In an effort to build stronger coordination among its African partners, FI has been conducting a series of regional training workshops across the continent to mobilise partners in the field to engage with UN human rights mechanisms, and to provide a space for partners to share the issues they face in their work. This has allowed for networking and new collaborations.  The workshops coincide with various country reviews by these mechanisms, such...

“I do not want your understanding, I want you to do something,” - detainee on Manus Island

This is the sentence that changed everything for Carol, a former counsellor and caseworker that had been recently mandated to work with asylum seekers in  Australia’s offshore detention center on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG).  Carol had applied to the job for humble reasons: she wanted to experience working abroad.  The experience on Manus turned...

From September 25th to 27th, 2015, Heads of States and Governments gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York City to adopt the new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that promises to “transform our world” and “leave no one behind.”  This agreed text comes to us in the face of overwhelming evidence of persistent poverty, deepening inequality, ecological degradation, unprecedented...

In November 2014, a group of Afro-Colombian women walked the 600 kilometres from their villages in the department of Cauca, to Bogota, the Colombian capital, to protest the devastating impacts of mining and violence in their region: sexual violence, assassination of community leaders, contamination of water, loss of livelihood (artisanal gold mining), and forced displacement.  Their signs, songs, and clear demands to the government were in the...

On Sunday, 2 August 2015, United Nations Member States unanimously agreed on the final text that will be adopted by Heads of State at the UN Summit to adopt the Post 2015 Development Agenda in late September.

FI, together with the NGO Mining Working Group and the Blue Planet Project celebrate the pledge made by Member States to “A world where we reaffirm our commitments regarding the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation […]” in...

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP) coordinated with the Churches and Mining group to arrange a meeting in Rome with representatives of communities affected by the mining industry.

The  “Churches and Mining” network is a faith-based coalition of about seventy organizations united by a shared commitment to bring visibility to, address the priorities of, and walk in solidarity with grassroots communities affected by extractive...