October, 19 2009, 02:11pm EDT
Leading Rights Group Says Implementation of New Sudan Policy is Key
Announcement comes as UN Security Council is to review Panel of Experts report
WASHINGTON
Human Rights First welcomes today's announcement of President Obama's new policy on Sudan. While President Obama's statements during the presidential campaign promised a strong response to those responsible for atrocities in Sudan, his administration's policy to date has been more focused on engagement with Sudan's leaders than consequences. For the newly announced White House policy to succeed, the Obama Administration must demand the enforcement of existing United Nations and U.S. sanctions.
According to Human Rights First, during the seven months since his appointment, President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan, J. Scott Gration, has consistently promoted a policy of engagement over all other tools, including sanctions. This viewpoint could be a significant roadblock to implementation of the Obama Administration's newly announced policy. "We won't know if sanctions work until we've actually tried to enforce them," noted Julia Fromholz, director of Human Rights First's Crimes Against Humanity program. "The Administration must immediately dedicate itself to ensuring that effective pressure is applied not only to the Government of Sudan and all other belligerents, but also to those who support the conflict in violation of United Nations and U.S. embargoes."
In 2005, the United Nations Security Council expanded a year-old arms embargo on Darfur to include the government of Sudan. Since then, the Sanctions Committee charged with monitoring and enforcing the embargo has dispatched successive expert groups to find detailed evidence on embargo violations. Despite scarce resources and obstacles erected by the Sudanese government-such as refusals to issue visas to Panel of Experts members-these expert groups have submitted hundreds of pages of solid evidence to the Sanctions Committee on violations of the embargo. Yet the Sanctions Committee and the UN Security Council have taken no action to hold either the Sudanese government or third-party suppliers including China and Russia accountable. The embargo remains in place and the Panel of Experts' mandate has already been renewed for another year.
Today's announcement comes just days before panel's latest report on Sudan is expected to be discussed at the Sanctions Committee. "This is an ideal moment for the Obama Administration to show that it is in fact willing to apply pressure to a government that has time and again broken promises while abusing its people, and that it will also hold accountable those who sustain that government," said Fromholz. "Imposing consequences on embargo violators would clearly show that President Obama is serious about the sanctions he mentioned this morning."
Human Rights First urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and Special Envoy to Sudan Gration to ensure that the discussion this week at the Sanctions Committee is thorough and detailed, and to galvanize multilateral support for imposing consequences on those who have violated the embargo. Fromholz noted, "The most effective start to implementation of this morning's new policy would be to ensure that laws already on the books are applied, not ignored."
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
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Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
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Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
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Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
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Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
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David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
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Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
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U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
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Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
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Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
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One plaintiffs' attorney said the ruling "makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society."
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
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Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
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"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
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According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
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"Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to re-engage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
In what one civil rights leader called "the largest expansion of voting rights in this state since the 1965 Voting Rights Act," a three-judge state court panel voted 2-1 in 2021 to restore voting rights to approximately 55,000 formerly incarcerated felons. The decision made North Carolina the only Southern state to automatically restore former felons' voting rights.
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As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
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