The movement claims “the right to be consulted, to be respected and heard in decisions about its development model, for socially-just participation in economic growth, the prohibition of mining in the headwaters of rivers, and a stop to mining with cyanide and mercury that is causing so much damage to land and water.” The marchers are proclaiming their human right to water, and drawing support from churches and civil society alike in a several day march from Cajamarca to Lima. The Great National Water mobilization began on February 1st and will conclude with a convocation in Lima on February 9-10.

Read a full description of the mobilization (in English translation):

“SMALL STREAMS MAKE THE GREAT RIVER OF LIFE”: THE GREAT NATIONAL WATER MOBILIZATION”

Materials in Spanish are also available under News in the Spanish section of this website

While football fans pour into Indiana next week to cheer for their favorite teams, traffickers in the sex trade are gearing up for their most profitable weekend of the year. Because trafficking is reported to peak at large sporting events and hotels are the prime venue for prostitution, shareholders have initiated a multi-pronged campaign to keep hotels trafficking-free during Super Bowl weekend and beyond.

ICCR members from the Coalition for Corporate Responsibility for Indiana and Michigan (CCRIM) are coordinating volunteers to deliver materials to local hotel management with specific guidance on how to spot and report suspected trafficking incidents to local law enforcement.

Said Sr. Ann Oestreich of CCRIM, “This was a real grassroots effort on behalf of the 11 CCRIM congregations which included contacting 220 hotels within a 50 mile radius of the Stadium. We asked hotels what they were doing to educate their staffs, and we are hand-delivering anti-trafficking materials to hotel management.”

ICCR members have been in dialogue with companies in the travel and tourism sector regarding anti-trafficking policies for several years.

Said Mark Regier of Everence Financial, “As investors, we believe that human trafficking poses a significant business risk, wherever and whenever it occurs. Unlike the annual Super Bowl Championship, human trafficking takes place year-round across the globe.”

ICCR’s campaign began with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when investors wrote the hotels, airlines and event sponsors in their portfolios to alert them to the risks of trafficking and request that they adopt formal human rights policies including the ECPAT code against child sex tourism. The Super Bowl initiative, which began last year, is a continuation of this campaign.

Said David Schilling of ICCR, “In light of the upcoming London Olympics, we are already coordinating with investor groups in the U.K. to guard against labor and sex trafficking during the games and we will continue to press all companies to uncover and eliminate human trafficking abuses within their spheres of influence.”

“The clandestine nature of child sex trafficking is what makes it so difficult to investigate and prosecute,” said Deputy Attorney General Abigail Kuzma, director of Consumer Protection for the IN Attorney General’s office. “Indiana’s tougher anti-trafficking legislation, poised for approval ahead of Super Bowl weekend, is both timely and welcome. And we are grateful to CCRIM for enlisting the support of area hotels to shed light on this horrific crime. Once people know what to look for, traffickers will have no place to hide.”

A telenews conference for members of the media will be held on January 30th at 2pm EST. Participants should call (866) 200-6965 and enter the participant PIN code 26308996#.

Contact: Veronica Welch CWR & Partners, LLP 508-222-4802 Ronnie@cwrpartners.com

About ICCR

Currently celebrating its 41st year, ICCR is the pioneer coalition of active shareholders who view the management of their investments as a catalyst for change. Its 300 member organizations with over $100 billion in assets have an enduring record of corporate engagement that has demonstrated influence on policies promoting justice and sustainability in the world.

About Everence Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisors and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. To learn more, visit www.everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.

About CRRIM The Coalition for Corporate Responsibility for Indiana and Michigan (CCRIM) is a faith-based investor group comprising 11 orders of Catholic women religious. CCRIM engages in socially responsible investing in collaboration with hundreds of other faith-based investor groups through the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.

