Arkansas Divestment Campaign's Success in State Legislature

On Monday Bill SCR20 to encourage state retirement companies to identify companies operating in Sudan and divest from those companies received a do pass recommendation from the state joint committee on Public Retirement and Social Security Programs. The current status of the bill can be viewed online.

We would like to congratulate the students at the University of Arkansas who began and managed a successful divestment campaign.

Although we are concerned about the ideology of legislating what is an appropriate investment practice, we do feel that state retirement plans have a responsibility to to clearly indicate what activities an investor's funds support and to offer alternative fund options when their is a serious question of harm. We commend the state legislature in simply encouraging fund operators to become transparent about their portfolio activities rather than going so far as to define a moral investment by statute. It is clear that state retirement accounts have a social and legal responsibility to define their investment holding's conduct in Sudan and offer a divested fund option for pensioners.

In the future, we hope to see more publicity given to the Darfur genocide and an initiative to inform the state's investors about their ability to divest personal funds from companies that are complicit in the genocide.

Visit the Arkansas STAND website for more information on the Arkansas Student's divestment campaign and their platform against the Darfur genocide. Further information can be found at the international Sudan Divestment Taskforce website.