*** NJPN Action of the Week *** Mental Health cuts
The government’s changing the rules so that people with mental health problems can’t get essential financial support called Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This is money that helps people pay for carers or therapy sessions. In other words, money needed to live with dignity.
Changing rules which change people’s lives shouldn’t be easy. It needs a proper, democratic vote in Parliament. It would be impossible for any of us to make it happen by ourselves. But that’s why thousands and thousands of us work together as part of 38 Degrees. If each of us signs the petition right now, it’ll be the first step in stopping the government sneaking these cuts through behind closed doors.
Please add your name now – it only takes a minute:
SIGN PETITION HERE
UN: World faces largest humanitarian crisis since 1945,
Stephen O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, states that; “The famine in South Sudan is man-made,” adding that “Parties to the conflict are parties to the famine – as are those not intervening to make the violence stop.”
Read more here
New economics Foundation: budget dodged the big issues
Marc Stears, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation states that
“We’re facing the biggest economic challenge in decades. Work is precarious, wages are below pre-crash levels, the housing crisis is worsening and inflation looming.
Now is not the time to ignore these challenges and hope trouble will pass. Now is not the time to wait and see. But that is exactly what the Chancellor did in his Budget”
Read the report here
WCC gravely concerned over Israel’s travel ban
The World Council of Churches (WCC) today expressed grave concern about a new law passed on Monday by the Knesset which reportedly forbids granting entry visas to foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The ‘Entry to Israel Act (Denial of Visa to Non-Residents Who Knowingly Call for a Boycott on Israel)’ apparently makes no distinction between boycotting Israel proper and boycotting products of the settlements, which are widely considered illegal under international law.
Read more here
We Rise: Global Justice Now Youth Network
Join the Global Justice Now Youth Network on Saturday 1 April for a day of discussion, debate, live performance and movement building.
More information here
WCC general secretary joins UN dialogue on interreligious peace
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit joined other speakers at a side event of the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council on 7 March. The speakers, which also included Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, addressed the topic of “Mutual Respect and Peaceful Coexistence as a Condition of Interreligious Peace and Stability: Supporting Christians and Other Communities.”
Tveit noted that, in respecting one another’s identities and faith, people are also called to respect each others’s basic needs. In many parts of the world, where Christians and others are suffering from persecution and violence, this is not the case.
“This is a reality that we all have to deal with in a responsible manner,” he said, and meeting together to share ideas and mutual respect is one important approach. At the event, speakers represented many faith groups from across the world.
In some countries, we have seen grave conflict but now we have a new opportunity to address issues of injustice in a comprehensive and collaborative way, Tveit said. It will take international support and collaboration to bring a sense of security to different faith groups in countries such as Iraq and Syria.
“I don’t want to call them minorities,” Tveit said. “They belong in these countries. It is their home.”
The right to believe in God the way you want, and practice a faith the way you believe is a basic human right, Tveit noted. “It’s connected to the need for protection, for social security, for water, for food, for everything that is basic to our human lives.”
Citizenship – an equal citizenship – is a necessary, sustainable solution for peacebuilding, he continued. “We cannot categorize one another and give some rights to others and other rights to others.”
He shared the WCC’s vision for a pilgrimage of justice and peace, and urged continued work together in the future. “We cannot secure human rights and the justice we need without real peace,” he said.
More information here
See also
NJPN supports NHS demonstration
One of the home-made banners at the march for the NHS last Saturday (4 March) reminded us that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’. Perhaps we take for granted the blessing of a health service into which we pay according to our means and from which we receive health care according to our needs, regardless of our ability to pay. That is why I was among the (at least) 200,000 people taking part in the march along with National Justice & Peace Network Exec member Kevin Burr, carrying our NJPN flags.
The march made its way from the home of the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square through central London, along Whitehall (past the Ministry of Defence where only a few days before I had been part of the Ash Wednesday witness against our nuclear war preparations, for which, it seems, we can always find the money) and down to Parliament Square. There we were addressed by, among others, local health campaigners, student nurses, actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, Jeremy Corbyn, Billy Bragg.
The NHS is in crisis due to years of cuts and re-organisations, debts created by the Private Finance Initiative, staffing cuts and the knock-on effects of the underfunding of social care. The private sector is already involved and a hasty trade deal with the USA could open up the NHS to wholesale privatisation. Local ‘sustainabilty and transformation plans’ appear to be a way to force cuts to local health services. Despite a promise to train 10,000 more nurses, the withdrawal of the bursary for nursing students has led to a drop in applications. And there was a strong message in support of migrant workers on whom our NHS depends; the government’s refusal to guarantee the status of EU citizens living in the UK leaves many of those workers in a state of uncertainty which may cause them to leave.
The march was organised by left-wing groups (The People’s Assembly, Health Campaigns United and Unite) so perhaps that is why there was no visible presence of faith groups (that I was aware of). But surely the defence of the NHS in which so many people of faith work and have helped to build is one campaign that calls for a broad alliance in which faith groups should be involved. Not least because they’ll be the ones asked to pick up the pieces once it’s gone.
Ann Kelly 6.3.17
*** NJPN Action of the Week *** Demand Action to Stop Yemen Famine
World Beyond War is urging non-U.S. countries on the UN Security Council to demand immediate Security Council action to stop the fighting in Yemen so that humanitarian aid can get through, the UN’s warning of famine will be averted, and hundreds of thousands of children will be saved from starvation.
World beyond War urges citizens of these countries to urgently contact their governments to demand that their governments press for immediate Security Council action to stop the fighting and allow humanitarian aid to get through.
The non-U.S. countries on the Security Council are: China, France, Russia, the UK, Bolivia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine, and Uruguay.
See Red Cross appeal here:
NJPN North West Justice & Peace E-Bulletin March 2017
The monthly e-bulletin for the North West is now available to download. This publication is produced jointly by the dioceses of Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
In this latest edition the Most Rev. Robert W. McElroy bishop of San Diego, California calls for the American people to “explore deeply the nature of both nationalism and patriotism and to evaluate them in the light of our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ, highlighting links to Catholic social teaching”
The bulletin also raises many aspects of the refugee situation, globally as well as nationally and the range of possibilities for action,
Download here: NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin March 2017
The Great Get Together is taking place on 17-18 June this summer. The event is being organised by the family and friends of Jo Cox and coincides with the anniversary of Jo’s death.
The Great Get Together hopes to be a national moment of unity with people and communities coming together to share food in barbecues, bake offs, street parties and more. It’s completely non-partisan and open to all.
The Great Get Together already has the support of a growing coalition of organisations including The Big Lunch, The Women’s Institute, Girlguiding, The Scouts, The Premier League, The Royal British Legion, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and other faith representatives.
There are four key ways your organisation can get involved and I very much hope you will:
You’ll find all the details of how to do these and much more here:
The Great Get Together and the four ways your organisation can get involved
I hope your organisation can lend its support.
With every best wish,
Sir Stuart Etherington
NCVO Chief Executive
