Never Again is Again: Stand Up Against Genocide in Africa

Here’s a bit more on divestment in Sudan. The term was not something that I personally was familiar with until recently*, so just in case there are other people out there like me, here’s a quick run-down on the idea behind divestment (in very layman terms!).

Basically, divestment is the opposite of investment. A company or individual sells off specific business units—usually stock or market shares. This is done regularly in the case where money may be more profitably invested elsewhere. Sometimes, however, divestment occurs as a social or political response to companies that are implicated in funding of, for example, the Sudanese government. This also happened in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s as a response to human rights infringements.

Sudan Divestment is a great resource on the current situation in Darfur. Here, more specifically, is the pdf report (updated April 7th of this year).

*Big thanks to Dr. Stephen Brown, Dr. David Ambrosetti, and the rest of my group at the Failing, Failed, and Fragile States conference for patiently—very patiently—explaining divestment to me during our time together drafting policy recommendations!

- sara