Immigration & Peacemkaing Updates: Resources from Partner Organizations

Interfaith Worker Justice is holding a National Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice July 29-August 1 and invites all to participate. Click to download their resource, Immigration Through the Lens of Faith (PDF).

From Pax Christi USA:  The plenary address (PDF) by Elena Segura, director of the Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigrant Education in the Archdiocese of Chicago, given on July 17 at Pax Christi USA’s national conference. It is entitled, "Know Justice, Know Peace: Ending War at Home and Abroad."

Proclaiming Good News!:
FAN Members Promote Peace, Care for Creation in DRC
New financial reform law includes FAN supported Congo minerals provision

by Christy Elliott
FAN Creation Action Fellow

On June 24, the celebration of the birth of St. John the Baptist, FAN members in key States honored his witness as a voice crying out in the wilderness by urging their Senators to include the Congo conflict minerals amendment in the final Financial Reform bill. Franciscans are called to reverence the dignity of the human person and to approach natural resources with gratitude rather than greed. In the DRC, illegal exploitation of creation contributes to the violent abuse and even destruction of human life.

Violent conflict in the Eastern DRC has killed millions and displaced more than 1.7 million persons; an estimated 400,000 women and girls have been raped there in the past ten years. Armed groups’ control over lucrative mines and mineral trade routes in the region finances much of the instability, displacement, conflict, and sexual violence. One “conflict mineral” is coltan, a critical component for the production of cell phones, laptops, and other electronics. Much of the DRC’s coltan is illicitly mined in conflict zones and illegally exported through neighboring countries. 

The evening of June 24, the House-Senate Conference Committee reconciling the Financial Reform bill included the Congo conflict minerals provisions which FAN members support. The provisions require companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to report annually whether the products they manufacture are “conflict free” in order to reduce the demand for minerals that are illicitly mined and sold on the international market by armed groups operating in Congo. The Conference Committee also included additional provisions that reach beyond Congo and require companies to disclose the payments they make to foreign governments for the natural resources they extract. Greater transparency will help local communities to hold their governments accountable for the stewardship of income generated by natural resources.

The final reconciled financial reform bill. under the title Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed the Congress last week and is due to be signed by the President the week of July 19.