ACT Palestine Forum is deeply concerned about the latest development in the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since 12 November, 34 Palestinians have been killed and another 111 injured . Eight of those killed were children and three were women. Among those injured are 46 children and 20 women.

Violence escalated after Israeli forces killed the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, in an air raid targeting his home in Gaza City.

We in ACT Palestine forum condemn the indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli Military Forces on civilians. “While we do not condone the firing of rockets on populated areas, we see this latest exchange of fire as a result of targeted killings in the absence of a credible political process between Palestinians and Israelis that would  see an end to the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip and to the human and basic rights infractions suffered by the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”

According to ACT members working in Gaza, the latest violence has further deteriorated the already dire humanitarian situation on the ground.

The ACT Palestine Forum is closely monitoring the situation, and stand ready to activate the Forum’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan while continuing the implementation of the current ACT Appeal

ACT Alliance is weighing in on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Global Summit on Population and Development, ICPD, being held in Nairobi from 12^th to 14^th of November.

ICPD is an important moment, coming 25 years after the Cairo Summit introduced the UN Population Fund’s Programme of Action.  In Nairobi, ACT will be continuing its work towards achieving gender justice, women’s rights, protection of LGBTQI people, the right to contraception, prevention of HIV and of gender-based violence.

ACT has worked with the Associated Press to produce the first of a series of short documentaries on these issues, telling stories from the slums of Nairobi, and looking at how faith-based groups contribute to tackling endemic gender-based violence and toxic masculinity. The short documentary was produced in coordination with ACT member LWR/IMA and with support from UNFPA.

The movie highlights the DREAMS project in Nairobi, a programme that provides education and support to young women who are subject to gender-based violence and who have little or no access to critical health education and services. The video introduces characters who are mentors in a scheme that is supported by ACT member LWR/IMA. Many of the people being mentored are in their early teens. The mentors themselves have been beneficiaries of the program that promotes access to services that empower young women and girls to take ownership of their reproductive health.

“The DREAMS program uses a proven, community engagement approach for reducing HIV infection among adolescents and young women,” IMA VP for Health Programs, Allyson Bear said. “We know young women in informal settlements are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and other threats.” 

General Secretary of the ACT Alliance, Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, said that ‘Through projects like DREAMS, ACT members are working around the world to advance gender justice, to work against gender-based violence, and to live into our commitments to the ICPD, fighting for the rights of all people, and in particular for women and the LGBTQI community whose rights are still a long way from being respected.‘

Read ACT’s commitments to ICPD.

Watch the DREAMS video.

The status of gender justice in Africa evokes both discomfort and optimism. The discomfort arises from the ever-present and growing hand of patriarchy, the push back on human rights– especially women’s rights– and the impunity with which acts of violence against women and girls are normalized and accepted by society.

However, all hope is not lost on those advancing gender equality given the bold “push back on the pushback,” coming from some faith communities as well as a gradual increase in political will and commitments from governments across Africa to address such injustices. These efforts are coupled with a shift in male engagement models in the spirit of leaving no one behind, including stakeholders like faith actors who have power and influence to create the desired change.

Inspired by such an environment, ACT Alliance members in Africa formed a regional Gender Justice Community of Practice in October, with an overarching need to transform society, building on the space created by ACT Forums across Africa and leveraging from the networks and partnerships nurtured by over 155 ACT members around the world.

The Africa CoP brings together countries including Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia among others. The common denominator of these countries is that they rank as the most religious with more than 80% of these populations aligning to a specific religion (The Global Attitudes 2015 Survey). However, the irony is that they also rank highest in gender disparities including discrimination against women and girls.  It’s no wonder that the Africa Gender CoP is prioritizing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), economic justice, and transformative masculinities – the CoP is keenly aware of the linkages between these areas and the multiple layers of vulnerabilities faced by women and girls.

