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| Volume 3, Issue 25 -- December 15, 2006 |
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From the JPIC Office December 10 was International Human Rights Day. On that same day, one of Latin America’s most brutal violators of human rights, Augusto Pinochet, died in Chile at age 91. I had just come home from running some errands when as I opened the front door, my husband, a Chilean, raised a bottle of champagne and told me the news. He was on the phone with his family, sharing as best he could in this historical moment. All day long we had the computer and television on so we could listen to news from Chile. It was one of those moments in life you never forget where you were or what you were doing when you heard the news. Throughout this Sunday, my husband shared memories of his time as student leader and political activist in the different movements against Pinochet during the 1980s. He was notably calm rather than euphoric as I would’ve expected. It was during dinner when I realized that his thoughts and feelings were less about Pinochet and more about family and friends. We raised a glass of champagne, not to Pinochet’s death, but to the lives lost, tortured, disappeared, exiled and their families during the dictatorship. We remembered friends and their fight for justice and peace. I thanked God for giving my husband the courage to raise his voice during a time when it would’ve been much easier and safer to remain silent. I can’t pretend to fully understand the significance of Pinochet’s death for my husband or Chileans in general. My simplistic, and perhaps un-Christian, reaction to his death was joy. My husband’s reaction was much more complex. On one hand, Pinochet’s death represents the end of a violent and fearful time in Chile’s history, despite the fact that Chile has been democratic since 1991. At the same time, Pinochet’s death means that he will never stand trial for the atrocities he committed against his own people. He was able to die in peace and surrounded by his family, something his victims were not able to do. While there has been a moral judgment, he will never see the inside of a prison for the crimes committed. Justice will always be just beyond reach, and he will continue to cast a long shadow over Chile’s history. The country will have a permanent scar that will never fully heal. But, I believe that Pinochet will have his ultimate judgment, and God knows the death and destruction that rests in Pinochet’s hands. Finally, I am also reminded that this past Sunday was also the second Sunday of Advent—a time of joyous anticipation of the birth of our Savior who, just as thousands of Chileans, was tortured and killed. Christ was able to forgive his perpetrators. I pray this Advent season that the people of Chile will find comfort and peace in Christ’s love as they continue to come to grips with this painful chapter in their lives. On behalf of the JPIC Office, I wish you blessings this Christmas and New Year.
Message from the Border Fr. Bill Morton is elected vice director of the U.S. Region Our “Message from the Border” feature is on hiatus now that Columban Father Bill Morton has been elected the Columbans’ vice director of the U.S. Region. The JPIC Office congratulates him on his selection, and wishes him all the best in his new role.
We hope to bring you more news from Lomas de Poleo in the new year. Fiji Government of Fiji Overthrown in Military Coup The political situation in Fiji has continued to deteriorate since the December 5 bloodless coup in which the military officially overthrew the democratically-elected government. This is the fourth coup that Fiji has weathered in the past 20 years. Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama ousted elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, replacing him with a military-installed interim government. In a joint statement issued December 12, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer demanded that the Fijian military “return the country immediately to the elected civilian government and withdraw completely from politics.” The U.S. State Department has cut off foreign aid to Fiji. Already the Fijian economy is feeling the effects of the coup. Tourism is the primary source of income for this South Pacific island nation. Resorts and other businesses connected to the tourism industry have begun to lay off workers as cancellations roll in. The sugar industry, Fiji’s primary agricultural export, also stands to be hurt as the European Union has threatened to cut an aid package to support the sector. Following the previous coup, it took the Fijian economy four years to recover, according to sources. About one-third of the Fijian population already lives in poverty. There continues to be grave concerns about the potential for human rights abuses as the Fijian Army has declared a state of emergency and has intimidated detractors into silence. Bainimarama has issued veiled threats suggesting the resistance will be met with force. Military blockades and checkpoints remain in place around the country, ostensibly to prevent violence. Columban missionaries have maintained a presence in Fiji since they first arrived in 1952. In keeping with our tradition of encouraging non-violence and dialogue, the Columban missionaries in Fiji have created a space for Fijian citizens to share their concerns amid the chaos and uncertainty of the situation. The JPIC Office, meanwhile, has sent letters expressing our concern for the safety and well-being of the Fijian people and support for the rule of law to the U.S. State Department, the U.S ambassador to Fiji, key members of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, as well as the Fijian ambassador to the United States. We were particularly gratified to receive a response from the Fijian ambassador, Jesoni Vitusagavulu, thanking us for our concern.
