Press releases

The African Union (AU) should call on the South African authorities to provide a long-term security guarantee for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers living in the country, Oxfam, Amnesty International and other 11 civil society organizations said today at a side event during the AU Summit underway in Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Humanitarian agencies are calling on the international community to support a lasting solution that could save the lives of millions of civilians in Yemen, as the United Nations prepares to host peace talks on Sunday June 14th in Geneva.

Negotiators avoided a show-down over crunch issues like finance and increasing near term emissions cuts, but they are only delaying the inevitable. A clearer mandate from Heads of State and ministers is needed to ignite the talks and ensure key questions are answered.

Oxfam welcomes the ambitious Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) from Ethiopia, as it sets far-reaching short-term and long-term goals on adaptation and reducing emissions.

The G7 have made a stuttering start on climate but have largely neglected the plight of people living in poverty, said Oxfam at the close of the annual leaders’ summit in Germany today.

Oxfam is deeply disappointed by Japan’s lack of ambition.  Setting a draft target of 26% emissions reduction below 2013 levels (18% below 1990 levels) by 2030 is woefully inadequate. 

Coal plants in the G7 are on track to cost the world $450 billion a year by the end of the century and reduce crops by millions of tons as they fuel the gathering pace of climate change.

With the number of Iraqis forced to flee their homes tripling in the last year to nearly 3 million, the launch of the new UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Iraq in the European Parliament today is a crucial opportunity for donor governments to both fund the aid effort and begin to address the underlying causes of the conflict

G7 based companies and investors cheated Africa out of an estimated US$6 billion in 2010 through just one form of tax dodging, according to a new Oxfam report ‘Money talks: Africa at the G7’, released today.