These themes resonate with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the consensus built through the Programme for Action 25 years ago focusing on individual dignity and human rights. In achieving the PoA, strengthening the role of faith-based organizations, religious leaders and faith communities in advancing gender justice is key, as human rights and theology complement each other. ICPD +25, the Nairobi Summit, is a build-up to high-level global discussions and engagements spearheaded by UNFPA on maternal health, SGBV, HIV/AIDS with calls to faith communities to boldly advance issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights and to challenge harmful traditional practices which are facing a strong push back from society, including some faith circles.

The Nairobi Summit is significant to the Africa Gender Justice CoP beyond it being hosted in an African Country which will encourage the participation of many actors from the region. It is an opportunity for faith actors to continue advancing the positive role of faith in achieving gender justice. It is also a forum for faith actors in the region (and beyond) to understand the urgency in realizing gender equality, re-affirm their commitment to gender justice and raise their voice in solidarity with many actors working tirelessly to challenge the push back which has been experienced across Africa. The different forms of gender injustice are a sad reality across Africa, however, there is an ever-increasing space to rally support within the region and to advocate for more progressive legislative frameworks and more tangible commitments such as financing for gender equality from African governments.

The Africa Gender Justice CoP, through the ACT network, is already engaged in gender justice work. An added value of the CoP is the adoption of a theological approach which promotes the unfolding of affirmations of gender justice and reflection on sacred texts (which are sometimes used to promote gender injustices). It also promotes joint advocacy, particularly using the Africa Regional Human Rights Frameworks and spaces which have continuously registered limited faith actors. This has the potential to enhance grassroots, national, regional and global linkages and reap the benefits of working together.

The CoP is also cognizant that faith actors are important in the spiritual nourishment of their faith communities but equally important for their capacity to reach the unreachable and to provide physical nourishment as well. The CoP will use its prophetic voice to address gender injustices and to contribute to the legal and institutional frameworks at various levels.

ACT Alliance members across the world, who are also members of the various Gender Justice CoPs have actively engaged with the ICPD +25 country processes in the lead up to the Nairobi Summit. Specific actions taken by ACT’s network include a faith-based position paper with commitments to the ICPD, mobilizing progressive faith voices, participating in the UNFPA’s thematic technical groups, providing input to the CSO country position papers and taking the lead on key thematic areas.

ACT’s Gender Justice CoP members in Uganda are leading the CoP on issues related to Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices.  In Nairobi, the Alliance has been instrumental in shaping faith conversations in the ICPD +25 process and will convene a Pre-Summit Conference for FBOs.

ACT Alliance is at the center of advancing discussions which reaffirm the positive role of faith actors in advancing SRHR as a fundamental human right. ACT will host a session at ICPD on,  “Keeping the Faith in SRHR” and in light of the push back on this topic, will provide a safe space for dialogue and will stand in solidarity with those advancing the faith-based values of dignity, justice and peace.

True to a reflection during the gathering of the Africa Gender Justice CoP ‘the harvest is huge, yet laborers are few!’ There is no such thing as oversubscription when talking about actors for gender justice.  We need more laborers, particularly from faith circles and faith communities, to speak on these issues. Only then will we see a world where everyone lives in dignity and all people, irrespective of their diversity realize their full potential.

Blog written by Gladys Nairuba, DanChurchAid (Uganda).

Statement of Support and Solidarity with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines

We have learned with great concern of the emerging development in the Philippines where the ACT Alliance member, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) has been included on the list of ‘front organisations of local communist terrorist groups’ presented by the Department of National Defense. We are very disturbed by this depiction and find it to be completely out of touch with what we know the NCCP to represent.

ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together) is a global network of churches and faith-based organisations working in collaboration to support people and communities affected by disasters and poverty. NCCP, as a member of our Alliance, has been instrumental in supporting church-led emergency responses in many natural disaster events and in community-based development programmes, which includes in recent years significant emergency response for Typhoon Haiyan, Typhoon Mangkhut, and the Marawi Siege. NCCP is an active member of the Philippine Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) Forum and an active participant in humanitarian coordination platforms that are led by the NDRRMC and various government and UN agencies. We are extremely grateful for and proud of this work and we know that the lives and dignity of the people and communities served through the ministry of NCCP are better as a result.

