RESOLUTION ON UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN INVESTMENTS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material)

Resolution adopted by UW-Platteville Faculty Senate | 25 January 2005

WHEREAS, American principles, values, and traditions emphasize the right of the individual to basic freedoms without regard to ethnic origin or religious affiliation and support the protection and extension of these freedoms to all peoples around the globe, and where the systematic denial of these freedoms prompted the University of Wisconsin System to take action by divesting its holdings in Apartheid era South Africa, in accordance with investment policy 78-1;
WHEREAS, independent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, and Al-Haq; the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and numerous NGOs have documented serious and widespread violations of international law and the human rights of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces operating in the West Bank and Gaza;
WHEREAS the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s separation wall violates international law and the fundamental human rights of the Palestinians;
WHREAS, there is irrefutable evidence that U.S. based companies in which the University of Wisconsin is invested provide material aid to the Israeli Army in the form of weapons, equipment, and supporting systems used to perpetrate human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians, and where knowingly continuing this support implicates these companies in practices that violate international humanitarian law;
WHEREAS, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 USC sec. 2304, provides that “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights;”
WHEREAS, University of Wisconsin System Regent Trust and Fund Policy 78-1 provides that “In accordance with Sec. 36.29(1) Wis. Stats., all investments “made in any company, corporation, subsidiary or affiliate which practices or condones through its actions discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, creed or sex. . . .” shall be divested in as prudent but rapid a manner as possible.”
WHEREAS, University of Wisconsin System Regent Trust and Fund Policy 97-1 (Investment and Social Responsibility) provides that “the Board acknowledges the importance of maintaining an awareness of public concerns about corporate policies or practices that are discriminatory (as defined by 36.29(1) Wis. Stats.) or cause substantial social injury, and (that) it will take this factor into account.”
BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville calls upon the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to divest from Caterpillar, General Dynamics, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman, and Raytheon based on evidence of the active role these companies play in enabling Israeli Forces to engage in practices that violate international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UW-Platteville Faculty Senate urges all other UW System Faculty Senates to adopt similar resolutions aimed at ensuring the implementation of UW System investment policies and by extension upholding international law and safeguarding the human rights of all peoples.
University of Wisconsin Divestment from Israel Campaign (http://alawda.rso.wisc.edu).