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Kairos Times: April - May 2006 Vol 5, #5
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| I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source
of power! I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run
out before we tackle that. |
-- Thomas Edison |
- Mexico Urgent Action update –letters still needed!
- Kimy Pernía Domicó remembered on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance
- What’s all the fuss about Kyoto?
- Church leaders release letter on HIV-AIDS
- United Nations committee condemns poverty in Canada
- Ending double standards necessary for peace in Israel/Palestine
- Feel the Current: Nidus festival for young adults!
Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico Urgent Action update –letters still needed!
On April 28, KAIROS issued an urgent action asking people to write letters to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay regarding the escalating situation in Cerro de San Pedro. Despite clear community opposition and legal decisions, Canadian mining corporation Metallica Resources Inc. has been proceeding with its potentially disastrous operations.
We sincerely thank all those who have written letters in support of the community. Community representative Ana Maria Alvarado writes – “I send you an enormous embrace of gratitude for this vital action in Canada. We have received copies of many letters. For us these letters are a dose of vitamins that keeps us going….”
Sadly, the situation in Cerro de San Pedro remains critical. The community and its Broad Opposition Front (FAO) continue to engage in a legal battle with Metallica Resources who, according to community members, have corrupt Mexican officials on their side. Recently, the Mexican Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAT) issued a new environmental permit to Metallica. This permit violates the state law designating Cerro de San Pedro and the area affected by mining operations as a protected zone.
Greenpeace Mexico has spoken against this action, stating : “(the
Ministry of the environment) privileges the interests of a transnational
corporation over the rights of the Mexican people and a healthy
and safe environment.” Moreover, members of the FAO continue
to be threatened and harassed for their efforts to resist the mine.
Your letters are still urgently needed.
If you haven’t done so, please write a letter to Canadian
Foreign Minister, the Honourable Peter MacKay today!
To see the urgent action, please go to: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/urgent/uaMetalica060428.asp
For further information please contact Rachel Warden, 416
463 5312, ext. 242
rwarden
or Rusa Jeremic, 416 463 5312, ext. 225,
rjeremic
Kimy Pernía Domicó remembered
on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance
June 2, 2006 marks the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of KAIROS partner and friend Kimy Pernía Domicó. Kimy, a leader of the Embera Katio Indigenous nation of Colombia, was forcibly abducted and disappeared by three armed men in the town of Tierralta on June 2, 2001. The men are alleged to be army-backed paramilitary. To date, there has been no progress in locating him or bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice.
Kimy had been leading his people in a peaceful protest against the Urra hydroelectric dam, a project that flooded his community’s crops and sacred sites. He is highly respected in Canada for testifying about the devastation caused by this dam, which was partially financed by our tax dollars through Export Development Canada.
Kimy continues to be remembered and missed in Canada. Immediately after his disappearance, over 40 members of Canada’s Parliament signed a letter of concern to the government of Colombia. Vigils were held across Canada. In 2003, Kimy received in absentia Canada’s prestigious John Humphreys Award for his dedication to human rights.
On the fifth anniversary of Kimy’s disappearance, KAIROS, Amnesty International, Rights and Democracy, the Canadian Autoworkers Union and several other Canadian organizations placed a paid notice in the Colombia newspaper stating our commitment to securing justice for Kimy and ending impunity in Colombia. See the related press release from Rights and Democracy.
As we remember Kimy we also note that targeted attacks, disappearances and assassinations of Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders and community workers continue with impunity throughout Colombia. What’s more, the rights of victims of human rights abuses and their families are further marginalized in the current supposed demobilization process of the paramilitary in Colombia.
In the context of the demobilization process, we ask the Colombian government: What action is being taken to ensure that those responsible for Kimy’s “disappearance” will be brought to justice and not benefit from this process? What actions are being taken to address the ongoing human rights violations against Indigenous communities in Colombia and to ensure the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation?
Kimy Pernía Domicó presente! For more background information, see our Colombia focus page: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/countries/colombia/index.asp
For more information contact at Rachel Warden, Program
Coordinator, Latin American Partnership Program, 416 463 5312, ext.
242 or
rwarden
.
What’s all the fuss about Kyoto?
For years, Canadians have pushed for real action on climate change. People of faith were key to Canada’s decision to sign the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Now that progress is at grave risk of being rolled back, even as the impacts of the climate change already underway become more severe.
Contrary to the Government’s claims that it is "impossible for Canada to comply with its Kyoto commitments", and that most other developed countries won't comply either, almost all developed countries are on track to meeting their Kyoto targets. All “economy in transition” countries have already met their targets. And even China has agreed to put in place measures to reach a target of 20 % improvement in energy efficiency over 2005 levels by 2010. It has set efficiency standards for 16 classes of vehicles and a target of 15 % of total capacity from renewable energy by 2020.
By contrast, the Conservative government is backtracking from its Kyoto obligations, and has begun dismantling Canadian climate change programs, including the EnerGuide for Houses and the EnerGuide for Low Income Houses. (See news releases: Climate Action Network at www.climateactionnetwork.ca and Green Communities Canada at http://gca.ca) Check out David Suzuki’s comment on the matter.