We strongly associate ourselves with the identity of NCCP as a fellowship of churches following God’s call to serve the people of the Philippines through service, ecumenical education and Christian unity. This work does not imply any association with terrorist organisations. NCCP has undertaken this work with grace, integrity and exemplary servant leadership.

We stand in solidarity with the NCCP and other partners who have wrongfully been included on the above-mentioned list. We call on the Government of the Philippines to remove NCCP from the list, in view of its unverified nature and the security and operational threats it poses. We call on the Government of the Philippines to ensure the safety and security of all its citizens and to uphold the important role of civil society and social service organisations such as the NCCP. We believe that the Government of the Philippines shares our commitment to serve the needs of communities and address the root causes of poverty and disasters, with a strong recognition of international human rights and humanitarian law, and God’s call to service and unity.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the ACT Alliance, in a joint letter to Burkina Faso president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, expressed concern for developments affecting the security and human rights of many of the nation’s people.

“We are aware that over the last five years, Burkina Faso has been increasingly afflicted by extremist violence,” the letter reads. “In addition to the deaths of hundreds of people, a spate of kidnappings, and the closure of many schools and churches, this violence has led to a massive and continuous displacement of populations from the affected regions.”

According to the latest UN information, in early October 486,360 internally displaced people were registered, more than twice as many as in July. “Since July, the number of people receiving food assistance has doubled to around 735,000,” notes the letter. “Our churches and partners are already on the ground assisting the affected communities, and we are exploring ways in which we can scale up our support and accompaniment.”

Through this letter WCC and ACT Alliance particularly highlight an urgent and immediate situation in the vicinity of Kongoussi town in northern-central Burkina Faso, where in one church compound of the Association of Evangelical Reformed Churches of Burkina Faso more than 200 people who have fled from attacks on nearby villages – the majority of them children – are taking refuge.

The letter continues: “We join in urgently appealing to the Government of Burkina Faso to do its utmost to project a stronger military presence in this region, in order to protect people who are in imminent fear for their lives, against an advancing wave of extremist attacks.”

WCC and ACT also offered prayers for resolve and wisdom in Kaboré‘s efforts to confront the threat to the nation as a whole, to preserve all Burkinabé people from sectarian violence and divisions, to arrest the worsening humanitarian emergency resulting from these attacks, and to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of so many affected people. “We join you in calling on the international community to provide the necessary support for your government to rise to these critical challenges,” the letter concludes.

See the letter below:

S.E. Roch Marc Christian Kaboré
Président
Burkina Faso

Votre Excellence,

Au nom du Conseil œcuménique des Églises et de l’Alliance ACT, nous vous écrivons pour vous exprimer notre préoccupation devant les développements qui affectent la sécurité et les droits de la personne de beaucoup de vos citoyens, en particulier dans les régions du Sahel, du Nord, du Centre-Nord et de l’Est.

Nous savons qu’au cours des cinq dernières années, le Burkina Faso a été de plus en plus frappé par la violence extrémiste. Ces attaques violentes, qui visaient initialement l’armée et les institutions étatiques, ont pris un caractère religieux et sectaire de plus en plus marqué et affecté gravement les civils.

Nous avons également à l’esprit l’appel, en septembre 2018, du Gouvernement du Burkina Faso à la communauté internationale, demandant son appui face à l’émergence des menaces à la sécurité et au développement de la région.

Causant la mort de centaines de personnes, une vague de kidnappings et la fermeture de nombreuses écoles et églises, cette violence a également provoqué un déplacement massif et continu des populations venues des régions affectées.

