Dear Sisters and Brothers, Geneva,

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1 Be praised, my Lord, for Sister Earth, our Mother, who nourishes us and sustains us, bringing forth fruits and vegetables of many kinds and flowers of many colours. Dear Sisters and Brothers, In the Name of Franciscans International, I would like to wish you a blessed and happy Feast of our Brother and Founder St. Francis. 35 years ago, Pope John Paul II. declared St. Francis as Patron of Ecology. This reflects on the one hand, Francis deep relation with all creatures, as brothers and sisters. On the other hand it highlights the exploitation and destruction of nature in our days. Indigenous Peoples suffer most under the destruction of our Mother Earth and the extinction of their livelihoods, for example, the Brazilian tribe Guarani-Kaiowà. Br. Rodrigo recently reported their struggle for survival during a side event we organized in Geneva on the topic of Business and Human Rights Together with FIAN (FoodFirst Information and Action Network) we were able to bring the leader of the Guarani-Kaiowà together with UN agencies in Geneva with the hope of resettlement on their own land, so that they are able to survive and to feed their children. Together with many other NGOs and our sisters and brothers at the grassroots, we were also successful on another issue that will have an impact on people s lives in the future: The UN Human Rights Council adopted the resolution to elaborate a legal binding treaty that will hold transnational corporations accountable for their human rights violations. This is just one of the areas in which FI is promoting respect for and implementation of Human Rights. My sincere thanks to all of you for your kind support in the past and I would like to request your continued support of Franciscans International and our activities for the dignity of all peoples and the protection of our Mother Earth. Fraternally Geneva, USD account Franciscans International New York JPMorgan Chase Bank, One UN Plaza, New York 10017; Account Number: ABA:

2 ADVOCACY HIGHLIGHTS MAY-AUGUST 2014 THEMATIC HIGHLIGHTS A first victory to hold Business to account Unregulated economic globalization and unscrupulous business have systematically challenged hard-fought advances in human-rights protection, including environmental regulations affecting the right to land, water, health and livelihood as well as protection of peoples rights to safe participation. Communities and individuals on the ground continue to suffer from environmental degradation, social conflict, inequality, landlessness, precarious working conditions, discrimination, violence and denial of access to justice and remedies. Victims of corporate abuses keep struggling to obtain remedy. These facts are signs that more robust regulatory and accountability mechanisms are needed without any further delay. Franciscans International (FI) together with a coalition of NGOs have been advocating for having an international legally binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights. Since early 2014, FI has been an active member of the Treaty Alliance, a group of committed networks and civil society organizations around the world who joined efforts to help organize advocacy activities in support of developing international regulation to address corporate human rights and environmental abuses. Around 600 organisations and social movements and 400 individuals around the world joined the campaign. Franciscans and partners from around the world joined the campaign and signed a joint statement calling for the enhancement of international standards to hold businesses to account. As a member of the Treaty Alliance, Franciscans International delivered statements at the UN calling for an international legally binding instrument on Business and Human Rights, as well as attended several informal negotiation meetings. Franciscans International and its partners organised a UN conference titled Towards an international legally binding instrument to end corporate-related human rights abuses, which featured the participation of Rodrigo Peret, OFM in Brazil and Mr. René Pamplona from the Philippines. As a result of an intense advocacy campaign, on 25 June, we obtained our first concrete victory toward corporate accountability. The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, adopted - by majority vote - a Resolution establishing an Inter-Governmental Working Group for the elaboration of an international legally binding instrument on business and human rights. This means that the process toward a Treaty has commenced and negotiations will start soon. Franciscans international will continue advocating and engaging 1

