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Pope Francis to launch “Food for All” campaign November 20th, 2013
On December 10, Pope Francis will launch a worldwide movement to respond to the needs of the poor and vulnerable by acting to end hunger. Access to adequate and nutritious food is a global problem of immense proportions, even for families in the U.S.
At noon local time, a global wave of prayer will begin in Tonga and will progress around the world until it reaches American Samoa some 24 hours and more than 164 countries later.
Please join Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, and the network of Caritas Internationalis agencies providing relief to people suffering from hunger around the globe in participating in the wave of prayer. This is the beginning of a much larger campaign to combat hunger.
In addition, please check out the faith-based resource on poverty and hunger available from Catholic Rural Life, called Food Security and Economic Justice.
Action Alert: Keep Human Rights Tied to US Military Aid November 5th, 2013
Thanks to the Latin America Working Group (LAWG) for the information in this Action Alert.
Tell Congress you don’t want your tax dollars used to violate human rights!
Some members of Congress who oversee foreign aid want to eliminate human rights conditions tied to military and police assistance for Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala. These conditions are an important means to try to ensure the United States does not do business with human rights violators.
Unfortunately, rape, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, torture, and other grave human rights violations continue to be committed by members of the armed forces of Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.
- Colombia: Of the over 3,000 extrajudicial executions allegedly committed by members of the security forces, the vast majority remains unpunished.
- Honduras: 149 civilians have been killed by the police in the past two years alone. As violence has soared, so has impunity. Crimes committed by both police and military personnel have not been investigated.
- Mexico: Since 2006, when former President Calderón deployed tens of thousands of soldiers across Mexico to take on public security matters in an effort to combat organized crime, Mexico has seen a significant increase in the number of reports of human rights violations committed by Mexican armed forces. Between 2003 and 2006, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received 691 complaints of human rights violations committed by the armed forces. This figure surged to 4,803 reports of human rights violations between 2010 and 2012.
- Guatemala: The military is increasingly used for law enforcement, leading to abuses. In October 2012 soldiers fired on and killed 6 indigenous protestors and wounded 34. The military continues to fail to fully cooperate with investigations into human rights violations committed by members of the armed forces during the civil war.
Send a message to Congress: Support human rights, not abusive militaries!
Right to Food Pursued at the United Nations November 4th, 2013
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, has submitted his final report to the United Nations. In the speech that accompanied this action, he welcomed “the rights resurgence” that he has seen across the world in the past decade.
“At a time when multiple, conflicting visions for food security have been put on the table, it is impressive to see so many States adopting laws, policies and strategies to realize the right to food, and so many people driving forward what is now a global right to food movement,” he stressed.
Mr. De Schutter said: “Treating food as a human right brings coherence and accountability. It helps to close the gaps by putting food security of all citizens at the top of the decision-making hierarchy, and making these decision-making processes participatory and accountable.”
He noted the importance of non-governmental actors, including religious organizations, saying,“Civil society has an indispensable role to play at every level: driving forward right to food movements, participating in the design of policies, taking part in monitoring, and developing new forms of accountability.”
US Judge Acquits Catholic Anti-drone Activists November 1st, 2013
Acquitted Catholic Worker anti-drone activists; Image courtesy of The Nuclear Register
In an historic decision, five Catholic Worker activists were acquitted of disorderly conduct charges for blocking the main entrance to Hancock Air Base outside of Syracuse NY, in a protest against drone strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians. Hancock Air base, home to the 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard, is a Reaper drone hub whose technicians pilot weaponized drones over Afghanistan.
As reported in The Nuclear Resister, “After the verdict was announced, the D.A. objected, and the judge said to him that he hadn’t found ‘mens rea,’ Latin for ‘guilty mind.’ The five defendants, with powerful eloquence, convinced the judge that their intent was to uphold, not break, the law. This acquittal marks a major breakthrough by those who have sought to strengthen international law, and stop U.S. war crimes, including extra-judicial murder by the illegal drones.”
The drone strikes, responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, have increasingly been condemned by human rights advocates, as well as by Jesuit Superior General Fr. Adolfo Nicolás and Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism. Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban and survived, and who now speaks out globally for peace, urged President Obama in a meeting to stop the deadly U.S. drone attacks on Pakistan. She said they are killing innocent civilians and turning many ordinary people against the U.S. and onto the side of Taliban.
Recent Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reportshave detailed how U.S. drone strikes kill innocent civilians in Pakistan and Yemen, contrary to President Obama’s assertions. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as many as 1,000 innocent civilians, including as many as 200 children, have been killed in as many as 376 U.S. drone strikes since 2004 in Pakistan alone, a nation with which the United States is not technically at war.
Learn more. Read the National Catholic Reporter article…
Congress Urged to Protect Humanitarian Assistance and Poverty-focused Programs November 1st, 2013
The US Region of the Missionary Oblates was one of 140 non-governmental and faith-based organizations that urged members of the Congressional Budget Conference Committee to protect international humanitarian assistance and poverty-focused development programs. The groups also urged that the blunt tool of sequestration be replaced with a balanced deficit-reduction plan.
InterAction, a coalition of groups working on international relief and development, was responsible for organizing the letter. An identical letter was sent to all members of the Budget Conference Committee, which is responsible for reconciling the significant differences between the budget bills passed by the House and the Senate.
Letter to Rep. Paul Ryan, House Budget Chair (Download PDF)
Letter to Sen. Patty Murray, Senate Budget Chair (Download PDF)
