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Interfaith Investor Group Urges Fed and Top Banks to Restore Public Confidence in Financial System April 20th, 2011
Citing Widespread Confidence Loss in U.S. Banks, Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Advance Shareholder Proposals at Citigroup and Other Top Banks.New York, NY
Today, a task force from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) meets with representatives from the Federal Reserve to discuss its progress implementing regulation passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Bill last July. At issue are structures created by the Operations Management Group to monitor the global trading of derivatives in an effort to limit the excessive risk-taking that nearly toppled the financial system in 2008, left millions jobless and homeless, and shook global confidence in the markets to its core.
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Faith Groups Oppose Colombia Free Trade Agreement April 19th, 2011
Protest against U.S.-Colombia FTA in Washington, DC, June 2009
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama said that he would oppose the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement unless human rights conditions in that country were improved. Three years later, Colombia still faces deeply troubling levels of violence, displacement, and poverty. Colombia has over 5 million displaced people – more than any other country in the world. Trade unionists and human rights workers face constant threats. Extractive industry projects violently push indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities off of their lands.
Despite all of this, the Obama administration recently announced that it is prepared to submit the Colombia FTA to Congress for approval anyway. A new agreement was reached with the Colombian government to make some improvements on labor conditions, but this plan does not go far enough, and it fails to address broader human rights concerns. Moreover, agricultural provisions in the FTA will undermine the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, pushing more people into poverty and deepening the instability that drives Colombia’s violent conflict.
The Oblate JPIC Office joined other faith groups in asking Congress to oppose passage of the Colombia FTA unless these important issues are addressed.
Read the letter from religious organizations here…
Investors Encourage Corporations to Report on Water Use April 16th, 2011
Thirty-three faith-based and socially responsible institutional investors with assets under management of $2.3 trillion have written to encourage companies who failed to submit a 2010 report to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Water Disclosure Project. The investors, which included the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, are encouraging the heavy water-using companies targeted by the Report to complete the questionnaire for 2011, or explain why they are not planning to participate. Company submissions can help identify areas of both strength and weakness in water management.
Many corporations are only now beginning to look seriously at their water use, realizing that a global water crisis could pose significant risks if this vital resource is not managed carefully. Climate Change is widely expected to aggravate worldwide water shortages in the coming decades. Credit Suisse estimates that, by 2020, 37 percent of the global population will face severe water stress.
Increased demand is a major problem. Since the 1940s, the global population has tripled to more than 6 billion people worldwide. Over the same period, global water use has quadrupled. Agriculture uses 70-80% of the water used globally. In many areas, including parts of the US, which are drawing on underground aquifers, this rate of water use is unsustainable, in other words, it is being used at a faster rate than it is being replenished.
While the metrics for reporting on water use are in the process of being refined at an international level, the CDP Water Disclosure is an important step in this process.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been engaging a range of U.S. companies on water use and reporting issues, and are a signatory to the CDP Water Disclosure Project.
Video on Bangladeshi Khasi and Garo Peoples Now on YouTube April 12th, 2011
Sylhet area, Bangladesh
The Oblate JPIC office is excited to introduce the video, “Behind the Green,” to the Missionary Oblates JPIC YouTube Channel.
The film “Behind the Green” (Parts 1-3) is based on the historic struggle of the Khasi and Garo peoples for protection of their ancestral homeland in Bangladesh in the face of Government plans to establish an Eco-park in the Moulvibazar district. The eco-park would take up more than 1500 acres of the indigenous peoples’ land for tourism.
The films also features Fr. Joseph Gomes OMI, a missionary catholic priest working amongst the Garo and Khasi people in Bangladesh.
View the “Behind the Green” video at: http://www.youtube.com/user/OMIJPIC
Please bookmark this JPIC Youtube Channel website and check it frequently as it will be updated with stories and actions from Oblates in ministry. Spread the word!!
Haitian Immigrant Deportations Should Be Halted April 1st, 2011
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has resumed deportations to Haiti, a development about which we are deeply concerned. Deportations place an unnecessary burden on Haiti, which is still struggling to recover from the devastating earthquake of January 2010. Reconstruction continues in the country, but at a very slow pace, with hundreds of thousands of people still living in tent cities. What is worse is that Haiti’s jails, where the Haitian government usually holds deportees, are notorious for their inhumane treatment of detainees.
Deportations from the U.S. to Haiti had been halted on humanitarian grounds when the earthquake devastated Haiti. On January 20, 2011, the U.S. resumed deportations to Haiti, deporting an estimated 27 people of Haitian origin with criminal records. One has died already in prison from cholera-like symptoms.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration has expressed deep opposition to the recent resumption of deportations, citing the slow recovery from the earthquake, the recent outbreak of cholera, and concern that this would communicate the wrong message to the Haitian people, who are depending upon the United States for long-term support in their effort to recover from the earthquake.