3 with communities on the ground to make sure that their voice will be heard. We ll also ensure that the Treaty will achieve its main objective to set out adequate measures to prevent, punish and redress human rights and environmental abuses. FI position and commitment will remain close to and in solidarity with victims and affected communities. It is our duty to ensure that their rights will be respected. Advocating for rights-based approach to Extreme Poverty Current poverty-reduction discussions continue to promote the predominant marketdriven paradigm as a key strategy. This is without acknowledging the lack of benefits actually brought to those living in poverty and without scrutiny of the systematic human rights abuses that are inflicted by this model of development, especially on women, indigenous peoples and peasant communities. In this sense, the participation of those groups in the planning, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the policies and programs that affect their lives and the natural resources of their communities is crucial. In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council last just, Franciscans International encouraged the new Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Mr Philip Alston, to leverage his mandate resources and unique position to advise States to undertake stronger rights-based strategies to tackle extreme poverty. Franciscans International called for an agenda that, through a rights-based approach, addresses the structural causes of poverty and inequality. Sustainable Development and the Human Right to Water Around 900 million people around the world lack access to safe water and 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. They are often persons who are marginalised, living in extreme poverty, living in informal settlements, children belonging to ethnic minorities, migrants, refugees, IDPs, women living in rural areas. Access to water and sanitation is a human right which is essential for life and it is inherently interconnected with the realisation of a series of other human rights, such as right to health and development. FI and the Mining Working Group at the UN joined the Blue Planet Project to launch a focus campaign to protect the right to water in the new proposed set of Sustainable Development Goals for the UN s post-2015 development agenda. Our organizations came together to spearhead a massive sign-on letter campaign for the final three sessions of the GA group. This campaign was a firm response to the troubling edit to the SDGs negotiating document observed in May 2014: the recognition of the human right to water had been removed from the set of goals meant to guide the global development agenda. The campaign gathered the endorsement of more than 300 organizations from around the world and more than 1100 people wrote directly to the UN Secretary General demanding that the new global development agenda explicitly protect and promote peoples right to water for personal use and sustainability, over and above private interests. The GA s Open Working Group concluded its work on July 19 th and produced a proposal with 17 goals (including one on water and sanitation) and introductory chapeau. Thanks to the 2

4 intense months of advocacy with governments, the human right to water was explicitly included in the overarching chapeau. Once the General Assembly picks up the post-2015 negotiations in late 2014 or early 2015, we will again come together with broad-based coalitions to demonstrate the need for a rights-based approach to sustainable development, especially for contested and threatened rights such as the human right to water. Count me in Birth registration as a human rights imperative Birth Registration, as part of Civil Registration, is the official record of a child s existence. It is a fundamental human right enshrined in Articles 7 and 8 of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Birth registration is the document that establishes legal identity of a child. It is also a prerequisite to the realization of a series of human rights ensuring child s development and well-being, ensuring protection against abuse, exploitation, violence and statelessness. Franciscans International and the Universal Birth Registration Working Group produced a short film that highlights the importance of birth and civil registration. The film features input from government, UNHCR and key NGO representatives on the importance of civil registration and the key elements of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Conclusion on the topic. REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS Peru: UN recognizes Modern Slavery and Lack of Access to Birth Registration as Racial Discrimination Madre de Dios is a department in the Peruvian Amazon that is known for its abundant biodiversity and also for its mineral resources. Illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios has led not only to grave environmental destruction but has also contributed to and entrenched precarious security and governance conditions. At the same time, the International Organization for Migration recently confirmed that this remote region in the Amazon has displaced the capital, Lima, as the number one destination for international migration. A critical dimension of this situation is the dramatic increase in exploitative practices in the region including modern-day slavery and human trafficking, both in terms of forced labour in the mines and sexual exploitation around the camps and towns. In August FI presented a report on trafficking and the right to an identity in Peru, titled Structural Racial Discrimination in Peru: Differential Experiences of Gender-based Violence and Contemporary Forms of Slavery. This submission was made together with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the Dominican Leadership Conference, and our partners in Peru. This report focused on convincing the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to take up the issues of discrimination in access to birth registration in Peru and practices of modern day slavery related to the mining boom in the region of Madre de Dios. 3

