Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke received an “A+” on the first-ever “scorecard” grading Congress on its efforts to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Congresswoman Clarke has co-sponsored several important pieces of legislation to help resolve the situation in Darfur including H. Con. Res. 7, which calls on the League of Arab States to acknowledge the genocide in Darfur; H. Res. 422, calling on the government of China to use its influence in Sudan to stop the genocide; and H.R. 180, the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which supports states, cities and universities that have divested funds from companies that do business with or in Sudan.

The scorecard is available online at http://darfurscores.org/yvette-clarke and recognizes a bipartisan coalition of representatives and senators supporting civilian protection for endangered civilians in Darfur.

“The situation in Darfur is so dire that more than two million people have been forced to flee and approximately 400,000 have been killed,” stated Congresswoman Clarke. “I join the international community in asking the United Nations Security Council to deploy peacekeeping forces and to provide resources to the African Union troops to protect the lives of civilians.  We must work together on every level, as individuals, civic organizations and nations, to bring the genocide to an end.”

Congress made history in July 2004, by becoming the first governmental body in U.S. history to declare genocide while it was actually occurring. The unanimous resolutions recognized that the atrocities in Darfur, in which as many as 400,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been displaced, constituted ongoing genocide backed by the Sudanese government.

The scorecard also gives constituents the tools to contact their members of Congress about their records and potential future actions on Darfur. The Genocide Intervention Network is working to build the first permanent anti-genocide constituency in the United States, mobilizing the political will to stop genocide when it occurs.

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