Since the Kyoto Protocol commitment period actually begins in 2008 and ends in 2012, Canada still has six years to comply with our Kyoto target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. How will we know we can't unless we try? Opposition parties have passed a resolution that requires the government to put in place a plan no later than this fall that closes the gap. Churches have been writing to the Prime Minister, Environment Minister, Minister of Natural Resources and local MPs to express their concerns. The growing consensus is that along with the legal responsibility for keeping our Kyoto promises, there is a moral and ethical duty to the rest of the world community and to future generations to seriously address the onset of climate change – now!
You can find your MP and their contact info at
http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html#mp
You can send your comments to the Prime Minister by e-mail to
pm
or write the Prime Minister’s office at: Rt.
Honourable Stephen Harper, Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington
Street Ottawa K1A 0A2 or fax: (613) 941-6900
For more information, contact Joy Kennedy, Ecological Justice Program Coordinator, at 1 877 403 8933 x222 or jkennedy
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of page
Church leaders release letter on HIV-AIDS
In the last Kairos Times we told you about the upcoming opportunities for the international community to address the HIV and AIDS crisis. You can read more about ecumenical advocacy work on this devastating pandemic at http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/economic/hivaids/index.asp
Canadian church leaders have now sent a letter to the Prime Minister, calling on Canada to take an active role in fighting AIDS, canceling the debt that is crippling many countries struggling with the pandemic, and ensuring access to drugs. Read the letter in PDF format at http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/economic/hivaids/ltrPMHIVAIDS0605.pdf
We invite you also to send a letter to Prime Minister Harper calling for action in the face of the grave challenges presented by AIDS. Visit the KAIROS website for a sample letter.
For more information, please contact Sara Stratton, Network
and Campaign Coordinator, at 1 877 403 8933 x241 or
sstratton
United Nations committee condemns poverty
in Canada
On May 22, the United Nations released a report on Canada’s record in implementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, one of the key United Nations human rights treaties to which Canada is party.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern at the high poverty rates in Canada, particularly among Aboriginal peoples, African-Canadians, immigrants, persons with disabilities, youth, women and single mothers.
The Committee recommended that Canada “take all possible measures to the maximum of its available resources to ensure the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights for all.” In particular it recommended that Canada:
- Increase social assistance to levels which ensure an adequate standard of living
- Increase minimum wages
- Ensure access to employment insurance benefits
- Re-examine its policies and practices towards the inherent rights and titles of Aboriginal peoples.
- Address the issues of hunger and homelessness, which it termed “national emergencies”.
The full text of the report can be found at: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/E.C.12.CAN.CO.5.pdf
Numerous submissions were made to the UN as part of its review. KAIROS made two submissions: one on Aboriginal rights (see Independent Indigenous Submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in Response to Canada’s Periodic Reports on the Aboriginal rights page)
and one which summarizes concerns raised by Canadians who participated at “Peoples’ Forums” in Vancouver, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Regina, Melville, Fort Qu’Appelle, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Ottawa and Woodvale, PEI (see http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/humanrights/advocacy.asp , Report on Cross-Canada Citizen Dialogues on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights: Submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).
We also supported a submission highlighting the right to water, which Canada has refused to recognize. In its report on Canada's compliance with the Covenant, the Committee called on Canada to review its regressive position "so as to ensure equal and adequate access to water" for all Canadians. You can view the Committee's report at http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/E.C.12.CAN.CO.5.pdf, specifically Comment 30 on page 6 and Comment 64 on page 10.
The May 2006 issue of the Global Justice Report also focuses on the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Contact orders@kairoscanada.org for your copy!
KAIROS is part of a network of Canadian non-governmental organizations which is calling on the government to review the Concluding Observations and provide answers on how they plan to implement the UN recommendations.
To find out more, please contact Michael Polanyi, at 1 877 403 8933 x237 or mpolanyi .
Ending double standards necessary for peace in Israel/Palestine
In its recent statement "The time is ripe to do what is right", the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches warns that "Peace must come soon or it may not come to either people for a long time".
The statement recalls a long list of appalling disparities between the two parties, with one of them accumulating and securing "unlawful gains" and the other "being isolated and punished". Those disparities "cannot be justified morally, legally or even politically", it adds.
The statement insists on the urgency of "ending the punitive measures" imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The committee encourages Israel to base its security on "the equitable negotiation of final borders" with its neighbours and "excluding the unilateral imposition of borders on those neighbours".
The WCC executive committee therefore recommends that, "as a new foundation for peace… both parties to the conflict be held to one and the same standard for ending violence, meeting their existing agreements and recognizing each other's existence including the 1967 borders".
The full text of the 19 May 2006 "Statement on the conflict in Israel/Palestine: The time is ripe to do what is right" is available at: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2259
For more information, contact Hanadi Loubani, Coordinator:
Middle East Global Partnerships Program, at 416 463 5312 ext. 239
or
hloubani
Feel the Current: Nidus festival for young adults!
Join people from every stream of the Christian faith to celebrate, dance and worship together at Nidus 2006, a weekend focused on AIDS awareness and faith. The event is sponsored by the Canadian Council of Churches and the aim is to have a truly ecumenical festival.
For three days in August, Nidus will transform a simple campground into a dynamic, creative, passionate gathering place for Christians from across the spectrum. Throughout, there will be two themes: stopping HIV/AIDS and exploring the living currents of faith. An array of arts, music, prayer, worship and talks with a concern for justice and peace are planned.
Sponsored by the Canadian Council of Churches, the festival will
be at Bingeman's Resort, in Kitchener, Ontario, August 4-6. For
a complete list of presenters, or information on how to volunteer,
visit www.nidus2006.ca
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