Read an on-the-ground perspective from Columban Father Tom Rouse: www.columban.com/fiji_coup.html Climate Change The Urgent Challenge to All By Columban Father Sean McDonagh The Twelfth Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Second Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ran from November 6-17 at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya Vice President Moody Awori opening the conference by telling delegates, “We are gathered this morning on behalf of humankind because we acknowledge that climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats humanity will ever face.” Climate change has been on the international agenda since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. At that meeting, many presidents and prime ministers paid lip service to the need for the international community to address climate change. In reality, these officials didn’t take climate change seriously, because the same politicians and economic advisers felt that it would take a hundred years or more before the effects of climate change were clearly discernible. Things have changed drastically in the past few years. In 2004, Sir David King, the chief government scientific advisor to the United Kingdom, stated that “the problems arising from global warming are the biggest challenges facing governments.”(1) Since that time, more and more scientists and scientific bodies have issued dire warnings about the effects of climate change on weather patterns, ocean habitats and flooding, biodiversity and access to potable water. Climate change also will disrupt the world’s thermohaline system, which distributes heat through ocean currents. This could mean much colder winters for Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe if the Gulf Stream ceases to properly flow. Sir Nicholas Stern’s “Review of the Economics of Climate Change,” published in October 2006, constitutes the last piece of the puzzle in making a cast-iron case for aggressively addressing global warming. It blows out of the water the economic excuses that Bjorn Lomborg and his Copenhagen Consensus offer for not tackling climate change. According to Stern, a combination of political leadership and a carbon tax to reflect the true cost of energy and support for new technologies would help avoid the worst excesses of climate change. He estimates that it would cost the equivalent of 1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) if action started immediately. Furthermore, a low-carbon economy will offer new possibilities for business that could run to billions of dollars per year, so battling climate change is not all doom and gloom. On the other hand, he warns that a business-as-usual approach to climate change would be disastrous. It would lead to extreme weather conditions, melting icecaps, rising oceans levels and massive extinction of species. This would cause appalling, irreversible damage to every ecosystem on Earth. Stern is a former chief economist at the World Bank, and it will be interesting to see if political leaders listen to his hard-nosed economic arguments. He is absolutely clear that if we do not grasp the present window of opportunity to stabilize carbon-dioxide emissions, addressing it in the future could cost between 5 and 20 percent of the world’s GDP. The issues presented at Nairobi go beyond national or global domestic products. Many speakers said climate change is already under way worldwide, including in the Arctic, East Africa and in the Pacific Ocean. They said that many of the countries that contributed the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions will suffer the worst consequences of climate change. These countries are demanding that mitigation schemes to keep temperature increases as low as possible be put in place immediately, especially in rich countries. Much greater carbon-emission output cutbacks are necessary, including a possible global tax on bunker and aviation fuel. Also, adequate and predictable funds must now be made available to poor countries affected by climate change. Practical decisions, such as identifying an agency to govern and manage this Adaptation Fund and making sufficient funds available, must be taken immediately. A second goal of this conference was the call to make clean development mechanism (CDM) available to poor countries. This is crucial if all countries are going to benefit from a level of sustainable development that meets basic food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare needs. Since the conference took place in Africa, many demanded that the obstacles African nations face in using these new clean development technologies, such as technical and institutional capacity, must be addressed. The same could be said of many countries in Southeast Asia and Central and South America. There are huge possibilities for countries, such as Kenya, Brazil and the Philippines, to use carbon-tax generated money to reforest denuded hills and mountains. Such programs would cut carbon emission and enhance biodiversity, soil stabilization and make potable water more available. Since the Kyoto negotiations in 1997, it has been clear that developing countries cannot go down the same carbon-intensive energy route that rich Western countries have followed if serious disruption to the Earth’s climate is to be avoided. This calls for new thinking and action on the development and transfer of non-carbon technology. Unfortunately, little has happened on this front since 1997. The forthcoming review of the mandate of the Expert Group on Technology Transfers (EGTT) should provide the stimulus for sharing new, clean technologies that enhance human well-being without damaging the planet. The underlying theme in Nairobi was urgency. Members of the official delegations, as well as representatives from civic society and church groups, are convinced that there is no time to lose in tackling climate change. At both official and unofficial gatherings, one hears dismay and anger at the attitude of the United States’ Bush administration for not signing the Kyoto Protocol. Harlan Watson, the U.S. chief negotiator, has indicated there will be no change in policy by the Bush Administration toward Kyoto-style controls, despite lobbying from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Delegates are heartened, however, that states such as California and 135 U.S. cities are willing to join in a Kyoto-like protocol beyond 2012. Everyone would like to see the growing economies of China, India and Brazil also agree to limit greenhouse gas emissions after 2012. Finally, while climate change is a technical, scientific and economic issue, it ultimately is also a moral one. Actions taken now can undermine the well-being of millions of people today and condemn further generations to live in an inhospitable planet. While the United States constitutes just 5 percent of the world’s population, it is responsible for 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. and world religious leaders should clearly support countries willing to sacrifice now for the good of all and challenge the immoral stance of the Bush Administration. Columban Father Sean McDonagh has several works published on the topics of ecology and religion. His latest book is “Climate Change: The Challenge to Us All” (Columba). 1. Eco Quotes, The Guardian, Environment Supplement, November 3, 2004, page 12. Migration
