Click here to download the PDF

BAPA works closely with the Adivasi and indigenous efforts to protect their land and livelihood. The conference emphasized the importance of the need for enforcement of their rightful ownership of land and of access the courts to defend their rights and limit harassment. In light of government statements in the past year that have failed to recognize the presence of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, the conference was also a bold statement to political leaders and government authorities about the reality of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, the dignity of their culture and traditions, and their rightful ownership of land.

Economic development is an imperative for the government of Bangladesh, but in the northeast, this has come into conflict with the rights, needs and desires of the indigenous peoples on whose land some of this development has taken place.

Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI spoke at the conference on logging, indigenous livelihoods and the environment. Sharif Jamil, a close collaborator of the Oblates who helped organize the conference, kindly sent us pictures and the program which can be viewed here:

Click on each page separately to view the Conference Program Page 1; Page 2; Page 3; Page 4; Page 5; Page 6; Page 7

A full conference report is expected soon.

Watch a slideshow of pictures from the Conference…

A course on Catholic Social Teaching (in Spanish): A comprehensive written course on Catholic Social Teaching, prepared for University students, was written and published in Latin America. It can be downloaded at: http://www.kas.de/sopla/es/publications/29414/

JPIC Promoter’s Formation Course in the USA: An intensive week-long seminar for JPIC Congregation promoters takes place at Saint Mary’s Notre Dame, Indiana from June 3-10. The brochure is due out in February. For more information, go to http://www.holycrossjustice.org/JusticeCraft/JusticeCraft.asp

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: On December 7th the US Special Representative for Global Partnerships, Kris Balderston, gave a briefing at the US Embassy to the Vatican on The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Initiative. This project encourages the development and use of clean cookstoves. The alliance ‘100 by 20’ calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. 2 million people die each year from exposure to cookstove smoke. For more information go to the following web sites:

• www.cleancookstoves.org
• www.PCIAonline.org
• http://cleancookstoves.org/blog/ignitingchange/
• http://groups.google.com/group/indoor-air-pollution-updates?hl=en

2014 The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF): On December 23rd, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2014 to be the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF). For more information go to:

• In English: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/noticias/ver.asp?id=en&pag=&Nnoticia=381072685
• In Spanish: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=es
• In French: http://www.familyfarmingcampaign.net/default.asp?id=fr

World Inter-Faith Harmony Week (Feb 1-7): The United Nations (UN) on October 20, 2010 recognizing the need for dialogue among different faiths and religions and their contribution for peace in the world, proclaimed the first week of February of every year the “World Inter-Faith Harmony Week” between all religions, faiths and beliefs. For more information go to, http://worldinterfaithharmonyweek.com/

Useful Resources:

World Peace Day Message (2012): ‘Educating Young People in Justice and Peace’ for copies go to:

• EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
• EDUCAR A LOS JÓVENES EN LA JUSTICIA Y LA PAZ
• EDUCARE I GIOVANI ALLA GIUSTIZIA E ALLA PACE
• ÉDUQUER LES JEUNES À LA JUSTICE ET À LA PAIX

Holy Cross JPIC: Check out the Holy Cross International Justice office web site at: http://www.holycrossjustice.org/

Environmental Justice: For an article that makes the link between the Virgin of Guadalupe and Environmental Justice, go to: http://franciscanaction.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/the-virgin-of- guadalupe-and-the-call-to-environmental-justice-part-ii/

Earth Charter: For News and updates on the Earth Charter in English, Spanish and French at http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/

Mining Watch: MiningWatch Canada is a pan-Canadian initiative. Go to: http://www.miningwatch.ca/home

Justice Jottings: A Marianist Social Justice Web page. Go to: http://www.msjc.net/Justice%20Jottings/Justice%20Jottings%20-%20December%20%2710.aspx

Defenders of Indigenous Peoples: For reflections (in Spanish) on two Dominican (Antonio de Montisinos and Bartolomé de las Casas) defenders of Indigenous peoples in Latin America at the time of the conquest, go to http://www.redescristianas.net/2011/10/30/el-grito-de-montesinos-ayer-y-hoyvictor-codina-sj-sacerdote-jesuita-teologo/ and http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/xpikaza.php/2011/12/09/dom-11-xi-11-todos-estais-en-pecado-mort

Ethically Responsible investment: To read an article (in English) entitled ‘Investing with a Clear Conscience’ go to http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8853/Investing-with-a-clear-conscience.aspx

Renewing the Face of the Earth: Lenten Reflections on Air: For copies of an 8 page booklet by the SHCJs go to: http://www.shcj.org/amer/documents/2012LentReflectionBookAir_001.pdf

He highlights the responsibility of corporations that “…rely on numerous public resources and services to operate their businesses and maintain their profitability…[to] contribute their fare share to the public coffers that enable governments to develop the foundation and provide the services that corporations and all citizens count on to survive.”

He ends with a clear call: “Shareholders, and especially faith based and socially responsible investors, will need to consider how to engage companies that are identified as the most aggressive in developing legal strategies to either avoid or evade the payment of approved taxes. The use of such tools and action that are clearly designed to profit by avoiding responsibility to contribute appropriately to the revenue streams, that are essential to the fulfillment of the government’s mandate to safeguard the public welfare and protect the common good, deserves much closer evaluation and scrutiny.”

2012 promises to be an interesting year as societies across the globe struggle with financial and environmental sustainability in the context of justice.

In the 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that the economy should be at the service of people, and not the other way around.

“Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it,” the pope wrote. “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”

Going further, Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI has argued that faith-based investors should demand accountability from the companies they invested with or they should divest stock in companies engaged in morally objectionable practices. ”With ownership comes responsibility and rights.”

Read more in the article, Companies called to be Responsible by Amy Kotlarz, which appeared in the Catholic Courier on January 3rd, 2012.

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.

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]

State Representative Martin J. Walsh (D) introduced the bill titled “An Act Relative to Congo Conflict Minerals”, (HD 04065). If passed, the Massachusetts Congo conflict minerals law would prohibit the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from contracting with companies that do not comply with federal regulations for the certification of minerals originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

]]> http://omiusajpic.org/2011/12/07/oblates-support-mass-congo-conflict-mineral-bill/feed/ 0 http://omiusajpic.org/2011/12/06/zambian-oblate-bishop-calls-for-development-in-western-zambia/ http://omiusajpic.org/2011/12/06/zambian-oblate-bishop-calls-for-development-in-western-zambia/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:52:53 +0000 christina http://omiusajpic.org/?p=10316 Zambia’s Mongu Diocese Bishop Evan Chinyemba has called upon newly elected members of parliament (MP) from the area to respond to the challenges facing ordinary people. The Bishop outlined the development issues facing people, which include the need to build better schools, improve road infrastructure, rebuild health services and establish a safe water delivery system.

Bishop Chinyemba also addressed the issue of foreign investments. In these projects, local people have neither been consulted nor have they benefitted. He highlighted the need to review investments involved in cutting indigenous trees for export. Bishop Chinyemba also called for the urgent review of an investment agreement between the government Commission and private equity partners involved in managing the national park located near the Oblate parish of Kalabo.