Campaign successes

Debt campaigners commemorate the anniversary of the 1998 Birmingham Human Chain by linking arms around St Philip's Cathedral [Marcus Perkins/Tearfund]

Campaigning works! CAFOD campaigns have successfully tackled some of the big issues of global poverty and injustice - and won.

Cleaning up the computer industry

CAFOD's former campaign continues to impact on the electronics industry. Local partners have kept up the pressure on computer manufacturers to respect workers’ rights.

New report from Mexico exposes workers' rights abuses >>

Since CAFOD’s Clean Up Your Computer campaign, leading electronics companies have introduced their own industry standard and tightened conditions along their supply chain. This includes big names Microsoft, Intel, HP and IBM.

CAFOD and its partners recognise computer companies’ efforts at improving employment practices. But reports continue of sexual harassment, low wages, instability and lack of trade union freedom. CAFOD continues to accompany partners in negotiations with electronics firms.

Drop the debt and Make Poverty History

For more than ten years, inspired by the Church's teachings on Jubilee, CAFOD supporters have been at the forefront of the campaign to drop the debt

• 420,000 CAFOD supporters signed the Jubilee 2000 petition
• They were among 70,000 people who formed a giant human chain around the G8 in Birmingham in 1998
• In 2005, more than 700 parishes were represented in Edinburgh as a quarter of a million rallied to make poverty history

Faced with this pressure, world leaders acted.

Debt success 1: The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC – started in 1996) was expanded following the Cologne G8 Summit in 1999 with pledges of US$100 billion from G8 governments. A further US$50 billion was pledged at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005.

Debt success 2: Most of the larger bilateral creditors, including all of the G7 countries, agreed to cancel most if not all of the debts owed to them by the HIPC countries, and in some cases other low-income countries as well.

Debt success 3: In September 2004, the UK Government earmarked £100 million a year to pay off ten per cent of the debts that the poorest countries owe to the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Debt success 4: In June 2005, G7 finance ministers agreed for the first time to the principle of total debt cancellation of multilateral debts - those owed to the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank - by an initial 18 poor countries with a further 11 eligible in future Despite these achievements, debt cancellation needs to go much further. CAFOD wants the rich world to make debt cancellation:

• deeper – 100 per cent should mean 100 per cent for all governments and institutions
• wider – more poor countries should get debts cancelled
• fairer – debt relief should not be tied to economic conditions that harm the poor

Workers’ rights

CAFOD campaigners have pushed for a better deal for garment and shoe workers by:

• sending cards to their favourite high-street shops to call for a fair deal for the workers who made their clothes
• telling shoppers how their clothes are made – from lively information stalls to playing games about making trainers.

Many High Street stores and companies – from Marks & Spencer to Levi Strauss – signed up to the Ethical Trading Initiative to ensure their workers get good working conditions and fair pay.

Landmines

CAFOD campaigners, as part of Landmine Action, helped to ban landmines worldwide by:

• sending 64,000 postcards to the Ministry of Defence
• showing the problems of landmines alongside CAFOD partners from Cambodia.

In 1999, 40 governments ratified the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the manufacture, trade and use of anti-personnel landmines. Now 144 countries have signed up to the treaty.

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Last chance action on the Climate Bill

MPs are voting on the Climate Change Bill in October - we still need them to push for the UK to cut its emissions by at least 80%
Please email your MP now

Stop dangerous mines - email your pension fund

If 6,000 people email their pension fund, we could have £540m of financial power to pressure mining companies with - so, as well as taking action yourself, please send the action to up to six friends