Ellison Joins Colleagues to Protect Women and Girls of Darfur

Press Release

Ellison Joins Colleagues to Protect Women and Girls of Darfur

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minneapolis) has joined seventy of his colleagues to protest the rape and other acts of sexual and gender-based violence committed by the Sudanese armed forces, the Janjaweed militia and other armed combatants against the women and girls in Darfur.

"Those of us who champion the sanctity of civil and human rights know there is no greater violation of a woman's or a girl's basic human rights than to be victimized by the heinous crime of rape or sexual violence," Ellison stated.

The use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war is not a new phenomenon. Estimates of between 20,000 - 50,000 women were raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. Even more women and girls suffered this ultimate indignity during the genocide in Rwanda with estimates ranging between 250,000 and 500,000. So too has it been an integral part of the mass violence and ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese against the residents in the region of Darfur.

"We must not allow these ugly chapters in history to repeat themselves in Darfur without raising our collective voices in protest. This Resolution continues our demonstration against the repugnant practices of the regime in Khartoum," the Fifth District Congressman said.

The Resolution calls on the President and the international community to:

* Develop within the State Department and USAID a Women and Girls of Darfur Initiative to, among other things, provide victims and potential victims of rape in Darfur, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic with much needed comprehensive and quality medical supplies and health care services, psychological counseling and legal advice.
* Ensure that a hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force is deployed that can properly protect women and girls from and respond to acts of rape and sexual violence.
* Through the U.N. Security Council, find Sudan in non-compliance with its obligations to protect women and girls and call on Khartoum to bring perpetrators of rape and sexual violence to justice.

Congress has already passed several pieces of legislation strongly disapproving of the practices of the Sudanese government against the Darfur region, including sanctions against the regime, strengthening states rights to divest from international companies doing business in Sudan and urging greater international action to address the conflict.

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