Press releases

In reaction to the Security Council passing its Coronavirus Ceasefire Resolution, Oxfam’s Head of Humanitarian Campaigns and Advocacy, Fionna Smyth, said: “The UN Security Council’s unanimous vote to support the UN Secretary Generals call for a global ceasefire and to help fight COVID-19 is welcome —and is long overdue."

This serious—and likely irreversible— plan to acquire occupied territory by force is a violation of the most basic principles of international law. 

The pledges made by donor governments are simply not enough to address the Syrian crisis, said Oxfam in reaction to the outcome of the Brussels IV conference on Syria and the region.

Syrians who have already endured almost a decade of war and displacement are now facing unprecedented levels of hunger leaving millions of people acutely vulnerable to Covid-19, international agencies warned today ahead of a key annual conference on the crisis.

People seeking safety are trapped at borders across Eastern Africa due to COVID-19 measures.

Forty-three percent of women surveyed across five countries reported feeling more anxious, depressed, isolated, overworked, or ill because they are having to shoulder even more unpaid care work as a result of the coronavirus crisis, said Oxfam today. 

“It’s deeply concerning that the number of forcibly displaced people has increased for the tenth year in a row to yet another record level. In addition to the violence, persecution, and hardship that these people are fleeing, many are now also facing the threat of the global coronavirus pandemic in overcrowded camps without enough clean water or health facilities", said Fionna Smyth, Oxfam’s Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, in response to the launch of the UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report today.

In reaction to the reprehensible attack that killed 13 civilians, including children, in the north of Yemen yesterday, Oxfam and seven other international agencies working in Yemen strongly condemned the attack.

In reaction to the postponement of the Sahel donor conference, which was due to take place on 18 June, Oxfam together with Action Against Hunger, CARE International, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Save the Children, warned of a "hunger pandemic" in the Sahel on top of multiple crises, particularly as a result of COVID-19, conflict and the onset of the lean season.  24 million people (included children) are already in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

"The IFC can’t simply wash its hands of responsibility for upholding its own policies. There must be reparations for the damages caused," said Christian Donaldson, Oxfam International’s Senior Advisor on International Financial Institutions, in response to he publication today of an independent investigation into a hydroelectric dam project in Guatemala that found the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, was negligent in preventing harm to indigenous communities.