educators committed to the dignity and worth of all humanity, we have a responsibility to speak out against injustice on behalf of vulnerable and disenfranchised peoples across the globe:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers condemn the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan and hold the government of the Sudan responsible for perpetrating this crime against the people of Darfur and against all humanity; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT call upon the United Nations, the government of the U.S. and the governments of other nations throughout the world to act on their affirmative obligation under international law to end genocide by:

• instituting economic sanctions against the government of the Sudan until such time as the genocide in Darfur is ended, the people of Darfur are restored to their homes and villages, and the human rights of all of the peoples of the Sudan are respected;
• organizing a multinational intervention force in the Sudan to protect the people of Darfur from the government of the Sudan and the Janjaweed, with the armed forces drawn from other African nations;
• supporting such intervention with financial and materiel aid and resources;
• providing massive humanitarian assistance to the people of Darfur, who are dying by the thousands in refugee camps for the lack of food, shelter and medicine; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT ask its affiliates to investigate ways in which teacher and other public employee pension funds can contribute to ending genocide in Darfur and securing human rights in the Sudan through the promotion of corporate responsibility and accountability on these issues.