Bill Text: HI SR99 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Resolution 99 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Invisible Children, Inc.; Joseph Kony

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Passed) 2012-06-22 - (S) Certified copies of resolutions sent, 06-19-12. [SR99 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SR99-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	99
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

rEQUESTING the President OF THE uNITED sTATES and the United States Congress to continue to ensure THAT UNITED sTATES advisory forces remain in Uganda until Joseph Kony is removed and stability IS brought to the country.

WHEREAS, we live in a world disjointed by bodies of water but connected by streams of information over various platforms; and

WHEREAS, these platforms share stories of stride and strife in our home and lands all over the world; and

WHEREAS, Joseph Kony is one of the world's worst war criminals, taking over leadership of an existing rebel group in 1987 and renamed it the lord's resistance army, which has earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics; and

WHEREAS, when Joseph Kony found himself running out of fighters, he started abducting children to be soldiers in his army or to become "wives" for his officers; and

WHEREAS, the lord's resistance army is encouraged to rape, mutilate, and kill civilians, often with blunt weapons; and

WHEREAS, the lord's resistance army is no longer active in Northern Uganda, where it originated, but it continues its campaign of violence in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan; and

WHEREAS, in its twenty-six year history, the lord's resistance army has abducted more than 30,000 children and displaced at least 2.1 million people; and

WHEREAS, Invisible Children, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to one cause in Uganda, has utilized social media as a platform to bring awareness to children soldiers captured at young ages and forced to fight; and

WHEREAS, Invisible Children, Inc., has been working for nine years to end Africa's longest-running armed conflict; and

WHEREAS, United States military advisers are currently deployed in Central Africa on a "time-limited" mission to stop Joseph Kony and disarm the lord's resistance army; and

WHEREAS, if Joseph Kony is not captured this year, the window of opportunity to do so may forever be lost; and

WHEREAS, Invisible Children, Inc.'s Kony 2012 Campaign aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice; and

WHEREAS, in this case, notoriety translates to public support and if people know about the crimes that Joseph Kony has been committing for twenty-six years, they will unite to stop him; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2012, that the President of the United States and the United States Congress are requested to continue to ensure that United States advisory forces remain in Uganda until Joseph Kony is removed and stability is brought to the country; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Defense, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and Invisible Children, Inc.