FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Maryland Delegate Bilal Ali (Baltimore City – District 41) has introduced an historic new bill to ensure that Maryland spends and invests taxpayers’ money in a manner that reflects Maryland values of upholding human rights and opposition to genocide and crimes against humanity.
The Maryland End Genocide Bill (HB 1787) will require that the State of Maryland spend and invest taxpayers money in accordance with Maryland values. It seeks to ensure that the State of Maryland, through its spending and investing of taxpayers’ money, uses its influence to press corporations to adopt a formal policy of refusing to do business with governments that engage in genocide or crimes against humanity.
Maryland Delegate Bilal Ali (Baltimore City – District 41)
“With this bill, we will ensure that Maryland citizens’ tax dollars will be spent ethically and invested responsibly. It is an expression of Maryland citizens’ values that we use our taxpayer dollars to press companies to refuse to do business with governments engaged in genocide or crimes against humanity.”
Simon Billenness, Executive Director, International Campaign for the Rohingya
“We welcome the State of Maryland in using its influence to press companies to reconsider doing business with the government of Burma (Myanmar). We hope that this pressure will help end Burma’s genocide of the Rohingya people.”
“Governments require corporate investment and trade. But no government can expect to do business as usual if it engages in genocide or crimes against humanity. We can deny corporations our investment and our purchases until they refuse to support governments that engage in these grave abuses of human rights.”
Contacts:
Maryland Delegate Bilal Ali (Baltimore City – District 41)
(410) 841-3268
[email protected]
http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/msa17369.html
ABOUT MARYLAND DELEGATE BILAL ALI
Mr. Bilal Abdul Malik Ali serves as a delegate to the Maryland General Assembly representing Maryland’s District 41. He serves on the House Ways and Means committee.[2] He is a member of the Baltimore City Delegation and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland.
Simon Billenness, Executive Director, International Campaign for the Rohingya
(617) 596-6158
[email protected]
www.rohingyacampaign.org
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE ROHINGYA
The International Campaign for the Rohingya advocates and amplifies the voice of the Rohingya with international organizations, governments, corporations, and civil society. Its mission is to help the Rohingya secure peace, security, and their rights wherever they reside. As a member of the “No Business With Genocide” campaign, International Campaign for the Rohingya presses corporations to speak out to end the genocide of the Rohingya in Burma (Myanmar).
Iman Awad, National Legislative Director, Emgage Action
(443) 417-0139
[email protected]
www.emgageusa.org
Emgage Action mobilizes Muslim Americans in support of key issues from criminal justice reform to healthcare to human rights, and prepares them for effective advocacy based on principled positions that uphold our values as Americans and as Muslims.
Key Provisions of the Maryland End Genocide Bill (HB 1787)
Full text of the bill: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/bills/hb/hb1787F.pdf
Procurement
The Maryland End Genocide Bill (HB 1787) will direct the state government, beginning on January 1st, 2020, to enter into contracts with only those corporations that have adopted a formal policy of refusing to do business with governments that engage in genocide or crimes against humanity.
Investment
The bill require the State Treasurer to ensure that any shares held by the State are voted in favor of shareholder resolutions that ask companies to adopt a policy of refusing to do business with governments that engage in genocide or crimes against humanity.
Market Participation
In both the procurement and investment provisions of the bill, the State of Maryland will act as a market participant. The State of Maryland will act in the marketplaces for goods, services, and capital just as any other consumer or investor does, free to apply both financial and ethical criteria in its purchasing and investing.
Establishment of the Maryland Commission on Genocide Prevention
The bill will establish the Maryland Commission on Genocide Prevention to research which governments are at risk of committing genocide or crimes against humanity, identify corporations that do business with those governments, and hold hearings on the implementation of the Act.
Overall Impact
Overall, the impact of the bill will be to use the State of Maryland’s procurement and investment processes to create market incentives for corporations to adopt a policy of refusing to do business with governments that engage in genocide or crimes against humanity.
The State of Maryland will join the citizens of Maryland and around the world who use ethical purchasing practices to influence corporations to help end genocide.
The State of Maryland will also join the shareholders of Chevron who in 2017 voted more than 72,000 of their shares in favor of a resolution asking the company to adopt a policy of refusing to do business with governments that engage in genocide or crimes against humanity.
The State of Maryland will also highlight and develop further ways in which the State can help end genocide through the work of its Maryland Commission on Genocide Prevention.
About End Genocide Laws
During the American Revolution, town meetings adopted resolutions calling for a boycott of British-made goods. The Boston Tea Party seized on the spirit of these resolutions through its historic act of dumping British tea in Boston Harbor. This revolutionary campaign is captured in T.H. Breen’s book “The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence.” It was in part through this “boycott British” campaign that the American colonies united and rose up to secure their independence.
City and state “End Genocide” laws build on this American tradition. These laws follow in the footsteps of other similar successful campaigns. In the 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement forced corporations to divest from South Africa under pressure from municipal and state laws. In the 1990s, over 100 corporations withdrew from Burma (Myanmar) after Massachusetts and over 20 cities passed laws effectively boycotting companies doing business in the country. In the 2000s, the Save Darfur campaign mobilized pressure on oil companies in Sudan. Today, the fossil fuel divestment campaign is succeeding in mobilizing state and local government to tackle climate change.
