HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1012

        A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Directing the South Dakota State Investment Council to apply its Social Activism Policy to address the ongoing genocide and other atrocities being committed in Sudan.

    WHEREAS, the federal government has imposed sanctions against the government of Sudan since 1997; and

    WHEREAS, on July 23, 2004, and again on September 25, 2006, the United States Congress declared and reaffirmed that "the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide"; and

    WHEREAS, the United States Congress noted that the genocide in Darfur has lead to the "systematic rape of thousands of women and girls, the abduction of women and children, and the destruction of hundreds of ethnically African villages, including the poisoning of their wells and the plunder of their crops and cattle upon which the people of such villages sustain themselves"; and

    WHEREAS, over 500,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes by the Sudanese regime since 2003; and

    WHEREAS, the Darfur crisis represents the first time the United States government has labeled the actions of another country as genocide; and

    WHEREAS, since 1993 the United States Secretary of State has determined that the government of Sudan has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature directs the State Investment Council to fight the atrocities in Sudan by activating its Social Activism Policy which provides a means of engagement and potential divestment from companies identified by the United States Congress as supporters of the Sudanese government.

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Adopted by the House of Representatives,

Concurred in by the Senate,

Timothy A. Rave Speaker of the House	Karen Gerdes Chief Clerk of the House
Dennis Daugaard President of the Senate	Trudy Evenstad Secretary of the Senate