5 The UN Committee recently held its review of Peru and in its final report issued August 29 th specifically called on the Government of Peru to address these issues. Canada: Holding Canada Responsible for the Environmental and Human Rights violations abroad Most extractive and mining companies operating around the world are headquartered in Canada. Such businesses are increasingly concentrating their exploitative activities in Latin American Countries. As a result of these activities, local communities systematically suffer a wide range of environmental and human rights abuses. The increased criminalization of social protests and acts of violence and threats against human and environmental rights defenders are among the alarming trends which result from this development model based on extractivism in Latin America. In July 2015 Canada will be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee for its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a key international human rights treaty. Canada has not appeared for its review before this body since 2006.The Canadian Government has already submitted its own report documenting how it believes it has fulfilled its obligations on civil and political rights and now civil society has the opportunity to help identify which are among the most pressing issues to consider. In an upcoming session in October 2014, the Human Rights Committee will hold a pre-session to determine which should be the priority issues for the 2015 review, and on what issues it would like to request further information from the Canadian government. For this occasion FI has submitted a report urging the Committee to include among its considerations the patterns of grave environmental and human-rights harms that are being inflicted throughout Latin America in connection with the expansion and operation of the Canadian mining industry. FI calls on the Committee to give priority to upholding the rights of especially vulnerable and marginalized groups and notes that among these we must also consider communities outside of Canada s borders. Following this preliminary phase of the review of Canada, FI will explore with partners in Canada and Latin America the possibility of submitting further information detailing the wide range of human rights concerns expected to be reviewed by the Committee. Indonesia: denouncing Human Rights violations in Papua. Wamena is a small town rested in the valley of the highlands of the Province of Papua, Indonesia. Despite its appearance as green and calm, the town has received much international attention due to series of human rights violations involving the indigenous Papuans and Indonesian military force. The recent one was the arrest of two French journalists, Mr. Thomas Dandois and Ms. Valentine Bourrat, on 6 August 2014, as well as an indigenous Papuan leader, Mr. Areki Wanimbo. The two foreign journalists were accused of the misuse of their visa tourist since they gathered information on the human rights situation in Wamena. In addition, they and the indigenous leader were being investigated for alleged acts of espionage. 4

6 During the visit to Papua at the end of August 2014, Franciscans International visited Wamena and discussed this issue with eyewitnesses to the arrest, including the translator of the journalists as well as other local leaders. They complained that the Papuan indigenous peoples have been continuously suffering from the excessive military presence in Papua. They also shared their grievances on the occasion of armed conflicts between the Indonesian military with the pro-independence movement which has negatively affected the civilian population. Despite different policies of the central Indonesian government, the Papuan have yet to enjoy the real and tangible improvement of their daily live. Critical voices toward the situation are often responded by the accusation as separatist movement. In responding to this situation, FI organized a human rights training for NGOs in the province and Papua on August FI also met with different civil society and Church leaders to discuss on the human rights situation. Following the visit, FI had series of discussion with the Indonesian authority in Jakarta as well as their representative at the UN to demand on the improvement of the situation in Papua and to find a solution toward a sustainable solution on the situation in Papua. FI also delivered statements at the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Papua, demanding the Government of Indonesia to have a genuine and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders toward the creation of Papua as land of Peace. Golden Walk, an outreach to victims of trafficking in Singapore I didn t know her name, but she reminded me of my niece who just finished her high school few weeks before. She was one of hundreds of young ladies lining up in the small alleys in Geylang neighbourhood in Singapore. Many of them look very young, perhaps 14 or 15 years old, who knows? None of them look older than 25 years old. At least not from my impression. They are known as sex workers in Singapore, waiting for clients who are mostly male migrant workers working at building constructions in Singapore. There were pimps watching each of them from behind and ready to shout at any time to give instructions. - Testimony from FI field and fact-finding mission in Singapore - Almost all sex workers in Singapore are victims of trafficking. Due to harsh economic conditions, these women decided to leave their family and go to Singapore in search for a better life. Human trafficking is one of the human right priorities for Franciscans International. We will keep denouncing cases of human rights violations linked to this phenomenon. FI has been facilitating Franciscans working at the grassroots to speak at the UN on cases related to trafficking in a number of countries such as India, Pakistan, Cameroon, Republic Democratic of Congo, Germany and Peru. FI consistently calls on the members of the UN to adopt comprehensive victim-centred legislation on human trafficking as well as to provide protection and relief scheme for victims to facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration. Singapore will be reviewed in the framework of the universal periodic review by the UN in In collaboration with Franciscans in Singapore, FI is considering to submit a report on trafficking in human beings, in particular trafficking for sexual exploitation. 5