HUMAN SECURITY & MIGRANT RIGHTS NOW On December 18, 2006, in observance of the United Nations’ International Migrants Day, we stand together to call upon the U.S. government and the United Nations itself, to uphold the human rights of all immigrants and refugees. We express our concern for the plight of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants and refugees who are seeking “human security”: peace, safety, community, employment, shelter, civil liberties, access to culture, education and health care, while being criminalized, discriminated against, and subjected to new forms of racial, ethnic, national origin and religious profiling being practiced as part of everyday immigration law enforcement and services. December 18 honors the day in 1990, when the U.N. General Assembly passed the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. It is a day in which we recognize the enormous contribution that migrants make to all countries of our world. Migration continues to be a growing, global phenomenon. Over 185 million people worldwide, or one out of every thirty-five persons, are migrants—living, working, raising families and building communities in places outside their country of origin. However, migration policies and practices often fail to protect the human rights of migrants, and in many cases, contribute to greater and systematic abuse. We call for a national immigration policy in the United States built upon the principles of human security with dignity, justice, and equality, and that uphold the civil and human rights of all people, regardless of their race, color, class, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, immigration or citizenship status. We call on all countries, including the United States, to ratify the U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which establishes a comprehensive framework to uphold the rights of migrants. We congratulate the 35 nations that have ratified this Convention, and urge them to fully comply with the aims and mandate of this important agreement. We applaud the unprecedented outpouring of immigrant communities around the United States this year, which called for the recognition of immigrant rights and an end to attacks on immigrant communities. In steadfast denouncement of House Bill HR4437 and other accompanying bills in Congress, millions of immigrant families and supporters took to the streets from Chicago to Houston, from Los Angeles to Boston, and from Seattle to Miami throughout the year, demonstrating widespread resolve towards the call for real comprehensive immigration reform. In the United States, the U.S.-Mexico border region, in particular, continues to experience intensified militarization with impunity, and has become a de-constitutionalized zone where communities and immigrants are racially profiled and subjected to unfair detentions and deportations. We condemn the Bush Administration’s and the U.S. Congress’ approval of 700 more miles of additional walls, electronic surveillance and the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to police the border. These border control policies and immigration law enforcement initiatives, being implemented with impunity, have only served to force migrants into more remote, desolate and dangerous border zones to cross, resulting every year in hundreds of deaths and countless others who have disappeared in the desert, creating a permanent and sorrowful loss to their families and communities. We reject restrictive immigration proposals in Congress that would criminalize immigrants through intensified border enforcement, and extend inhumane enforcement mechanisms to the interior. We further reject the current “compromise” proposals that contain guest-worker provisions that would expand and sustain an underclass of migrant workers, inevitably exposing migrant workers to employer abuse. Furthermore, we denounce such provisions that ensure corporations a pool of cheap, disposable labor for use and discard according to economic demands. We welcome the increased attention of the United Nations towards migration on the occasion of its High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development this past September, and congratulate Member States and the Secretary General on recognizing the importance of protecting the rights of all migrants. However, we deplore the significant lack of inclusion of migrant community voices in the dialogue itself, and we continue to express grave concern that the proposed Forum on Migration and Development might only include the participation of civil society when Member States deemed it “desirable and appropriate.” As the United Nations itself acknowledges, just and effective policies can only be achieved with full democratic participation, which with regard to migration policies, must certainly include migrant communities. We believe that the United States must fulfill its commitment to uphold the human rights of all members of our country and the globe. As part of the international human rights community, we decry the death, forced displacement and creation of new migrant and refugee populations as a result of U.S. foreign policy and military belligerence in the Middle East and the rest of the world. On this International Migrants Day 2006, and as we move towards a new year, let us renew our commitment to human security for all—a commitment to the right to live free of fear, racism, and xenophobia— and a commitment to safety and the defense of human rights for all communities.
Find out more and endorse this statement at www.nnirr.org/dec18/calltoaction2005.htm Action Alert Simplify Your Holidays By Theresa Polk, JPIC Office associate The one thing I have always wanted for Christmas is a real Christmas tree. My family has one of those erect-a-set trees that lives in a cardboard box in the basement for most of the year. My parents acquired it some 30-odd years ago when they got married. It looks more and more like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree every year: a little barer, a little more lopsided. And it’s a beast to put together. Needless to say, I am not overly fond of it. But I am beginning to realize that my biggest beef with our lopsided little tree has nothing to do with the tree itself. It has everything to do with creating the illusion of the perfect Christmas—the pressure of which, no matter which tree presides over our living room, leaves me feeling stressed and vaguely cheated. Perhaps it is finally time to let go of the illusion, or the drive to create it, and focus on actually enjoying the time that I spend with my family. Too often, the real meaning and joy of the holidays gets lost amidst all the rush, extravagance and materialism. We waste time that could be spent with friends and family standing in lines at stores. Meanwhile too many of our global brothers and sisters lack even the most basic necessities of life: clean water, enough food, adequate housing. This holiday season, I am challenging myself to look at the ways that I spend my holidays and see how I can make them a little fairer, a little greener and a little more joyful. Whether using recycled wrapping, giving the gift of time rather than material things or volunteering in a local shelter, I know there are small things that I can do to be a little more conscious this time of year.
Are you looking for greener, fairer and less-materialistic ways to celebrate with your family and friends? Check out the Center for a New American Dream’s guide to simplifying the holidays at www.newdream.org/holiday/index.php. Contact Us
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