Category: Rights in crisis

The sheer scale and intensity of mining, oil and gas exploration and extraction today is unprecedented.Each year more than 50 billion tons of minerals and hydrocarbons are excavated, siphoned and pumped out of the earth globally — double what was extracted ten years ago. Discover where and how Oxfam combats this with out new interactive map. Read more »

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), violence against women is part of everyday life. A shocking 50% of women have experienced abuse. At just 10 years old, Ruth lost her mother. She had no choice but to live with her uncle and aunt where she experienced regular beatings. Mama Rasta was accused of sorcery by her […] Read more »

In July 2011, Somalia claimed the first famine of the 21st century. Although there were clear warning signs many months in advance, the international community did not begin to respond at scale until the situation had already reached crisis point. Just three years later, Somalia is once again on the brink of relapsing into a serious food crisis. Read more »

The new Oxfam report, ‘On the home stretch,’ demonstrates why Australia needs to implement Security Council resolutions for the remainder of its Security Council term. Read more »

Since 2012 Oxfam Australia has been working with Dr Phoebe Wynn-Pope from the Humanitarian Advisory Group and the Australian Civil-Military Centre on a research project called: In Search of Common Ground: Understanding civilian protection language and practice for Civil and Military Practitioners. This project is really important to Oxfam, because in many places where we […] Read more »

In 2012, the Sahel region of West and Central Africa was once again hit by a severe food crisis, affecting over 18 million people. At the start of 2012, when the crisis began to unfold, many governments, donors and aid agencies were determined not to make the same mistakes that had occurred in previous crises […] Read more »

For years governments told us in meetings that an Arms Trade Treaty was a fanciful idea – merely a twinkle in our campaigning eye. But earlier this month an Arms Trade Treaty was adopted by an overwhelming majority at the United Nations General Assembly. Thanks to the democratic process, international law will for the first […] Read more »

Today at the United Nations in New York, we have been part of making history. 155 governments including Australia have just voted yes to a ground-breaking Arms Trade Treaty to curb the irresponsible arms trade that every day claims 1,500 lives. The global agreement on this treaty has finally sent a clear signal to gunrunners […] Read more »

On 2 April 2013, history was made as the Arms Trade Treaty – the first agreement to control global arms sales – received an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote at the United Nations in New York. This momentous Treaty is the culmination of more than ten years of campaigning to rein in the irresponsible trade in arms […] Read more »

Tomorrow we are hoping to make history. After 10 years of campaigning for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty that works to curb the irresponsible weapons trade, world governments will finally vote on the treaty text in the UN General Assembly in less than 12 hours. Over the past two weeks, Oxfam campaigners have been […] Read more »