“We, as members of the ACT Palestine Forum composed of local churches and church-related development and humanitarian organizations, are deeply concerned about the loss of life and human suffering we experience across Palestine and in Israel these days.

The current escalation of violence is alarming. Thousands of women and men, girls and boys, have been injured and many killed since 1 October.

In Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza we experience the killing of both Palestinian and Israeli civilians, use of excessive force by Israeli police and army against protesters, extra judicial killings, collective punishment in the form of severe restrictions of movement, closure of Palestinian neighborhoods and punitive home demolitions in East Jerusalem.

We condemn all of this violence and we are convinced that violence cannot solve the conflict. We are convinced, however, that we will not see an end to the conflict without an end to the Israeli occupation. Administrative detention, the continued blockade of and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza where thousands still await rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homes, settlement expansion, house demolitions, severe movement restrictions and other violations of basic rights throughout the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel are depriving Palestinians their internationally recognized rights, create immense human suffering and provides no hope for the future generations. The current political situation is in no ways sustainable.

The ACT Palestine Forum calls on the international community to address the root causes of the conflict by redoubling its efforts to safeguard international
humanitarian law and human rights and to open negotiations underpinned by
international law that will bring an end to the Israeli occupation and help end the human suffering and insecurity felt by both Palestinians and Israelis.

In light of the escalation of violence and violation of basic rights, the ACT Palestine Forum members, as faith-based organizations committed to non-violence and the rule of law, appeal to the international community for measures to protect the civilian population.

At the same time, the ACT Palestine Forum calls on religious leaders of all faiths to work together with political leaders to protect all of the Holy Places in Jerusalemand throughout the Holy Land and demand that the Israeli government cancel its recent decisions preventing free access of Palestinians to the Old City of Jerusalem, respecting and practicing the status quo towards Al Aqsa Mosque and all religious Holy Sites.

The ACT Palestine Forum stands in support of the statement of the Heads of
Churches in Jerusalem, released on 21 September 2015, concerning the recent
violence on the Haram al Sharif. The Forum encourages its partners to support and act upon this statement and the call of the Heads of Churches that “the existing Status Quo governing these sites needs to be fully respected for the sake of the whole community.”

It is in these days of unrest and instability, fear and hopelessness, that the voices of people of faith must be heard. The ACT Palestine Forum appeals to its partners around the globe to help carry the vision of peace, justice, hope, and dignity for Palestine and Israel, especially at times like now, when young and old alike are weighed down by despair and discouraged by the lack of a viable peace process.”

Signatories

ACT Palestine Forum
ACT for Peace
Ahli Arab Hospital
Christian Aid
Church Of Sweden
Church world Service
Dan Church Aid
Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees
Diakonia
Finn Church Aid
Mennonite Central Committee
Norwegian Church Aid
The East Jerusalem YMCA
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL)
The Lutheran World Federation
The United Church Of Canada

Today, October 1, is the deadline for countries to submit their national climate pledges to the UN. It is time to count and analyse to see how far we have come. Will national pledges sum up, and fulfil the targets set by climate science? The answer is already known, and it is negative. The total amount of actions will not keep the global temperature increase well below two degrees Celsius, which means that we may face drastic effects of climate change in the future.

ACT Alliance Global Climate Ambassador, the Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town says:

“The level of ambition is far too low, and it makes me concerned. Poor and vulnerable people, with limited responsibility for the emissions leading to climate change are the ones who are affected the most. People with little capacity to cope with extreme heat, flooding and other impacts risk losing their lives, livelihoods, and may be forced to leave their territories and everything they have”.

The UN climate talks culminate in Paris in December where a global climate agreement is expected to be adopted. The agreement will create a framework for climate action, and global cooperation in the coming decades and thus the outcome will have an important role to play for future development.

Co-Chair of ACT Alliance Climate Change Advisory Group Mattias Söderberg says: “We can now conclude that the national pledges have fallen short, and therefore call for scaled up ambition. The most important result from Paris will be to create a stepping stone, which can be used to increase actions in the coming years. We need an agreement with rules that enable scaling up, and prevent all countries from backsliding.”

Since there was no joint agreement about the format of national pledges, the pledges made by governments differ a lot. It makes it difficult to compare, and therefore undermines clarity and transparency of the process. Some countries have only referred to their mitigation targets, while others also cover adaptation in their pledges. In addition many developing countries have made their pledges conditional, because they will need financial support to make them happen.

