EarthAction

Win! The UN Acts to End Slavery in Conflict

Photo Credit: freedomunited.org

We're delighted to join our partners in the win! The UN is taking action to secure justice for victims of modern slavery in conflict.

Finally, after impressive efforts in the pursuit of justice, especially by our partner Yazda and Nadia Murad, strengthened by more than three years campaigning and 287,451 actions from Freedom United supporters, the UN Security Council has passed resolution 2379. This paves the way for securing justice for victims of modern slavery and crimes against humanity, perpetrated by ISIS in Iraq.

Yazda and Nadia Murad have sent us this message:

"We thank each and every one of the many thousands of Freedom United supporters who joined this effort. Knowing we had your support gave us strength."

We launched our first campaign back in August 2014. We could not ignore the horrors experienced by the minority Yazidi population following the fall of Mosul in Iraq. Our campaign called for ISIS to be held accountable for modern slavery, including forced marriage and sexual slavery, in Iraq. Seeing the dire lack of protection for those in conflict zones, in December 2015, we launched a second campaign calling for the creation of a UN special representative to tackle slavery in conflict, collecting 185,010 signatures.

Since then we’ve climbed lots of steps to reach our goal:

• The first ever UN debate on slavery in conflict at the Security Council
• We handed in 89,254 signatures to the President of the UN Security Council
• We brought together 2,837 people on social media, reaching 1,374,341 to raise awareness and build support for the UN Security Council debate
• Over 20 supporters joined us in New York and watched the UN Security Council unanimously pass resolution 2331 calling for member states to take action
• Nadia Murad and our partner Yazda addressed the UN Security Council

Resolution 2379, tabled by the UK, was passed unanimously last Thursday. It calls on the UN Secretary-General to establish an Investigative Team, headed by a Special Adviser, to support efforts to hold ISIS to account in Iraq.

Even when success is slow to achieve, our partners don’t give up and neither should we.

Please share the news on Twitter and Facebook!

In solidarity,

Joanna, Miriam, Kat and the whole Freedom United team

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September 26th: Reach High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World

credit: unfoldzero.org

September 26 has been chosen by the United Nations to be the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day)

On this day, join parliamentarians, mayors, religious communities, youth, artists, activists, and others around the world to Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

• Take a photo of yourself, or you and others, on a high place or reaching high, or lifting a peace sign/object up high;
• Post your photo on social media with the hashtags #ReachHIGH2018, #Sep26dontNukeUs, #abolishnukes, and/or #YouthAgainstNukes.

Contact UNFOLD ZERO for a sample peace sign to use in your action.

Credit: unfoldzero.org

Promote a nuclear-weapon-free-world

Reach HIGH for a nuclear-weapon-free world aims to raise awareness about the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, and to push governments to adopt significant nuclear disarmament measures at the conference. These could include:

• Non-nuclear governments ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
• Nuclear-armed countries announcing reductions in stockpiles and an end to nuclear modernization;
• Nuclear-armed and allied States adopting a no-first-use declaration, and agreeing on a framework for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world;
• Starting negotiations for nuclear-weapon-free zones in North East Asia and the Middle East.

Call on your government to attend at the highest level

The best way to ensure success of the 2018 UN High Level Conference is for governments to attend at the highest level (Prime Minister/President or Foreign Minister). If they do this, there is every expectation that they will adopt, or make significant progress on, nuclear disarmament at the conference.

Click here for a sample letter to your government. And remember to keep watching www.unfoldzero.org for updates and events.

Basel Declaration on Trans-Generational Crimes of Nuclear Weapons & Nuclear Energy

Participants of the Basel Conference on Human Rights, Future Generations, and Crimes in the Nuclear Age. Credit: IPPNW.org

The participants in the international conference Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes in the Nuclear Age, held in Basel from September 14-17, 2017, affirm that the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear energy, which are both transnational and trans-generational, constitute a violation of human rights, a transgression of international humanitarian and environmental law, and a crime against future generations.

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A new form of protest

Credit: TheFreeThoughtProject.com

110 Organisations from 44 Countries Call for Diplomacy on Korea Nuke Issue

Source: Abolition2000.org

The United States and North Korea should step back from the brink of war in North East Asia, and instead adopt a diplomatic approach to prevent war, according to an appeal sent yesterday to these two governments, and to the UN Security Council, by members and affiliates of the Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons.

