Let justice and peace flow

30/06/2023

"Let justice and peace flow" is the motto of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and it reveals to us what God desires. God wants justice to prevail, as it is essential for our lives, reflecting His image, just as water is essential for our physical survival. "This justice must arise wherever it is needed, not hiding too deeply or disappearing like evaporating water, before we can sustain ourselves. God wants each person to always strive to make life flourish in its fullness." The message of this Day coincides with the UN Water Conference and its Action Agenda to ensure water and sanitation for all, protecting humanity's most precious global common good.

The emergence of new autonomous weapons with Artificial Intelligence (AI) raises a legal and ethical debate. From a legal perspective, the decision lies in determining whether they comply with the three pillars of International Humanitarian Law: principles of responsibility, proportionality, and distinction. Ethically, the ultimate question is whether decisions about life and death can be entrusted to machines. AI will become part of our lives, but as Pope Francis states, this advancement "can make a better world possible if it is united with the common good," placing human dignity and the care for creation at its core. Justice and Peace have supported PICUM's campaign for the European AI Act to include predictive systems, profiling, and evaluation in the list of unacceptable risks for fundamental rights in the context of migration.

The International Seminar and General Assembly of Justice and Peace Europe, scheduled to take place in the capital of Malta, Valletta (between November 10th and 13th, 2023), will be dedicated to the theme of the "changing world of work". We will analyze some features of the new paradigm prior to the European gathering. The registration deadline is July 31st. For more information, please visit this link.

The Citizen Initiative for the Extraordinary Regularization of Foreign Individuals affects approximately 500,000 migrant individuals who, despite living and working within our borders, are unable to access fundamental rights due to the slowness of regular procedures, leaving them in an administrative "limbo." This Citizen Initiative will continue after the 23rd of July and does not lose its legal validity. The effort has been worthwhile.

The Platform for Tax Justice is very clear that places allowing tax evasion, wherever wealth is generated, cannot be considered tax havens. Therefore, they have succeeded in persuading the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) to change the definition of this unfair and unsupportive practice. Advances in the European Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence have marked this period for Join Us for Justice. On June 1st, the European Parliament voted in favor of the draft directive on corporate responsibilities in human rights and the environment. In this peculiar summer of general elections, we encourage everyone to participate by casting their vote to contribute to a more just and peaceful society. Have a happy and committed summer!

Fidel García
Secretary-general

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