Mattias Söderberg adds: “We therefore ask governments to agree to a robust system that will allow for a periodic review of their pledges with the aim of incrementally doing more. We also hope that COP 21 can still agree on common rules, in implementation, reporting and accounting of the climate pledges.’’

Many developing countries have indicated that they will need support, to implement their plans. This is understandable, and also fair. Developed countries have a big historic responsibility as their past development endeavours have led to the emissions, which have largely contributed to the situation we are facing today. Poor countries will, apart from the challenges we see due to climate change, also have at address a range of other development needs, to help poor and vulnerable people fulfil their basic human rights.

There are only two months left before COP 21, and it is time for negotiations to deliver result.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says:

“Paris must be a success; not because we should give politicians and leaders a good reputation, not because Paris should be known as the city where the climate agreement was adopted, not because the UN process needs a success to survive, but because the people of the earth need it. COP 21 will certainly not solve everything, but it must deliver a strong stepping stone which can be used for scaled up action in the coming years.’’

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ACT Alliance is an international humanitarian and development network comprising 144 organisations working in 140 countries. ACT is behind the “Act now for Climate Justice” global campaign, www.actclimate.org

For more information, contact:

Mattias Söderberg, co-Chair of the Climate change advisory group, ACT Alliance,
msd@dca.dk, tel. +45 3315 2800, m. +45 2970 0609

Isaiah Toroitich, Global Advocacy and Policy Coordinator, ACT Alliance,
isaiah.toroitich@actalliance.org, tel. +41 22791 6245 m. +41 79825 7899

A gathering of faith based organisations in El Salvador has highlighted the vulnerability of the Central American region to the impacts of climate change, including loss and damage.

“The reality that climate change affects everyone, especially the poorest and most vulnerable populations confronts us a region that is often distressed by drought, floods, heat waves, loss of biodiversity, and other impacts of a changing climate,” said Carlos Rauda, the Regional Representative of ACT Alliance in Latin America.

Like other faith-based organisation in Central America, ACT Alliance has taken key steps to plan and implement strategic actions to respond to climate change and its impacts. These strategies include the requisite strengthening of capacities of communities to enable them to respond appropriately and in a timely manner.

“We believe that justice should be the guiding principle underpinning climate change negotiations. The outcome of the Paris COP21 could play an important role in the long journey towards transformation and sustainable development,” added Rauda.

There is a consensus among many faith based networks that the forthcoming Paris agreement should ensure the development of mechanisms to ensure ambitious action, rules of transparency and accountability for all.

As part of the “Act now for climate justice” campaign, supported by many national, regional and global ecumenical organisations, the meeting in El Salvador called on governments to do whatever it takes to curb carbon emissions in order to keep global warming well below 1.5 degrees centigrade and to provide adequate financing for adaptation, loss and damage and other climate action in developing countries.

“We recognise that addressing climate change and reducing its impact on communities should be a precondition for poverty reduction,” said Rauda.

__________

ACT Alliance is and international humanitarian and development network comprising 145 organisations working in 140 countries. Support climate justice by signing the campaign petition here: www.actclimate.org

For more information, contact: Carlos Rauda, Carlos.Rauda@actalliance.org

“Climate change denies people and communities the ability to overcome poverty. If we don’t urgently and adequately confront climate change, we cannot end poverty. Ending extreme poverty starts with addressing climate change, as a key pillar of our moral imperative,” the General Secretary of ACT alliance, John Nduna has said.

Nduna was speaking in New York as world leaders prepare to launch the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Extreme weather events linked to climate change are increasing and will undoubtedly cause more disasters, which in turn lead to impoverishment and undermine poverty reduction,” said Nduna.

The SDGs are the successors of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) whose 15 years term expires this year. As a set of universal goals, it is hoped that the SDGs will steer the world’s economy and politics into poverty eradication and sustainability.

“Poverty eradication and sustainability are the hallmark of climate justice. If it does not rain in sub-Saharan Africa, people cannot grow their food and sustain their lives and livelihoods. When it floods in Asia, communities lose their human rights and basic needs. When sea level rises in the Pacific, people lose their land and territories,” said Nduna.

ACT Alliance has over the last 5 years engaged in community mobilisation and high level political engagement on climate change since and is involved in both the SGDs and the UN climate negotiations, the two main international processes where climate policy and action is crafted.

ACT Alliance calls for immediate attention towards getting a fair and just climate agreement in Paris in December as a first important step in fulfilling the SDG’s. 

