Sullivan Foundation Founder

Urges Multilateral Sanctions on Sudan

WASHINGTON – In response to U.S. President George W. Bush’s announcement today of new sanctions on Sudan, Hope Masters, founding President of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and younger daughter of Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, has called on the international community to join the United States in placing more effective sanctions on the Government of Sudan.  The stronger sanctions, she said, should force Sudan’s compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706, which calls for a hybrid UN-African Union protection force to end the killing and suffering in that country’s Darfur region.

            “I applaud President Bush for taking the actions he did today to increase sanctions on the Khartoum government,” Masters said.  “At this point, the United States has just about reached the limits of effectiveness through unilateral sanctions.  If pressure on Sudan is to work, it has to be multilateral.  That is the lesson my father taught through the original Sullivan Principles in South Africa that helped end apartheid by impacting multinational companies.”

            President Bush announced several actions today, including: adding 30 Sudan-government owned or controlled companies to the sanctions list; banning individuals connected to the violence in Darfur from doing business with any U.S. financial institution, company or citizen, and leading an effort to achieve a new UN resolution applying further sanctions on Sudan.

            “Many of us in civil society are now focusing more than ever before on securing the full cooperation of the international community in bringing the genocide in Darfur and its terrible aftermath to a final and complete end,” Masters said.  ‘That is why we are sponsoring a Town Hall Meeting focused on the international role in addressing the crisis in Darfur.”

            The Sullivan Foundation Town Hall Meeting on Darfur will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 8th at International House at 3701 Chestnut Street from 4pm to 6pm.  Representatives from the United States, the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union, as well as the embassies of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Sudan have been invited to present the position of their government or organization on ways to end the crisis in Darfur. 

The Philadelphia Town Hall Meeting is co-sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition, the ENOUGH Project, Africa Action, Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America and Opportunities Industrialization Centers International.  The latter two are sister organizations of the Foundation and were created in the 1960s by the late Reverend Leon H. Sullivan.

For more information, call Nichet Smith at 1-202-736-2239.