Emmanuelle Chriqui

 For Immediate Release

July 2, 2009

Contact
Eileen White Read, 202.741.6376
eread@enoughproject.org

RELEASE: Julianne Moore, Juliana Margulies, Brooke Smith, and Ken Baumann Join Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Film star Julianne Moore and actresses Juliana Margulies and Brooke Smith are featured in a new video to promote Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign aimed at connecting the sale of “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the worse violence in the world against women and girls. The video is available here.

To raise awareness about the Congo crisis, actor Ken Baumann from the television show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” hosted castmates Daren Kagasoff, Camille Winbush, and Renee Olstead, along with dozens of other young Hollywood actors, at a consciousness-raising event at the Hollywood restaurant and club Jane’s House.

Guests included AnnaLynne McCord of “90210” and “Nip/Tuck,” Selena Gomez of “The Wizards of Waverly Place,” and Emmanuelle Chriqui of “Entourage.” Ms. Chriqui was featured in a video supporting RAISE Hope for Congo earlier this month.

"In order to make Congo's conflict minerals the next ‘blood diamonds’ campaign, we are going to need recognizable faces helping to spread the word. Talented actresses such as Julianne Moore, Juliana Margulies, and Brooke Smith will help seed the ground for greater pressure on our government and electronics companies to step up and help end the violence against women and girls in the Congo," said John Prendergast, the Enough Project’s Co-founder. Prendergast attended the Baumann event in Los Angeles.

The videos are part of an initiative created by Enough, the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress, in partnership with YouTube™. The partnership’s Come Clean 4 Congo video contest is empowering individuals to create compelling messages that highlight the link between conflict minerals used in cell phones and the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the deadliest since World War II.

Judges for the contest are Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling, actress Sonya Walger from ABC’s "Lost," and Oscar-nominated director Wim Wenders. Following tomorrow’s deadline for submissions, the celebrity judges will narrow their favorite videos down to three. Then the public will be asked to vote for the winner. The creator of the winning video will be flown to Los Angeles, where the video will be screened at an entertainment industry event; it will also be featured on the Enough Project’s websites and YouTube page. More information on the contest is at www.youtube.com/enoughproject.

Visit the Enough Project’s blog, Enough Said, for updates on this issue. Follow The Enough Project on Twitter; http://twitter.com/enoughproject.

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The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Founded in 2007, Enough focuses on crises in Sudan, Chad, eastern Congo, northern Uganda, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. Enough’s strategy papers and briefings provide sharp field analysis and targeted policy recommendations based on a “3P” crisis response strategy: promoting durable peace, providing civilian protection, and punishing perpetrators of atrocities. Enough works with concerned citizens, advocates, and policy makers to prevent, mitigate, and resolve these crises. The RAISE Hope for Congo campaign aims to build a permanent and diverse constituency of activists advocating for effective change in eastern Congo, including an end to the long-running conflict and the resulting sexual violence against women and girls, and reforms to reduce trade by rebel groups in conflict minerals. To schedule an interview, please contact Eileen White Read at eread@enoughproject.org; phone 202 641 0779.

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Center for American Progress, 1333 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20005-4707 United States

A century ago almost to the day, a rag tag collection of human rights activists, concerned citizens, and politicians were able to cause enough of a commotion internationally that they forced a greedy Belgian king to give up his personal ownership of an entire country in Africa. The country was the Congo, and King Leopold's slave-raiding depredations had cut Congo's population in half - nearly 10 million people - in his quest to extract rubber, ivory and other valuable minerals from the country.

100 years later, the world is at it again. Our computers, soup cans, cell phones, diamond earrings, gold rings and dozens of other everyday products can be traced to mines in the Congo, where precious minerals are extracted in one of the most violent places on the face of the earth to satisfy our consumer demands.

And just like a century ago, people of conscience all over the world must raise their voices against the horrors being perpetrated in the Congo to feed the electronics, jewelry and other markets.

To that end, the Enough Project is launching the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign, which aims to protect and empower Congolese women. Why? Because in a truly tragic turn, Congolese women have become the principal targets in the continuing conflict in eastern Congo. With the highest rates of violence against women globally, eastern Congo has become the most dangerous place to be a woman on the face of the earth.

As an actor and an activist, we are joining forces to become part of what hopefully will become a movement to protect and empower the women of the Congo. Anyone can join. We need people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, in order to bring the necessary influence to bear on our elected officials to actually make a commitment to end these terrible crimes against humanity.

As part of the campaign, the Enough Project is kicking off a speakers' tour on college campuses across the country, and working with Eve Ensler's V-Day and STAND to help students conduct their own Congo Teach Ins on campus. From engaging in letter writing campaigns and petition drives to hosting house screenings of films about the Congo or blogging about the conflict, there will be many ways to get involved. You can start by signing the petition to the president at www.raisehopeforcongo.org and then send it to your friends and family members. Post it on your Facebook or MySpace page. If we can make enough noise, we will get the attention of the new president of the United States. And we will ask for a commitment from him to help lead a global effort to end the violence against women in the Congo.

Rape as a tool of war has been used before in other conflicts. But never like this. It is being perfected as a tool, without repercussions for the perpetrators. If we let it happen in the Congo, where next? We must take a stand for the women of the Congo, and for the future of our common humanity.