Selon les dernières informations venues des agences onusiennes, on comptait 486 360 déplacés internes au début du mois d’octobre, ce qui représente le double des chiffres enregistrés en juillet. Depuis juillet, le nombre de personnes recevant de la nourriture et de l’assistance a doublé, pour atteindre 735 000 personnes. 71 centres de santé demeurent fermés et 75 autres n’offrent que des services minimaux, laissant plus de 880 000 personnes sans accès aux soins de santé. Selon un Plan d’action humanitaire révisé, 187 millions de dollars sont nécessaires pour l’aide humanitaire, mais, à la date du 29 octobre, seuls 37% des fonds avaient été reçus.

Nos Églises et partenaires sont déjà sur le terrain pour soutenir les communautés affectées et nous cherchons les moyens d’augmenter notre soutien pour les accompagner. Nous soutenons le Gouvernement du Burkina Faso dans ses efforts pour garantir l’aide nécessaire aux besoins humanitaires immédiats autant qu’à la coopération sécuritaire face à la menace extrémiste.  

En même temps, nous souhaitons tout particulièrement attirer votre attention sur une situation immédiate et urgente dans les environs de Kongoussi qui a été portée à notre attention. Les attaques les plus dramatiques dans cette province ont eu lieu le 28 septembre, dans un village (Komsilga) situé à une vingtaine de kilomètres de Kongoussi, où 9 personnes ont été tuées. Le même jour, dans l’après-midi, 9 autres personnes ont été tuées dans un autre village (Deneon) à environ 27 km de Kongoussi. Ce soir-là, les gens ont commencé à fuir ces villages et bien d’autres de la région vers Kongoussi. Le nombre de personnes déplacées a continué d’augmenter au cours des jours suivants, et plus de 45 000 personnes déplacées ont été enregistrées à Kongoussi.

Dimanche 6 octobre, 2 personnes ont été tuées dans un autre village (Darbiti) à 6 km de Kongoussi. Dimanche 20 octobre, dans la soirée, 9 autres personnes ont été tuées dans un village (Zoura) situé à seulement 8 km de Kongoussi.

Selon les messages que nous avons reçus du pasteur Tegwende Leonard Kinda de l’Association des Églises évangéliques réformées du Burkina Faso – membre du COE et de l’Alliance ACT – un total de 242 personnes de 32 foyers, dont 141 enfants, 63 adultes et 38 personnes âgées, qui ont fui face à cette vague d’attaques meurtrières, sont actuellement réfugiées dans son église à Kongoussi.

Nous nous associons à l’appel pressant lancé au Gouvernement du Burkina Faso pour qu’il fasse tout ce qui est en son pouvoir pour projeter une présence militaire plus forte dans cette région, afin de protéger les personnes qui craignent pour leur vie contre une vague croissante d’attaques extrémistes.

Nous prions pour que la détermination et la sagesse vous guident dans vos efforts pour faire face à cette menace qui pèse sur l’ensemble de la nation, pour préserver tous les Burkinabés de la violence et des divisions sectaires, pour arrêter l’aggravation de l’urgence humanitaire résultant de ces attaques et pour répondre aux besoins humanitaires immédiats de tant de personnes touchées. Nous nous joignons à vous pour demander à la communauté internationale d’apporter le soutien nécessaire à votre gouvernement pour qu’il puisse relever ces défis cruciaux.

Veuillez agréer, Votre Excellence, l’expression de notre respectueuse considération

ACT Alliance joined representatives from faith communities including ACT member Zimbabwe Christian Council, the private sector, and UN experts for a day-long series of events hosted by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) on the role of faith-based actors towards the 2030 agenda.

“FBOs and Agenda 2030 share a similar goal: to ensure that no one is left behind,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of ACT Alliance on a panel that explored FBO approaches to deliver inclusive, democratic and gender-sensitive development.

Achieving gender equality remains a key priority for ACT’s network. “We will never be able to fully achieve the SDGs if we have not addressed our relationship to each other as human beings,” he said. “If we do not fully reach gender equality, then how can we achieve Agenda 2030 without leaving anyone behind?” he asked. 

