Advocacy

Our advocacy actions

Every year, Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada mobilizes its members to learn about, promote and advocate for just and sustainable alternatives to the structures that perpetuate impoverishment and injustice.

Through this work, we denounce systems and policies that harm communities in the Global South, and propose sustainable and just alternatives. This is a critical aspect of our mission as a democratic international solidarity movement.

How do we act?

To influence decision-makers, Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada educates and mobilizes Canadians, engages elected officials in dialogue, takes official positions and launches petitions

Whom do we work with?

In our advocacy work, we collaborate with partners in the Global South and with national and global coalitions and networks. In addition, our members serve as frontline advocates.

Through the mobilization, hard work and commitment of our members and partners around the world, our campaigns have enabled Canadians to influence government policy in Canada and help improve conditions in across the Global South.

Collect signatures

Collecting signatures on a petition or a solidarity letter is one of the quickest and most effective ways of mobilizing thousands of Canadians and informing them about the urgent issues faced by the communities we support in the Global South.

Whether online or on paper, please circulate these advocacy actions within your network.

Collected any signatures? Fill this form to let us know!

Ongoing action:

By February 25, 2024 (i.e., two years after the Guapinol Eight were released), we want to send 32,000 signatures (1,000 for each of the 32 people charged at the Guapinol camp) on a letter to the Honduran ambassador to Canada.

Your signatures will add weight to the letter, which presses the Government of Honduras to:

  • Bring to book everyone involved in murdering the three Guapinol defenders

  • Fairly recompense the Guapinol Eight and their families

  • Better protect all Honduran human rights and environment defenders

  • Stop all mining in Carlos Escaleras National Park and restore it

  • Cancel all irregularly granted mining permits

Meet your Member of Parliament (MP)

Meeting Members of Parliament is another powerful way of voicing concerns. Mobilizing in this way, our members ensure that the voices of the people of the Global South are heard by Canadian elected officials, who can carry them to the House of Commons and help create the desired change. We must not forget that because our political and economic systems help perpetuate injustice and poverty, we have a duty to act to remedy them.

Resources for meeting your MP

Guide to meeting your MP

Instructions for paper petitions

Want to organize a letter-signing event in your community? Download and print this document.

Campaign : People and Planet First

Other advocacy resources

Advocacy Guide

This guide provides you with background information, policy recommendations, and suggested questions on our current advocacy priorities

Boiling Over: Global Warming, Hunger and Violence in the Lake Chad Basin

Thematic analysis | Women at the Heart of Change

Thematic analysis | Let’s Demystify Agroecology

Report | Small Family Farming at the Heart of Climate Justice

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