Press Release / / 04.26.17

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing today: The Sentry’s Brad Brooks-Rubin Testifies in Congress on Sudan Sanctions

Washington, D.C. (April 26, 2016) –  Today, The Sentry and Enough Project’s Brad Brooks-Rubin testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations’ hearing on “The Questionable Case for Easing Sudan Sanctions.”

In his testimony, Brooks-Rubin called on Congress to adopt legislation that ties a new suite of modernized financial pressures, as well as appropriate incentives, to a new Human Rights and Peace Track for Sudan.

Brad Brooks-Rubin, Policy Director at The Sentry and Policy Advisor at the Enough Project, said: “It is a critical moment because, this past January, in the waning moments of the last Administration, an all-or-nothing choice on economic sanctions on Sudan—either maintain the two decades-old comprehensive sanctions or lift them entirely—was created. This false choice came out of a limited, five-track engagement process that was developed in mid-2016. This process is insufficient because it does not address basic governance issues in Sudan, it does not include crucial human rights and religious freedom issues, and it removes the bulk of U.S. leverage without requiring any peace agreement for the multiple wars being waged today in Sudan. The far more sophisticated tools of financial pressure that are available today can be deployed in a much more nuanced way than a “sanctions on all of Sudan” or a “no sanctions at all” approach.

“We believe Congress and the Trump Administration must correct this course—now. This correction can best be achieved by developing a de-linked and independent Human Rights and Peace Track with the Government of Sudan that would supplement but remain independent of the five-track engagement process. This diplomatic track should address the most critical reform issues in Sudan, and it should be tied directly to modernized and focused financial pressures tools, as well as new incentives, which can maximize the chances of achieving U.S. foreign policy objectives in Sudan.

“This new track should focus on the United States’ most pressing policy goals for Sudan: advancing human rights, religious freedom, essential democratic reforms, good governance, and ultimately a comprehensive peace. Without addressing these goals, the Government of Sudan will maintain its longstanding patterns of behavior, advancing policies that have led to the continuous deadly war, religious persecution, dictatorship, mass migration to Europe, grand corruption, and affiliation with terrorist organizations that have marked its rule for the last 28 years.”

Key measures that the United States can take, as noted in the testimony:

  • Sanctions that freeze the assets of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and its corporate network, establishing a 25 percent threshold for ownership that would result in designation.
  • Sectoral sanctions focused on the conflict gold and weapons manufacturing sectors.
  • Targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for acts of public corruption and serious human rights abuses throughout Sudan, ensuring we target individuals with significant personal assets and/or corporate holdings.
  • Requiring compliance with these sanctions by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to prevent evasion.
  • Public reporting by companies doing business in Sudan in order to ensure companies are taking appropriate due diligence measures.
  • Directing Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to investigate whether the gold sector or other networks in Sudan constitute a “primary money laundering concern,” to issue advisories related to their investigations, and to work with financial institutions and other jurisdictions to investigate Sudanese Politically Exposed Persons and other targets. These efforts will focus the financial sector on the key concerns in Sudan and help to mitigate against future, large-scale de-risking.
  • Congressional appropriation of funds to the relevant agencies to do this work that has been desperately needed for many years but never done.

Click here to read Brad Brooks-Rubin’s full testimony: http://eno.ug/2q6EbRu

Hearing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InKSLvEzjrY&

For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact: Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717 0606[email protected].

About THE SENTRY

The Sentry is a team of analysts, regional experts, and financial forensic investigators which follows the money to disrupt the corrupt networks who fund and profit from genocide or other mass atrocities in Africa. Co-founded by George Clooney and John Prendergast, The Sentry is an initiative of the Enough Project and Not On Our Watch (NOOW), with its implementing partner C4ADS. Current countries of focus are South Sudan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and the Central African Republic. Learn more at TheSentry.org.

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention research and policy non-profit organization, builds leverage for peace, human rights in Africa’s deadliest conflict zones by working to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough, and its investigative partner The Sentry, aims to counter armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of ivory, gold, diamonds, conflict minerals, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org.