7 Kenya: Internally Displaced Persons and Right to Water Internally displaced persons (IDPs) become a serious issue for Kenyan people and their government. Furthermore, Kenyans have also felt the consequences of the postelection violence of in addition to colonial population displacement, ethnopolitical divisive conflicts and politicized land issues. The conflicts and events have led to an absorbent amount of the population being displaced in the country. These issues have escalated and must be addressed and rectified. Right to water is also a key issue for Kenyans. It is in the Kenyan constitution that people have the right to water and sanitation; every person has a right to accessible and adequate housing and reasonable standards of sanitation. This however has been proven to not be the case, and is putting lives in danger. In early 2015, Kenya will undergo its second UPR by the UN Human Rights Council. This past May, Franciscans International alongside other national NGOs collaborated in a national consultation to present a joint submission concerning the human rights conditions in Kenya, highlighting the issues of water sanitation and internally displaced persons. During Kenya s first cycle of UPR in 2010, they accepted various recommendations focusing on issues such as: right to food, health, education, water sanitation and IDPs. Since then Kenya has implemented policies and bills to rectify these violations and reinforce laws that protect the peoples rights in accordance with the constitution. While some progress has been made, the country still struggles in finding sustainable solutions. In this newest report there are a total of eleven recommendations addressing issues in regards to water sanitation and internally displaced persons. Kenyan partners strongly recommend the government of Kenya take appropriate measures to ensure the protection and rehabilitation of water sources and creates public awareness on water and sanitation issues on all levels. Furthermore, they address that the government needs to strengthen parts of the country s infrastructure by providing support in the form of one stop centers where victims of sexual abuse during situations that lead to displacement can report the attack. Overall providing better means of accountability to promote restorative justice. Franciscans International visited IDPs camps in order to provide first-hand information and further legitimacy and accountability to the report. Ivory Coast: assist Franciscans and partners from Western African countries in human rights advocacy FI and the partners in the Ivory Coast, organized a five day sub-regional workshop in Abidjan from May 19-23, The workshop was designed for experienced human rights defenders, Franciscans and partners, who are using the international human rights system in their work at the grassroots level. It was aimed at strengthening participants capacity to advocate and follow up on UN recommendations, in particular recommendations from UPR. Fifteen participants from 5 different countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, and 6

8 Togo) attended and contributed to the workshop along with representatives from different stakeholders in the Ivory Coast, such as government representatives, civil society, National Commission of Human Rights, the UN Operation in the Ivory Coast (ONUCI), and media. The main component of the workshop was the two round tables that FI organised with other stakeholders engaged in UPR process. They provided a platform for Ivorian NGOs to discuss with the National Commission on Human Rights about the UPR process and determine actions to be taken within their areas of expertise to ensure that recommendations are followed through. Government representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and from the Ministry of Solidarity, Family, Women, and Children joined the round table discussion and shoed openness in collaboration on the implementation. The meeting offered an opportunity to civil society to present and discuss its joint action plan with government representatives. The news of the workshop was covered by local media, including an article in the daily press Fraternité Matin including an interview with FI representative. For further information contact Francesca Restifo at f.restifo@fiop.org 7