By passing a Genocide Prevention Law, a city or state can express its citizens’ values while also ensuring that, by its spending and investment of taxpayer dollars, it represents its citizens’ values as an actor in the marketplace for goods, services, and capital. In so doing, the city or state will also act in solidarity with people at risk of genocide or other grave human rights abuses.
For more information, read “End Genocide, Starting With Your Hometown.”
As you know, Sudan is facing one of the most critical humanitarian crises in the world today. It is the site of the largest internal displacement crisis on Earth. Conflict and genocide have 25 million Sudanese struggling with limited access to food, clean water, and basic medical care. That is half of the population.
Entire communities are uprooted, seeking safety in already overwhelmed areas, and the situation continues to deteriorate as resources become scarcer by the day.
We are reaching out to you because you have taken action for Sudan in the past. Over the past year, you have taken nearly 13,000 actions on behalf of the people of Sudan. Congress and the Biden Administration are listening.
Your donation will allow us to:
Continue to raise awareness about the genocide in Sudan. While it may not be leading newscasts or appearing on the front pages of newspapers, policymakers are talking about Sudan. That is because of your actions. With your help, we can continue to sound the alarm about what is happening.
Make the U.S. government do more to end the genocide in Sudan. Congress can and must act to end the violence, get more humanitarian aid into the country, and force the warring parties to sit down and work out a deal for lasting peace.
Stop the Biden Administration from providing weapons to the UAE. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been the principal sponsor of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan. The RSF has been committing atrocities across Sudan. That must stop.
Make the NBA step away from the UAE. As the National Basketball League (NBA) touts its support for diversity, inclusion, and civil rights in the United States, it cozies up to dictators around the globe. In 2021, it entered into a contract with the UAE to inlcude hosting games in that repressive nation. By working with the UAE government and whitewashing its repressive policies and support for genocide, the NBA is complicit in the UAE’s crimes against humanity. We can make them stop.
The need is urgent—and every contribution makes a difference. With your support, we can bring hope to those who have lost so much. Please consider making a donation today to help us save lives in Sudan.
Help us end the #UyghurGenocide
As you may have seen, Volkswagen has announced it is leaving Xinjiang, China. This is due to public pressure from you and people like you who took actions to let Volkswagen know that its complicity in the genocide against the Uyghurs is not acceptable. In 2024, you took nearly 7
The Uyghur community faces genocide, persecution, forced labor and organ harvesting, and separation from their families at unprecedented levels. For years, millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang region have been subjected to severe restrictions on their basic freedoms, leaving families and entire communities struggling to survive under immense pressure.
You have taken nearly 70,000 actions on behalf of the Uyghurs. We cannot thank you enough for that. Because of you, Congress is listening. Because of you, companies like Volkswagen are leaving Xinjiang, and Shein is on alert. But we cannot stop now.
By making a donation today, you can help us:
Raise awareness of the issue. Companies like VW and Shein rely on people not knowing where their products and the materials for their products come from. It has been estimated that one in five cotton garments are made with cotton from Xinjiang.
Keep goods made with slave labor off the international market.Earlier this year, thousands of luxury cars made by VW brands were kept out of the United States because they included parts made by Uyghur slave labor. Your actions led to the ban on goods from Xinjiang. Your help will let us keep the pressure on lawmakers to keep goods made by slave labor out of the U.S. and other global markets.
Raise awareness of the use of #ForcedLaborFashion. So-called “fast fashion” companies like Chinese retailed, Shein, rely heavily on Uyghur labor to make the items they sell and for the cotton they produce. You can help us stop this. Take action to get Shein to stop using slave labor by going here.
Make the U.S. government hold China accountable for the Uyghur genocide. China continues to violate international law and the civil rights of its citizens because the international community allows it to. With your help, we can make Congress and whoever is in the White House in January force them to end this genocide.
With each passing day, thousands of Uyghur families risk losing everything. Your support today can give them a lifeline.
Ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Azerbaijan
Over a year ago, Azerbaijan invaded Artsakh (Nagorono-Karabakh), and forced approximately 120,000 Armenians to flee their homes. The Armenians had lived there for more than one thousand years. Now Azerbaijan has started erasing all evidence that Armenians ever lived there.
You have taken over 6,600 actions this year on behalf of the Armenians forced from their ancestral homes by Azerbaijan. This atrocity cannot go unanswered.
Continue to raise awareness about atrocities committed by the Azerbaijan government. While it may not be leading newscasts or appearing on the front pages of newspapers, we need to make people aware of what happened. We cannot let this second genocide of Armenians go unchecked.
Make the U.S. government do more to help the displaced Armenians be allowed to go home. Congress can use its influence to rectify this wrong.
Hold BP accountable for its silence in this matter. BP has been in the region since the early 1990s. Since then, it has been the largest investor in Azerbaijan, spending more than $84 billion on projects in that nation. The United Nations has called on companies like BP to pay closer attention to human rights in these high-risk conflict zones.
The need is urgent—and every contribution makes a difference. With your support, we can bring hope to those who have lost so much. Please consider donating today to help us get justice for the Armenians displaced.
Become a monthly donor: Provide ongoing support that will sustain relief efforts in the coming months.
Share our mission: Spread the word to friends, family, and colleagues about the fight against genocide, ethnic cleansing and other mass atrocities and encourage them to join the cause.
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