De Faria recognized that while some religious leaders and faith communities perpetuate patriarchal social and cultural norms that undermine gender equality and human rights, there is a growing number faith actors, such as ACT Alliance with the dedication and potential to support an inclusive and gender-sensitive agenda to push back against regressive voices. 

De Faria expressed ACT’s added responsibility as an FBO to tackle this issue and to engage with those perpetuating injustices, “we need to not only discuss the issues that unite us, but also those that divide us,” he said. “If we do not make an effort to understand and persuade each other, we will never be able to realize the mandate of our organization or of our Christian principles and values,” he continued. 

Dr Azza Karam, Secretary-General of Religions for Peace highlighted the crucial role of FBOs and noted that 80% of the global population is associated with a religion or a faith.

The words of Dr. Karam resonate with ACT’s network as it serves people and communities that are directly affected by discrimination and exclusion. “As faith actors, we can make a positive difference in the lives of marginalized and poor people, we can inform people to take a positive stance on issues related to poverty, inequality and issues of human rights, ensuring that communities and local groups are promoters of their own development so that no one is left behind,” said de Faria.

Reflecting on the meeting, de Faria pointed at a recent report released by UNDP and ACT Member Centro Regional Ecuménico de Asesoría y Servicio (CREAS) and supported by the Government of Argentina titled, The contribution of FBOs to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in Argentina. “Although focused on Argentina this publication is a testimony of the work of religious practitioners and responders all over the world who contribute every day to the achievement of the SDGs,” he said.

ACT Alliance will continue to address humanitarian and development challenges in ways that promote gender equality and safeguard human dignity in the rise of social, economic and religious fundamentalism. Most recently, ACT has launched a global gender justice campaign which aims at sensitizing the churches and religious actors in the Alliance on the need for a joint approach towards gender inequality.  ACT is also working towards the engagement of its members in the Beijing + 25 process which will provide all stakeholders the opportunity to lift and progress the agenda on gender equality.

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and contains 20% of Earth´s water springs but these natural resources are under threat.

In the west region of Bahia, in the northeast of the country, communities are worried about the negative effects of land and power concentration. The region is home to riverside communities and peasants who for generations respected and lived off the land and water – fishing, harvesting and hunting, while preserving rivers and the cerrado vegetation. However, the arrival of agribusiness industries in the 1970s kindled a silent and dangerous war over land and water control.

Frictions reached a peak two years ago when one thousand people from the municipality of Correntina invaded a local farm business and damaged the machines to denounce the abusive use of water by the property.  

The whole population of Correntina uses approximately 3 million litres water per day, which represents only 2,8% of the 106 million taken from rivers every day by one single farm business. This is what the ranch is legally allowed to use, but there is no enforcement of the legal limit. Public authorities are silent on the matter and are not providing credible answers to the communities, while the rivers are drying, and the population is lacking access to water.

The ACT Alliance Brazil Forum  decided to organise an Ecumenical Mission to assess the impact on the communities and the water resources. The mission, coordinated by Ecumenical Coordination for Service (CESE),  took place between the 3^rd and the 5^th October. A group of 70 missionaries from churches, faith-based organisations, social movements and international development organisations, including ACT members Christian Aid, Koinonia, Fundação Luterana de Diaconia, gathered in the region to: show solidarity with the people affected, raise awareness on the risks represented by the predatory use of rivers; sensitise churches, FBOs and other civil society on the the need to care for our common home, and finally to demand action from the State to solve the agrarian conflicts and protect the rivers.

During the 3-day mission the participants  took part in a public hearing with the state public prosecutor where local community members voiced their concerns, visited communities affected by droughts and illegal land grabbing to assess the damage and collect data, and held a public ecumenical celebration with clergy from different denominations.

The ecumenical movement is a powerful actor able to catalyse effective initiatives in defence of the poorest and most vulnerable populations in Brazil.  

In the current context, as basic social, economic and human rights are being dismantled by the authorities, it is crucial that the ecumenical movement raises its voice to protect and alleviate the  suffering of the most vulnerable  and demand justice.

Below you can read the final statement of the mission.