Read the January 2012 issue

Copies of the Pope’s message, entitled ‘Migration and New Evangelization’, can be accessed in English, Spanish, French and Italian. Click on the links to access the documents:

• English
• Spanish 
• French
• Italian 

]]> http://omiusajpic.org/2012/01/12/papal-message-for-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees/feed/ 0 http://omiusajpic.org/2012/01/05/january-11-2012-human-trafficking-awareness-day/ http://omiusajpic.org/2012/01/05/january-11-2012-human-trafficking-awareness-day/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:58:57 +0000 christina http://omiusajpic.org/?p=10650 Wednesday, January 11, 2012 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the U.S., thanks to passage of a resolution by the Senate on June 22, 2007 making January 11th a day of awareness and vigilance for the countless victims of Human Trafficking around the world.

Human Trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, and forceful detention of people either from one country to another, or within countries. Threats, force and/or deception are typical. Those being exploited are either unpaid, or given a very small payment for their work, prostitution or other sexual exploitation, and are not free to leave these abusive situations. Each year, there are between 600,000 and 800,000 people trafficked across borders throughout the world. There are many more trafficked within countries as well. The United States is not immune to this problem; Many are trafficked within U.S. borders, as well as into the U.S. from outside.

Human Trafficking is rapidly growing, despite the efforts of many to control it. Wherever there is poverty, war, flood, famine, or any kind of upheaval, unscrupulous people prey on the vulnerable. Women and children are especially affected, but many men are as well.

Many of us are unaware of the number of slaves (yes, slaves) we use to maintain our lifestyles. Go to www.slaveryfootprint.org for a series of questions that will show how many slaves it takes to maintain the way you live.

For ideas on what to do, check out the website for Breaking the Snares – A resource for parishes to use in combating Human Trafficking by the Sisters of the Divine Savior; see their parish resource.

In addition, explore the following:

• Stop Trafficking Newsletter and other resources: http://www.stopenslavement.org/archive.htm#handouts
• End Child Prostitution and Trafficking: www.ecpat.net (Website also available in French and Spanish)
• Google The Dark Side of Chocolate to find several sites that show how children in Africa are involved in the chocolate that is so available to us.

“Just as on the road to Emmaus, Christ’s disciples met him in the guise of a stranger, this year’s theme helps remind us that Christ makes himself present to each of us in the lonesome traveler, the newcomer, and the migrant,” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles. “We are called to open our hearts and provide hospitality to those in need, especially for migrants who find themselves far away from home and in vulnerable situations.” Archbishop Gomez is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration.

Resources for National Migration Week can be found on the USCCB website. Posters, prayer cards and booklets can be ordered through the USCCB publishing service or by calling 800-235-8722.

Additionally, the U.S. bishops continue to encourage advocacy efforts by the Catholic community on comprehensive immigration reform. Visit the Justice for Immigrants Campaign website for more information.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI also unveiled the theme for the 98th World Day of Migrants and Refugees to be celebrated January 15, 2012: “Migration and the New Evangelization.” In his message the pope says that the present time calls upon the Church to intensify its missionary activity both in the regions where the Gospel is proclaimed for the first time and in countries with a Christian tradition.

“Proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Savior of the world ‘constitutes the essential mission of the Church’ … Today we feel the urgent need to give a fresh impetus and new approaches to the work of evangelization in a world in which the breaking down of frontiers and the new processes of globalization are bringing individuals and peoples even closer,” said Pope Benedict.

Internal or international migration, in search of better living conditions or to flee from the threat of persecution, war and violence, has led to an unprecedented mingling of individuals and peoples, with new problems not only from the human standpoint but also from ethical, religious and spiritual ones, the pope said. And, he added, “Christian communities are to pay special attention to migrant workers and their families by accompanying them with prayer, solidarity and Christian charity, as well as by fostering new political, economic and social planning that promotes respect for the dignity of every human person.” World Day of Migrants and Refugees was instituted by Pope Pius X in 1914.

Pope Benedict’s message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2012 can be found in the Vatican website (click here)

The billboards with the message, “I was a stranger an immigrant and you welcomed me” are being posted on December 12 and will remain up through early January 2012. The message, based on the words of Jesus, is taken from the Gospel of Matthew.

