Throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, there is no dearth of stories where communities have been forced to leave their lands to make way for government-sanctioned and corporate-driven natural resource extraction. You would not need to look far to find communities in areas where such projects in the name of development are taking place. Communities…
Read moreIn 2000, the United Nations (UN) held a Millennium Summit and in its Millennium Declaration adopted the eight international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. As 2015 drew to a close, at the Rio+20 meeting (2012), the document, “The Future we want”, called for the formulation of sustainable development goals, as a continuation of the MDGs. In 2014, the UN Open…
Read moreSister Nathalie Kangaji has never been ready to accept injustice. She has been fighting for ten years as coordinator of the Legal Aid Center (CAJJ) in Kolwezi, in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for the rights of the most disadvantaged who are facing multinational corporations, including Swiss based Glencore, acting in…
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I arrived among the Nuer in November 2005. It was my first mission assignment. I had expectantly waited for that moment throughout many years of training. Now I was there and my first concern was learning the language. I did not hide my trepidation: it was my first non-European language. My confreres were very helpful…
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“I have nothing, I own nothing, I do not want anything, I have fought all my life for a complete but responsible political liberty. To the loss of economic freedom, towards which we are moving ahead in Italy, it will follow an actual loss of political freedom, even if the elective forms of an apparent…
Read moreHunger and homelessness continued to rise in major North American cities. Unemployment, employment-related problems, and low-paying jobs are likely contributing to hunger. High housing costs cause lack of affordable housing and are a source of mental illness. Social problems arise from substance abuse while emergency shelters turned away many from family life. The millions who…
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It all started when someone stood up saying, “In Liberia there is private land, public land, community’s land and Government’s land”. Surprised I investigated and I found an amazing answer. I was brought back to when “The statutory tenure system was introduced in the early 1800s by the American Colonization Society (ACS), which purchased land…
Read moreThe tenure of agricultural land is at the core of many disputes and advocacy actions nowadays. The common lands tenure is foreseen as the only way to counteract land grabbing. Such a common tenure, however, was put aside when Roman law Act introduced the concept of dominium and exploded in our modern times with the…
Read moreBnai Keshet is a Jewish community founded in 1978, and at the same time a Synagogue. It defines itself as representative of the broader community: mature couples, singles, “traditional” Jewish families, interfaith families, and gay and lesbian Jews. It is now renovating an apartment with the support of partners, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Montclair (UUCM),…
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Henri Burin des Roziers was a French Dominican, who in Brazil was called the advocate of “the landless”. He died Sunday, November 26th, 2017 at the age of 87 in the Saint-Jacques convent of Paris even though he would have liked to be in Brazil when “death surprises him.” Born in Paris in 1930, from…
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The river is sacred to the Kukama people, who believe that their ancestors reside on the river floor. They are ready to protect the Marañón…
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Like the other farmers, Taro also grew rice, wheat, and vegetables, living in peace and contentment. However, things never remain the same. One time, there was no rainfall,…
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From 24 to 27 July, hundreds of young people from the Comboni youth movements across Europe will gather in Milan, Verona, and Florence, Italy, in preparation…
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