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ACT BRAZIL ECUMENICAL FORUM PUBLISHES OFFICIAL LETTER ABOUT ECUMENICAL MISSION

1. “Let justice roll on like a river,righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5.24)

On 03 and 04 October in the west of Bahia, we, representatives of different expressions of faith, provoked by the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço: CESE) and with support from the ACT Brazil Ecumenical Forum, undertook the 5^th Ecumenical Mission in order to provide national and international visibility to water-related conflicts.

Our mission was held during the days when we remember and celebrate the charisma of Francis of Assis, who recognized Mother Earth, our Pachamama, as a living being, deserving of affection, care and love.  This spirituality, which understands that a human being is the smallest part of a complex web of life, is the force that sustains our missionary journey.

We were affected by the prophecy of denunciation at the public hearing from men and women who have suffered the impacts of an anti-democratic, capitalist system which denies traditional communities the right to exist.

The cries that we heard denounced the expansion of the tentacles of an exploitative system that transforms land and water into commodities, annihilating these two forces, which are expressions of the sacred for traditional peoples.

“All of us have the colour of the earth in our skin” remind these women, who suffer the impact of a development project that denies the right to exist of the many cultures that make up the Cerrado region of Bahia.  All of us have the colour of the earth in our skin, which takes us back to our primordial ancestry – ADAM – he who is the colour of earth.

Shootings, land grabbing, harassment, the manipulation of information, the restriction of the right to come and go, pressure to leave your land, are all examples of the denounced violence.  In Barreiras, Correntina, São Desidério, Serra Dourada and other municipalities we identified how agribusiness functions in the region and in many other territories around the nation, in an authoritarian, aggressive manner, incapable of coexistence with the diversity of creation. 

The dignity of those in this struggle, from the geraizeira (pastoralist), artisanal fishing and other traditional rural communities, provides the power that drives these communities’ capacity for resistance.

We do not want charity. We want our right to water and to maintain our traditional way of life.  This claim contrasted with attempts by public agents to provide responses to demands within a context of the absence of the Democratic State and where the prevailing option is for an agrarian policy that does not recognize traditional ways of life.

Given everything that we heard and learnt, it is fitting to share some fundamental challenges for the region:

1. That the public authorities secure land rights for traditional peoples, preventing agribusiness and its private militias from improperly appropriating land that is sacred to traditional peoples;
2. That the competent bodies conduct research into the impact of toxic pesticides on the fish and food consumed by these communities;
3. That they guarantee effective public oversight mechanisms for grant-making procedures;
4. The urgent need to bring together different communities in order to draw up an agenda for common action.

Our cry is the cry of one of the rural workers at the public hearing: Have compassion for rural workers and have compassion for the Earth and the Waters!

“From the springs to the São Francisco River, water for life!” 

Correntina, Brazil, October 2019.

By Gráinne Kilcullen, Christian Aid

Fridays for Future, the international movement calling for action to address the climate crisis, has gained huge momentum in the past year. People across the world, young and old, are calling for oil to stay in the ground and a shift to renewable energy. But they are also calling for something more profound, something that will tackle the root causes of climate change: a different econ
omic system.

Solving the climate crisis is not about sexy technological inventions; it is about re-evaluating the economic system to stop greed and corruption and dismantle the culture of inequality. A vital part of what needs to change is the profit motive, which must shift towards being an expression of collective public interest, rather than being only for the enrichment of companies and businesses.

A chance to change the economic system

Christian Aid and our partners in the ACT Alliance believe that one way that governments can respond to these calls for systemic economic change is to support the development, ratification and implementation of an International UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights.

The UN Treaty is a very welcome attempt to regulate business activities in line with international human rights law. For too long, debates on reducing the harm to people and planet perpetrated by businesses have been dominated by voluntary language, which gently encourages businesses to act responsibly.

For the first time, the UN Treaty goes beyond guidelines. If ratified and implemented, it will hold states and companies legally accountable for respecting, promoting and providing remedy for human rights abuses.

