Press releases

The European Parliament voted on its EU budget for aid and foreign policy (NDICI). In response to the vote, Evelien van Roemburg, Oxfam EU Head of Office said: "This new financial instrument stands a real chance at combatting poverty and inequality which has leapt during the pandemic."

The economies of the G7 nations could see an average loss of 8.5 percent annually by 2050 ―equivalent to $4.8 trillion― if leaders do not take more ambitious action to tackle climate change, according to Oxfam’s analysis of research by the Swiss Re Institute. Oxfam is calling on G7 leaders, who are meeting in the UK later this week, to cut carbon emissions more quickly and steeply.

Responding to the announcement today that the G7 will back a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent, Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Fixing a global minimum corporate tax rate of just 15 percent is far too low. It will do little to end the damaging race to the bottom on corporate tax and curtail the widespread use of tax havens."

More than a million people have died from COVID since G7 leaders last met back in February, when they made vague pledges to increase the global vaccine supply, but crucially failed to collectively back the waiver of intellectual property rules and investment in manufacturing vaccines in developing countries that would really make the difference.

Today, EU negotiators struck an agreement on the public Country-by-Country Reporting proposal. The deal means companies with operations in the EU will be required to publish information on how much tax they pay in EU countries and non-EU countries that are on the EU’s black or grey list. Information on other non-EU countries will only be available on an aggregated global basis. 

Oxfam confirms the death of colleague Fathi Mahmoud Ali Salem Al-Zurigi in Yemen on the evening of Tuesday May 25, after a shooting incident on Monday May 24. 

Oxfam has joined 14 NGOs to push the European Commission to keep to its commitment to reform the role of company directors to make big companies more accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains, and more sustainable – a key move in light of current challenges such as the climate crisis and a growing gap between the rich and the poor. 

400,000 people in Gaza do not have access to regular water supply after 11 days of bombardment devastated electricity and water services and severely impacted the three main desalination plants in Gaza city , Oxfam warned today.

Oxfam is deeply concerned that during the long-term vacancy in the post, all political negotiations – which President Kohler had relaunched and revitalized after six years of stagnation – have completely stalled, and the 29-year ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco has collapsed.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam Health Policy Manager and Policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance said: "The 2021 Global Health Summit ended today in danger of being judged an historical failure of global solidarity to tackle a Covid-19 pandemic that is still, around the world, in its first expanding phase and yet to peak."