___________

ACT Alliance is and international humanitarian and development network comprising 145 organisations working in 140 countries. ACT is behind the “Act now for Climate Justice” global campaign, www.actclimate.org

For more information, contact: Isaiah Toroitich, ikt@actalliance.org

STATEMENT BY ACT ALLIANCE

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matthew 25:35)”

As of 24 August, refugee and migrant arrivals to Europe in 2015 hit 267,000 after death-defying journeys across sea and land. Less wealthy nations and developing countries take the biggest share of the millions of refugees worldwide, including 4 million Syrian people who found refuge in their region and UNHCR highlighted that major humanitarian operations supporting refugees – such as those for Syrian refugees hosted in the Middle East – are dramatically underfunded.

The majority of those taking the route to Europe are refugees coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Somalia and their numbers continue to rise rapidly. Most people arriving are fleeing war, conflict or persecution at home, as well as deteriorating conditions in many refugee-hosting countries and countries of transit which do not offer safety or the possibility to establish a new existence. The lack of a safe and legal path to Europe forces these people to take risks and forces many to rely on smugglers. This puts them in danger of falling prey to traffickers and other criminals and of losing their life. UNHCR estimates that in 2014 more than 3,000 women, children and men lost their lives in the Mediterranean alone.

Migration is part of the human condition and in this conflict torn world, it is inevitable. Therefore the long term investment in the development of a coherent EU migration policy that fully reflects the human rights of migrants as enshrined in both international and regional law must be prioritized.

As faith-based organisations we are deeply committed to the inviolable dignity of all individuals, as well as to the concepts of the common good, global solidarity and the promotion of a society that welcomes strangers. ACT Alliance members are providing humanitarian aid in the countries of origin such as Syria and Iraq, in neighbouring countries such as Turkey, and Lebanon, as well as increasingly in transit countries such as Greece, Serbia and Hungary.

The ACT Alliance calls on the EU to protect the dignity and rights of migrants in crises.[1] We share the conviction that the core values of the European Union must be reflected by day-to-day politics. The response by EU and its Member States to the current refugee crisis must be governed by the values of the Lisbon Treaty such as solidarity, respect for human rights and the rule of law.

EU Member States are bound by several international legal instruments[2] for the protection of refugees   which they have ratified, and by the right to asylum as laid down in European Union law (Article 18 of EU Fundamental Rights Charter).

It is against this background that we make the following recommendations for the development of safe and legal paths to protection in the European Union:

We call the EU and its Member States to take immediate action to:

• Consolidate and maintain concerted efforts to save the lives of migrants and refugees in jeopardy within and beyond EU borders and to increase the capacities for, preferably civilian, search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
• Put in place and finance legal and practical responses that respect the rights and dignity of persons seeking protection and improve their reception conditions – at least in line with EU minimum standards[3] – and to ease their access to asylum procedures in full respect and adherence to humanitarian principles and obligations according to international refugee law and international human rights law.
• Put in place adequate reception arrangements and policy measures to ensure safety and protection of unaccompanied children who e.g. in Italy, represent 8% of all refugees and migrants who have arrived in 2015.
• Considerably increase the places for the resettlement of refugees from different crisis regions to European states in line with UNHCR call to resettle 10 % of Syrian refugees outside the region, over and above a minimum annual resettlement quota for the EU. EU Member States need to come up with credible figures proving their commitment to share the responsibility to protect and the EU could – in addition to funding – offer expertise and policy coordination to encourage pledging of higher numbers.
• Put in place a fair and mandatory sharing of responsibility for refugee reception between EU Member States, and relocation and reception of refugees from Greece, Hungary and Italy to other EU Member States going beyond the pledges reached in July 2015.
• Maintain a regular dialogue and collaboration with civil society organisations, churches and other religious organisations which contribute to cover immediate basic needs, to provide counselling and legal advice to asylum seekers and monitor the situation both in Europe and in the regions in crisis.

We call the EU and its Member states to review their migration and asylum policies in order to:

• Suspend visa requirements for refugees from war areas and dictatorships like Syria and Eritrea. The majority of refugees receive protection status once they have arrived, but are prevented from travelling safely. Visa applications are cumbersome and lengthy, even for those entitled to join their families.
• Provide humanitarian visas for refugees from crisis regions and to use the discussion on a Commission proposal for a new Visa Code[4] in order to make existing provisions more effective for protection purposes.
• Ensure that asylum applications are examined in the country chosen by the asylum seeker and to move towards mutual recognition of positive asylum decisions within EU and Schengen Member States.
• As laid down in the EU Family Reunification Directive[5], be more flexible and offer more opportunities for family reunification for refugees.

