Calling for UN Accountability
This past Monday the Haiti Advocacy Working Group hosted a panel on the cholera epidemic, introduced to Haiti by United Nations peacekeepers, that has killed almost 8500 Haitians to date.
Quixote Center works to influence United States policies that impact the people we work with. We advocate with Congress and the Administration to change US foreign policies that exacerbate extreme poverty and vulnerability in Haiti and Nicaragua. Extreme poverty, violence, and vulnerability lead families to make the heartbreaking decision to migrate, to the United States or elsewhere. We work to address these root causes when they have a US policy solution. We also advocate for immigration policies in the United States that promote the dignity of migrants, focusing on preserving the asylum system.
Our current priorities include:
Quixote Center impacts policies through:
You can view a recent webinar on Weapons Trafficking to Haiti here.
This past Monday the Haiti Advocacy Working Group hosted a panel on the cholera epidemic, introduced to Haiti by United Nations peacekeepers, that has killed almost 8500 Haitians to date.
The horrific disaster in the Philippines has rocked political boats around the world. This kind of devastation is predicted to become more frequent as the Earth's climate continues changing. Even if the Conference on Climate Change takes drastic action (which no reasonable observers expect), the train has left the station on emissions levels, and many scientists now argue that we are barreling past tipping points in climate change.
The horrific disaster in the Philippines has rocked political boats around the world. This kind of devastation is predicted to become more frequent as the Earth's climate continues changing. Even if the Conference on Climate Change takes drastic action (which no reasonable observers expect), the train has left the station on emissions levels, and many scientists now argue that we are barreling past tipping points in climate change.
The Food Aid Reform is moving and shaking! Here at the Quixote Center we have been meeting and collaborating with other lobbyists to follow Congress’ movements as Food Aid Reform negotiations start. Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY), the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote an op-ed that provides some great points on food aid reform, and even specifies Haiti. Here are our two favorite points:
On Monday, November 11 the 19th “Conference of Parties” of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-19) began in Warsaw, Poland. Negotiators are working toward a draft agreement with mandatory emission targets scheduled to be signed in Paris during COP-21 in 2015.
Are you tired of watching CSI and wondering what it would be like to solve a real crime?? HERE IS YOUR CHANCE!
Last week the Workers Rights Consortium issued a report on garment factories in Haiti that sew for major U.S. brands. The report found:
…garment factory owners in Haiti routinely, and illegally, cheat workers of substantial portions of their pay, depriving them of any chance to free their families from lives of grueling poverty and frequent hunger.
The Worker Rights Consortium has released a new report that shows Haitian garment factory workers are routinely denied the minimum wage guaranteed by law: Scott Nova, the consortium’s executive director, said in an interview:
This week a lawsuit on behalf of victims of the reintroduction of cholera to Haiti was filed in New York against the United Nations. The source of the infections has been traced to Nepalese peacekeepers whose camp sanitation facilities were inadequate. The camp bordered a tributary of the Arbonite river, Haiti's largest, and waste from infected peacekeepers spread the disease downstream.
[Original post, September 24, 2013, Updated September 26, 2013 - see below]
The articulation of visions of a new world into the language of dreams results from the inadequacy of dominant language/culture to otherwise give expression to these visions. Liberation theologist Leonardo Boff says of dreams, they claim the impossible in order to create more space for what is possible. They do so not by flights of fantasy, but taking the world as it is and then turning the dominant language back on itself. Dr.
Pope Francis made the following statement on Syria this past Sunday, September 1, 2013.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hello!