Power imbalances and differentiated impacts

One aspect of the revised draft UN Treaty released in July 2019 that the ACT Alliance particularly welcomes is the recognition of differentiated corporate impacts on groups that are marginalised such as women, children, people with disabilities and indigenous peoples. It recognises the need to analyse existing and underlying power imbalances between genders, which are often reinforced and exacerbated by the economic system and corporate practices. These include, for example, gender pay gaps and gender-based violence in the workplace which are consequences of discriminatory norms and structures that already exist in society.

Yet, recognising the need for analysis on power imbalances is not enough. The treaty must go further to ensure that states and corporations conduct mandatory human rights due diligence and gender impact assessments, and that corporations use their influence with states to prevent abuses.

Transnational corporations are often made up by subsidiaries, affiliates and related entities. It is not unusual for a subsidiary to be involved with or aware of human rights abuses. For example, if modern slavery is practiced within the value chain of a transnational corporation – perhaps clothes sold in London are produced using forced migrant labour in Bangladesh – then that corporation has the obligation to exert influence through its subsidiary to prevent future abuse, by making sure all service providers abide by human right standards.

This is just one example of how corporations need to use their influence to promote an enabling environment for the enjoyment of human rights. Corporations can also work with communities, civil society and the government to make sure violations do not take place.

A good start, but more is needed

Under the UN Treaty there are provisions for the establishment of a committee to review compliance and issue recommendations. However, as the Treaty does not yet recognise corporations as single entities with a legal personality, the jurisdiction of the law is limited to states. This must be changed so that states, under universal jurisdiction or international law, can hold corporations directly to account for rights abuses.

We hope that the development of the Treaty will gain wide-ranging support from governments and corporations in the coming months. If it is ratified and implemented, the international community will be able to look back on this decade as contributing to a fundamental shift in legal standards that support a just economic system and true equality for future generations.

Download ACT Alliance’s briefing paper on applying a ‘Gender Lens to the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights’ here

On the 10 -11^th of October 2019, the Africa ACT Alliance Gender Justice Community of Practice (CoP) held its first meeting. The meeting was convened and hosted by the Uganda ACT Forum, with the support of Dan Church Aid (DCA).

The main priority for this meeting was to facilitate and support Africa Gender Justice group’s contributions and influence at the regional level. Through the CoP, ACT members in Africa will have a chance to share experiences, learn from each other, contextualize and set priorities on issues of gender justice, and drive joint strategic advocacy campaigns at the national, regional and international levels.

Twenty-three participants from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Somalia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe – shared their frustrations and hopes on gender justice providing an analysis of their contexts and the challenges they are facing. Some of the challenges included exclusion of women and girls, non-compliance to policy frameworks, power inequalities, impunity and the backlash that the broad civil society is experiencing on gender justice. The shared feeling within the group was that unequal gender power structures are normalized within societies, and sometimes even driven by or in the name of faith.

Nevertheless, it was also noted that despite the push backs, some faith actors are breaking the norms and are countering the regressive narrative by courageously addressing gender-based violence, taking actions to overcome silence and providing leadership and a voice to those who are experiencing gender injustice.

From the discussion, it was clear that there is an urgent need for different faith-based voices to come together and speak out against injustice. ACT Alliance provides an excellent platform for its members to define their work in the region, identify common challenges and opportunities and establish new pathways for working together more effectively to advance gender justice. 

The meeting also explored joint international and regional synergies within global frameworks like the 2030 Agenda. UNFPA Uganda country representatives provided participants with information on the upcoming gender-related processes on ICPD+25/Nairobi Summit and the Beijing platform for Action +25, and emphasized the opportunities for faith-based actors in participating in such spaces.

Gladys Nairuba, Programme Officer, Active Citizenship at Dan Church Aid Uganda was elected Chair of the regional CoP and Zanele Makombe, Programme Advisor, Gender and SRHR  at  ACT Ubumbano as co-chair.