Franciscans International Newsletter January 2016

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”― Martin Luther King Jr.

This issue draws attention to:

• COP21 and Beyond: Promoting a Human Rights Based Approach to Climate Issues - FI and partners actively engaged with the COP21 climate talks in December 2015, highlighting the protection of human rights as a key element in mitigating the impacts of global warming, and calling for robust human rights language in the Agreement. They also pushed to ensure that marginalized communities be involved in any future climate actions. FI invites us to read more about their event on fracking here.
  
• Extreme Poverty is a Human Rights Violation: Poverty Reduction Efforts Should Focus on Rights - On December 17, in Rome, Franciscans International, along with ATD Fourth World and Caritas Internationalis, presented its publication “Making Human Rights Work for People Living in Extreme Poverty: A Handbook for Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human” as a tool for combating extreme poverty; a tool that echoes with the Pope’s concern about today’s “economy of exclusion and inequality.” Defining extreme poverty primarily as a human rights violation, the handbook puts forward key elements for mobilizing and empowering people and communities to advocate for better policies. The handbook’s human-rights based approach recognizes all people as rights-holders and ensures that States are held accountable to upholding those rights. “The elimination of extreme poverty is not only a moral duty, but also a legal obligation, by virtue of the provisions of international law on human rights," stated FI’s Advocacy Director at the Press Conference.
  

             Download the handbook here.
             Watch FI's "Standing Up For Rights" video here. 

Franciscans International (FI) has just published their latest newsletter. You can subscribe to it here or read it here.

FI staff wishes you and your loved ones all the best for 2016! May it be a year of wholeness and peace, a year that brings us towards greater justice for the marginalised and the most vulnerable.

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Br. Tomás with New York NGO representatives

• Calling for Urgent Action to Protect the Rights of Migrants in Mexico - Franciscans International is partnering with La 72 (a shelter for migrants) to make the situation of these migrants known at the United Nations. FI  denounced the negative impact of Mexico’s Programa Frontera Sur on migrants’ human rights before the Human Rights Council in September 2015. In December, FI hosted Br. Tomás (A Franciscan brother and director of LA 72) in the USA and facilitated advocacy meetings with representatives of the Mexican government, the US government,the United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and key allies in civil society. FI also endeavored to connect Br. Tomás to other key international Franciscan networks. FI is committed to working in partnership with La 72 throughout the coming year, to continue denouncing the situation of migrants on the Mexico-Guatemala border and beyond. In addition to actively participating in Mexico’s review by the UN human rights mechanism on migrants in 2016, FI is exploring the possibility for in-country meetings and a Geneva and US advocacy tour.
  
• Benin: the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child Calls Benin to Further Address the Situation of Children Accused of Witchcraft and to Strengthen Universal Birth Registration - Read FI's press release (in French) here.