“We declare ourselves ‘Welcoming Communities’ in affirmation of our Catholic tradition that holds sacred the dignity of each person,” the Sisters said in their statement, “and we invite other communities and people of faith to join us in becoming ‘Immigrant Welcoming Communities’ through prayer, reflection, education and action.”

For more information visit, http://www.clintonfranciscans.com/news-and-events.html OR www.facebook.com/catholicsisters

In a world of growing inequality this floor is a necessary tool for eradicating poverty. It helps governments to build more inclusive national development plans, which put people at the center.

Please sign the petition in support of this initiative:

• Petition for Social Protection – English
• Piso de Protección Social – Espanol
• Assine a Carta – Portuges
• La Petition sur le Socle de Protection Sociale  - Francais

Millions of American families are relying on federal unemployment insurance in this tough economic climate. Nearly two million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance in January alone – and over 6 million in 2012 – if Congress lets the extension expire on December 31st.

Congress must act now to extend unemployment insurance. Tell your congressperson to renew the Federal Unemployment Insurance program through 2012.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other members of Faith Advocates for Jobs Campaign have taken a leadership role in advocating for the extension of unemployment insurance in the halls of Congress. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said in a December 12 letter to Congress: “For millions of American workers and their families, economic hardship continues and grows. The US Catholic bishops have long advocated that the most effective way to build a just economy is the availability of decent work at decent wages. When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to help protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families.”

Bishop Blaire wrote that the current “pervasive economic pain” includes a median length of joblessness of 10 months, and over four job seekers for every opening. He wrote that Pope John Paul II called such conditions in “a real social disaster” and that the pope said the “obligation to provide unemployment benefits” to workers and their families is a fundamental principle of “the right to life and subsistence.”

Your elected officials need to hear from you on this matter. Send an email from the Interfaith Worker Justice website.

One-page bulletin inserts of this Action Alert are available:

• Download English version with graphics
• [click here for English version without graphics]
• Download Spanish version with graphics
• [click here for Spanish version without graphics]

“Just as on the road to Emmaus, Christ’s disciples met him in the guise of a stranger, this year’s theme helps remind us that Christ makes himself present to each of us in the lonesome traveler, the newcomer, and the migrant,” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles. “We are called to open our hearts and provide hospitality to those in need, especially for migrants who find themselves far away from home and in vulnerable situations.” Archbishop Gomez is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration.

Resources for National Migration Week can be found on the USCCB website. Posters, prayer cards and booklets can be ordered through the USCCB publishing service or by calling 800-235-8722.

Additionally, the U.S. bishops continue to encourage advocacy efforts by the Catholic community on comprehensive immigration reform. Visit the Justice for Immigrants Campaign website for more information.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI also unveiled the theme for the 98th World Day of Migrants and Refugees to be celebrated January 15, 2012: “Migration and the New Evangelization.” In his message the pope says that the present time calls upon the Church to intensify its missionary activity both in the regions where the Gospel is proclaimed for the first time and in countries with a Christian tradition.

“Proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Savior of the world ‘constitutes the essential mission of the Church’ … Today we feel the urgent need to give a fresh impetus and new approaches to the work of evangelization in a world in which the breaking down of frontiers and the new processes of globalization are bringing individuals and peoples even closer,” said Pope Benedict.

Internal or international migration, in search of better living conditions or to flee from the threat of persecution, war and violence, has led to an unprecedented mingling of individuals and peoples, with new problems not only from the human standpoint but also from ethical, religious and spiritual ones, the pope said. And, he added, “Christian communities are to pay special attention to migrant workers and their families by accompanying them with prayer, solidarity and Christian charity, as well as by fostering new political, economic and social planning that promotes respect for the dignity of every human person.” World Day of Migrants and Refugees was instituted by Pope Pius X in 1914.

Pope Benedict’s message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2012 can be found in the Vatican website (click here)

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