Since early 2003, in the province of Darfur in western Sudan, government-backed militias called the Janjaweed have conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing against indigenous non-Arab villagers. Atrocities continue to take place on a massive scale: children beaten to death, girls raped and mutilated, villages bombed or burned to the ground, livestock killed, and wells poisoned.

 

According to Human Rights Watch, as of December 2006, at least 200,000 Sudanese civilians in Darfur have died since the attacks began; other estimates of the dead are more than twice as high. At least two million Sudanese have been driven from their homes.

 

This is a situation that people of conscience cannot ignore.

In April 2005, Domini issued an Action Alert in support of the Darfur Accountability Act, which called for a UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on the government of Sudan, including an arms embargo, a military no-fly zone, increased assistance to African Union peacekeepers, and the prosecution of those responsible for the genocide. More than 1,200 Domini shareholders and others sent messages to the President, State Department, U.N. Ambassador and their Congressional representatives in response to this Action Alert. (In October 2006, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act was signed into law. Among other sanctions, it freezes the assets of people guilty of violence and genocide in Darfur, and denies entry at U.S. ports to oil tankers that have carried Sudanese oil.)

Domini’s research analysts track the involvement of companies worldwide with Sudan as a key part of our research into their performance on human rights. Guided by our Global Investment Standards and our own research, Domini seeks to avoid investing in companies whose activities provide direct or substantial indirect benefits to the Sudanese government, or that are otherwise complicit in human rights abuses in Sudan. For more details on our Sudan investment policy, click here.

 

We believe it is a hopeful sign that several other socially responsible investment firms and research providers, along with a number of important institutional investors, are taking action on this urgent issue. We encourage all investors to carefully consider how they might use all of the tools at their disposal to help bring an end to the genocide in Darfur.

 

For more information about why the way you invest matters for the people of Darfur, click here.  To find out more about the situation in Darfur and what you can do to help, visit the Sudan Divestment Task Force, Save Darfur, and the Genocide Intervention Network,

 

You should consider the Domini Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. View or order  a copy of the Funds' current prospectus for more complete information on these and other topics. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money.

 

DSIL Investment Services LLC, Distributor. 02/07