Calvert SVP Testifies Before Congress on Darfur

Bennett Freeman, senior vice president of social research and policy at Calvert Group, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week on the firm’s support of divestment of holdings of companies that support the Sudanese government, which has been conducting genocide over the past two years.

Freeman—who also served as deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor under Secretary Albright in the Clinton Administration—said, “Calvery has sharpened its focus on Sudan as the crisis in Darfur continued and as the Sudanese government resisted deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force.”

Freeman noted how Calvert’s involvement in the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa underscores “the positive impact that divestment can make.” He said the situation in Darfur is the most serious in Africa since apartheid.

He said that since the beginning of this year, Calvert has been lending analytical support to the Sudan Divestment Task Force and the Save Darfur Coalition. Freeman said that it is primarily oil and infrastructure companies that are supporting the Sudanese government.

Meanwhile, the Save Darfur Coalition is running a new commercial on CNN and is also planning an online marketing push to draw investors’ attention to funds with holdings in companies that do business in Sudan, the Boston Herald reports.

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