News Archives » South America
Obama Administration Says No to Vulture Funds July 7th, 2013
Last week, Jubilee’s Executive Committee wrote President Obama to thank him and his Administration for their efforts to stop vulture funds that profit from exploiting poor people. The Reverend Séamus Finn, OMI, a Jubilee USA Board Executive Officer, signed on to the letter, representing the Oblates. The Justice Department filed an Amicus or friend-of-the-court brief in the current legal proceedings of hedge fund NML Capital versus Argentina. The outcome of this vulture fund case will have far reaching impacts on global poverty.
Read the letter to President Obama and join Jubilee USA in thanking the President: sign the thank-you petition to President Obama. Judges in the US 2nd Circuit Court will soon announce a ruling. Days ago, Argentina filed a preemptive appeal to the US Supreme Court to reverse the ruling to pay the vulture funds.
Jubilee USA’s views on this case have been covered extensively in the mainstream media. To fully understand the case and its repercussions on global poverty, read the story that featured Jubilee USA in the Los Angeles Times. Recently in The Financial Times, Jubilee USA called these rich hedge funds what they are, “morally bankrupt.”
We hope you will join us in thanking President Obama for standing up to vulture funds. Please visit the Jubilee USA website for more information on this important issue. Read the letter (download PDF)…
VIVAT International Submission on Mining and HR June 3rd, 2013
Newmont Mining Protests in Peru
VIVAT International submitted an Oral Statement to the 23rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations. The submission focused on concerns related to mining activities and their negative effects, particularly on indigenous peoples.
A directive signed last year by Brazil’s Solicitor-General “opens up all indigenous areas to mineral, dams, roads, military bases and other developments of ‘national interest’ without the need to consult with or address concerns of indigenous peoples”, according to an expert familiar with the directive who asked to remain anonymous. It also restricts demarcation of new indigenous territories. A similar dynamic is underway in Peru, where the government recently backslid on implementation of the Indigenous Peoples Consultation Law (Consultation Law). The landmark law, passed in 2011, requires the Peruvian government to consult indigenous peoples affected directly by development policies and projects such as oil drilling, mining, roads and forestry. Consultations must aim to achieve agreement or consent. The hope was that the law, if implemented effectively, could help reduce the number of violent conflicts that frequently emerge in the country’s oil and mining industries.
However, in early May, Peru’s Vice Minister of Culture Ivan Lanegra—responsible for overseeing implementation of Peru’s Consultation Law—resigned in protest following Executive branch declarations that highland (or campesina) communities do not qualify as indigenous peoples. At the same time, the Peruvian government announced that it will proceed with 14 mining projects located in the Peruvian highlands without prior consultation with neighboring communities.
Setback for Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Prior Consultation in Peru May 29th, 2013
The Peruvian government is refusing to publish a database on indigenous peoples and has excluded from the consultation process, coastal and mountain communities, where mining activity is concentrated.
The implementation of the Law of Prior Consultation of Indigenous Peoples over legislative or administrative measures that directly affect them — in effect for a little over a year — is facing huge setbacks in Peru. In late April, in the context of falling metals prices and slowing economic growth in China and Europe, the government temporarily waived prior consultation on 14 mining projects located on the coast and in the mountains and that are currently in exploratory phase.
Oblate working in Brazil with Street Children interviewed on NPR May 1st, 2013
Street crime by children in Brazil has been in the headlines, due to a recent spate of violence. Fr. John Drexel, OMI was heard talking earlier today on the NPR program “All Things Considered” about his work with street children in Sao Paolo. The program which he founded some 40 years ago is designed to give street kids a more stable and nurturing environment, but he says things have changed in recent years. Many of the kids coming into the program now have already been exposed to criminal behavior, and the use of crack cocaine on the streets is a real problem. Fr. Drexel says the answer is not for the government to increase the penalties for young offenders, but rather to provide desperately needed housing, healthcare and education.
UN Survey for Post 2015 Agenda March 5th, 2013
The United Nations is conducting a global survey asking you to choose your priorities for a better world. Our VIVAT International is a partner in this endeavor, and has asked us to make this available to you. our readers. Results of the survey will be shared with world leaders in setting the next global development agenda. Please go to this link for the survey tool: http://www.myworld2015.org/?partner=VIVAT
You can choose your own language. Contact the VIVAT staff if you have any question, problem or difficulty in accomplishing the survey. Thanks!