Furthermore, in complementarity with measures undertaken in Europe, the EU and its Member States should invest more in relief and development initiatives, including those undertaken by civil society organisations, which improve the resilience and self-reliance of refugees and internally displaced populations in their region of origin. Financing refugees’ reception and settlement in Europe should not be at the expense of the development cooperation and humanitarian aid budgets and should be additional to Official Development Assistance (ODA).

EU Member States obligations and responsibility to provide protection and asylum must be complementary to foreign policy and development cooperation actions with the countries and the regions of origin and the international community to address the root and underlying causes of forced displacement and to find political solution to crises. Rights-based human security and human and social development offering real prospects for local populations and especially for the youth should be the core objectives of EU and Member States efforts in the countries and regions of origin. So that migration becomes a choice and not a necessity.

[1] https://info.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/sites/default/files/blog-downloads/act_alliance_call_migrants_in_crises.pdf

[2] In particular, Convention (1951) and protocol (1967) relating to the status of refugees

[3] Council Directive 2013/33/EU of 26 June 2013 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection

[4] European Commission, 1.4.2014: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Union Code on Visas (Visa Code) (recast), COM(2014) 164 final.

[5] Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification (OJ L 251, 3.10.2003, p. 12).

PRESS RELEASE

UN climate negotiations which are concluding today in Bonn, Germany, have not made significant progress towards the anticipated climate change agreement in Paris in December, ACT Alliance has said.

The international humanitarian and development network said that while negotiators from many countries participated with a good exchange of ideas on the different elements of the draft text under negotiation, the general slow pace meant that very little advanced into substantive negotiations.

“The sense of urgency required in view of the few months remaining before Paris in December, was simply not there,” said Mattias  Söderberg, chair of the ACT Alliance advisory group on climate change advocacy, who led the alliance delegation that attended the talks. “We cannot afford to delay the process, because the consequences would be unbearable for the efforts towards climate action. Therefore  we keep calling on governments to step up and use the next –  and final – session of negotiations in October meaningfully.”

Söderberg highlighted that some progress has been achieved in the negotiations relating to loss and damage and applauded this, stating: “We hope the governments will find a way to include it as part of the Paris agreement.”

However, he added: “We expected more progress in this session considering that parties had a text which had been prepared by the co-chairs  in good time. Having followed these meetings we see no credible justification for the delays and lack of meaningful steps forward. Now, we can only hope that previous failures in the UN talks, similar to what we saw in Copenhagen 2009, will not be repeated.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. ACT Alliance is a network of over 140 church and faith based organisations working together in 140 countries to achieve sustainable change in the lives of people affected by crisis, disasters, poverty and injustice.
   
2. For more information contact Mattias Söderberg on +45 29700609 or on Twitter: Mattias_S

Further advocacy on the post-2015 negotiations and Paris Climate Change agreement is urgently needed to redouble pressure following the disappointing outcome of the UN Financing for development deal discussed in Ethiopia this week, ACT Alliance has said.

Global rallying cry

Supporting a global rallying cry, the international humanitarian and development network said that while previous inter-governmental processes had indicated that the challenges to secure the best possible outcomes of the post-2015 negotiations and the Paris Climate Change Agreement would be faced at this final meeting, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) outcome document does not identify development finance as people-centered and environmental-protection oriented.

Speaking from the event, which took place from 13-16 July,  ACT General Secretary John Nduna said:

“The outcome document does not rise to the current challenges facing a majority of the world’s population, particularly those living in poverty or in a state of vulnerability. Nor does it contain the necessary leadership, ambition or practical actions for states to make poverty eradication or sustainable development actions effectual. The conference lost the opportunity to tackle the structural injustices rampant in the current global economic system.”

Undermining pre-existing agreements

Nduna went on to highlight that the outcome undermined pre-existing agreements in the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration, stating that the Addis Ababa Action Agenda is “almost entirely devoid of deliverables.”

“ACT Alliance regrets that the negotiations have diminished the Finance for Development (FfD) mandate, which was previously intended to address international systemic issues on the macroeconomic level, such as trade, tax, and global monetary policies,” Nduna said.

No momentum to scale up resources

“The Addis Ababa Action Agenda does not build momentum to scale-up existing resources for sustainable development in any form, be it the form of official development assistance (ODA), in support of a robust democratic multilateral discourse- for tax or any other form of domestic resource mobilisation, or in capacity generation to better align the interests of states to their people,” he concluded.