As we look back at the genocide and military conflict in Darfur, Sudan during 2007, the Sudan divestment movement in the U.S. has largely succeeded in bringing increased pressure on financial firms and companies involved in Sudan to sever their financial ties to the Government of Sudan.
A few of the many divestment-related news stories from the past year are highlighted below:
Institutional investors in Petrochina, a Chinese oil company with significant oil exploration projects in Sudan, faced shareholder pressure to divest from the company. Save Darfur, a U.S.-based advocacy group launched a campaign targeting Berkshire Hathaway, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton, three of the largest investors in Petrochina.
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Coyright © 2007 by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. All rights reserved.
Alicia H. Munnell, the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Science at Boston College, has asked, “Should Public Plans Engage in Social Investing?” in a briefing paper published by the Center for Retirement Research of which she is Director.1 Her answer:
But even assuming that divestment is an effective mechanism to stop genocide and reduce terror risk and that state legislatures and pension fund boards are the right place to make foreign policy, the issue remains whether pension funds are an appropriate vehicle for implementing that policy. The answer seems unquestionably “no”.2
Is Prof. Munnell saying something outrageous here? If divestment by public pensions could halt genocide and “reduce terror risk”, they still shouldn’t do it?
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At the end of July, the US federal government passed bills in the House of Representatives that would provide legal protections to investment managers who sell holdings in companies involved in key sectors of Iran’s or Sudan’s economy.
Several weeks ago, Florida became the first US state to pass a law requiring their state pensions funds to divest from companies operating in Iran’s oil and mining sectors. Other states including Michigan, Texas, and Illinois are seeking to pass similar legislation.
This comes on the heels of a very successful Sudan divestment movement that started in Illinois and has since been implemented in various forms in over a dozen states.
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