110 organisations and over 200 additional civil society representatives from 44 countries endorsed the appeal. It highlights 'the increasing risk of war - and possibly even the use of nuclear weapons by miscalculation, accident, or intent,' calls for 'immediate commencement of negotiations to prevent a military conflict from erupting,' and urges 'the UN Security Council to prioritise a diplomatic solution to the conflict.'

Endorsers of the appeal included parliamentarians, mayors/city representatives, scientists, academics, business leaders, medical professionals, veterans, educators/teachers, Nobel Peace Laureates, Right Livelihood Award laureates (the 'alternative Nobel Peace Prize'), religious leaders, artists, nuclear victims, lawyers, women's organisations, youth, former UN officials & diplomats, NGO leaders and other civil society campaigners.

'Diplomacy with North Korea has worked in the past, and could succeed again if the security concerns of all countries in the region are taken into consideration,' said Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation (PNND) and coordinator of the appeal. 'This could include negotiations for a North East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, which appears to have cross-party support from three key countries - Japan, South Korea and North Korea.'

'We support the call for a negotiated settlement of the dispute between Korea and USA, Japan, South Korea and neighboring countries with a view to secession of nuclear testing in the interests of humanity and protection of the planet,' said Ela Gandhi (South Africa), Grand-daughter of Mohandas Gandhi and Co-President of Religions for Peace.

'We support this call for a diplomatic approach for North Korea,' said Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and member of Women Cross DMZ, a group of women who walked from North Korea to South Korea in support of peace. 'As we experienced during our visit to North Korea, the people want peace not war.'

'I feel sad for the ordinary folk who live in North Korea,' said Karipbek Kuyukov (Kazakhstan), a second generation victim of nuclear tests and Honorary Ambassador of the ATOM Project. 'We [in the USSR] went through that too. We thought having weapons of mass destruction means being stronger and more powerful, but it is like an illusion. It is like carrying a huge rock up a steep mountain.'

The appeal also opposes any pre-emptive use of force by any of the parties, calls on all parties to refrain from militaristic rhetoric and provocative military exercises, and welcomes the offers by the UN Secretary-General and the European Foreign Minister to assist negotiations to resolve the conflict.

UNFOLD ZERO, an affiliate of Abolition 2000, joins others in the Abolition 2000 network to promote this appeal.

By Alyn Ware, on behalf of the UNFOLD ZERO team

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China Hosts First Global Environmental Summit on Desertification

Photo: Greentumble.com

For many years the EarthAction Network worked with its 2,500 partner NGOs in more than 160 countries to encourage nations to write, ratify, and fully implement the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Below is an update on this critically

important UN Treaty.Ordos, 06/06/17 - Zhang Jianlong, Minister of State Forestry Administration, China, this morning opened the first ever United Nations conference on sustainable development hosted in China. The thirteenth session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is taking place from 6-16 September, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

The 196 country Parties attending the session are expected to agree on a 12-year Strategy to contain runaway land degradation that is threatening global food and water supply.

Ministers are expected to announce their targets for land restoration and agree on measures to address the related emerging threats of forced migration, sand and dust storms, and on actions to strengthen resilience to droughts.

Close to 80 ministers are expected to attend the Conference during the high-level segment, when most of the emerging issues will be addressed and country commitments of the targets will be announced.

Speach: Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, UNCCD
Press Conference: Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, UNCCD

About UNCCD: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement on land issues. The Convention promotes good land stewardship. It's 196 Parties aim, through partnerships, to implement the Convention and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The end goal is to protect our land, from overuse and drought, so it can continue to provide us all with food, water and energy. By sustainably managing land and striving to achieve land degradation neutrality, now and in the future, we will reduce the impact of climate change, avoid conflict over natural resources and help communities to thrive.

Glass Cleaner: Reflecting the Inspiration We Find in the World

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton

It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell

I’m sitting in the office early on a beautiful Sunday morning in New York, sifting through seemingly endless lists of “inspiring” quotations, hoping to locate one or more offering a bit more insight into what “inspiration” actually requires — why we in the NGO world need to address our own inspiration needs; but also why it is such an important (if often overlooked) aspect of our work that we are willing to offer inspiration for and/or “reflect forward” the inspiration provided by others.

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By Dr. Robert Zuber