For Immediate Release
May 12, 2009
Contact
Eileen White Read, 202.741.6376
[email protected]
Eileen White Read, 202.741.6376
[email protected]
ADVISORY: Enough Project Co-founder John Prendergast To Testify Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Enough Project’s Co-founder, John Prendergast, will testify tomorrow at a 2:30 pm Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, “Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones, Spotlight: DRC and Sudan.”
Prendergast will discuss the effect of “the two deadliest wars in the world, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan,” which he says have spawned “the worst sexual violence in the world. Rape has become the tool of choice of many of the armed groups as a means to control, subjugate, humiliate, intimidate, and ethnically cleanse.”
He will also highlight the Enough Project’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign against “conflict minerals” from Congo, which are sold by rebel groups to purchase arms and serve as a direct cause of widespread sexual violence in that country. These minerals – tin, tungsten, and tantalum – are commonly used in the manufacture of cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, video games, and digital cameras. The Congo Conflict Minerals Act (S. 891) was introduced in the Senate on April 23, sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS,) Dick Durbin (D-IL,) and Russ Feingold (D-WI.)
WHAT Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing
WHERE Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 419
WHEN Wednesday, May 13, 2:30 pm
WHO John Prendergast, Co-founder, The Enough Project at the Center for American Progress
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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. To learn more about Enough and what you can do to help, go to www.enoughproject.org.
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."