International Day of Mother Earth

Facing the global crisis of CoVid19, it is essential to reinforce the global cooperation and care for the environment

always suffered by other people thanks to economic and technical means that helped us to solve all the problems. As the Pope recently reminded us "we have not woken up to the wars and injustices of the world, we have not heard the cry of the poor and of our seriously ill planet. We have continued to be unperturbed, thinking of always remaining healthy in a sick world".

This crisis has accentuated the value of human life, shaking us with every number of deaths and making us aware of the care needed by those who are most vulnerable. We feel that a sense of universal fraternity has swept across the planet and we hope that this temporary confinement has brought about a real change in our lives and in our perception of the world, making finally us conscious we are one human family living together on one planet.

This universal pandemic has made "Everything is connected" message from Laudato si' and Querida Amazonia resound in us more strongly than ever: "Just as the different aspects of the planet - physical, chemical and biological - are interrelated, so too living species are part of a network which we will never fully explore and understand" (LS, 138)

We are experiencing in this crisis our fragility, interconnectedness and interdependence. The suffering that affects some people today will affect others tomorrow, and so we must also share knowledge, resources and means to strengthen the bonds of universal cooperation that demonstrate the strength of our connection. The resurgence of some countries should be a future hope for others if we exercise solidarity.

VIOLATION OF RIGHTS

Seeing our overcrowded hospitals, we could vaguely experience what people experience every day in other countries: dying from diseases because of not having enough medical personnel, medicines or hygienic conditions. When we have feared that we would not find food in the supermarkets, we have been able to sense the situation of other people who do not have the necessary food on a daily basis.

We need to promote the rule of law, effective and transparent institutions and protect fundamental freedoms in order to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. That is why we denounce the measures taken by States to address and contain the virus, which are generating conducive situations to governments violating fundamental social and individual rights and freedoms and circumventing the necessary transparency and accountability.

We are concerned about the management of the emergency in many countries to ensure confinement, which at the same time is serving for repression and control of territory. We are concerned about the insecurity and violation of the human rights of migrants who are subjected to greater migratory containment and rejection caused by fear of contagion, the lack of guarantee of food security, the lack of control over speculation on the prices of basic foodstuffs and shortages, as well as the social violence that will result in the inability to confine sectors that need a daily income.

We do not want our own experience of COVID-19 to prevent us from looking and working against the havoc that is already wreaking the pandemic on impoverished countries, which are living in an almost permanent "state of alarm". The coronavirus crisis highlights the inequalities between countries and today more than ever we are aware that there are things that cannot be subjected to the logic of the market: the value of human life, the protection of every human being, the universality of health system and the care for the most vulnerable people and for the planet.

COOPERATION AND ENVIRONMENT

From «Connect yourself for Justice» we do not want this crisis and state of alarm to put the Climate Emergency we are living in second place and to reverse the timid steps that governments and national and international institutions were taking to protect the planet from its deterioration and its effect on people. A damage caused, almost always, by unfair and unsustainable ways of understanding the economy, welfare and growth.

We must continue betting on an integral ecology, which understands the preservation of the planet as an intrinsic part of our human condition. We need to persevere in the defense of the planet and the initiatives launched by the European Union such as the Green Deal or the forthcoming Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition at a state level.

We need to intensify our individual and community efforts at national and international levels, to achieve sustainable development by taking care not to leave anyone behind and persevere in achieving the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda.

From «Connect yourself for Justice» we join Pope Francis in asking the leaders of the European Union and the rest of the world for creative solutions to this crisis; such as the cancellation of the Foreign Debt of highly indebted impoverished countries, an end to armed conflicts and the arms trade, and the proposal of a universal wage.

The organizations, that form this alliance and that develop the campaign "If you take care of the planet, you fight poverty", renew our commitment to work harder for universal justice, the attention of the most vulnerable people, global cooperation, the defense of human rights, sustainable development and the care of our planet in order to face the crisis of the system that Covid-19 has presented to us.