We're just 3 months into 2010 and Invisible Children's already making history.
In early January, our founders Jason Russell & Laren Poole traveled to Washington D.C. with our CEO Ben Keesey and Schools for Schools student Cathy Kaplan. Their mission: To hand-off the Citizen’s Arrest Warrant for Joseph Kony to White House officials. Did you get all that? Okay. This warrant contained 253,512 signatures asking for President Obama to lead the international effort to end this war. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs Johnny Carson and Undersecretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero accepted the warrant on behalf of the President.
Even with this accomplishment, further progress was at a standstill. The landmark bill called the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act was introduced last fall and had built incredible momentum in both the House and the Senate, with over 217 cosponsors. However, the bill stalled in December when Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn single-handedly held it back because of his concern over the money allocated for Uganda's recovery. The legislation was stuck in the Senate.
So, earlier this month, our partners at Resolve Uganda headed to Oklahoma, staging a hold-out event where they waited for Dr. Coburn to lift his hold on the bill. It took 11 cold, sleepless nights, but perseverance took the prize and Coburn lifted his hold after a compromise was found. On the 12th day, the bill passed the United States Senate by unanimous consent. Now, the bill moves onto the House, and then to the President's desk.
Watch the update and find out more (featuring exclusive footage from our White House meeting).
Citizen Arrest Warrant Hand-Off from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
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