SAN DIEGO—The California State Senate passed a bill on Wednesday mandating that the State of California public retirement system funds be withdrawn from Sudan.
The vote to support Assembly Bill (AB) 2941 follows joint efforts by students, politicians and community leaders to stop California's public pension system from funding genocide in the Darfur region.
Over the past four years more than 90 percent of Darfur's villages have been destroyed, over 400,000 Darfurians have been slaughtered, and nearly 3 million have been displaced, according to the Sudan Divestment Task Force.
Congress also declared that genocide is occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan by unanimously passing House Concurrent Resolution 467 on July 22, 2004. The U. S. Senate approved its version, Senate Concurrent Resolution 133, the same day.
"The United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur found that government and militia forces of Sudan have conducted indiscriminate attacks, including, but not limited to, the killing of civilians, torture, forced disappearances, the destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging, and forced displacement throughout Darfur," declares AB 2941.
"Investing public retirement funds in business firms and institutions with ties to the repressive regime in Sudan is inconsistent with the moral and political values of the people of California," continues the bill.
The Sudanese government relies on foreign investment to fund its military and militias aiming to eliminate the non-Arab people of Darfur.
If enacted, AB 2941 would prohibit the Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with active business operations in Sudan, and would also require the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement Board of the State Teachers' Retirement System to sell or transfer any investments in a company with active business operations in Sudan.
The bill would require those boards to report to the Legislature any investments in a company with business operations in Sudan and the sale or transfer of those investments, subject to the fiduciary duty of those boards, by January 1, 2008, and every year thereafter.
"The California Legislature has spoken loudly in opposition to the atrocities occurring in Darfur, and we now ask the governor to follow suit," stated Adam Sterling, National Policy Director for the Sudan Divestment Task in a released statement.
For the next two weeks, activists across the state will collect thousands of postcards urging Governor Schwarzenegger to support divestment from Sudan.
California's decision is likely to set a precedent for dozens of other states considering similar legislation.
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