April 2011 to June 2011

Empowering Women: Charges were dropped for Saudi Arabian woman, Manal al-Sharif who was arrested for driving a car where it is illegal to do so. Hillary Clinton and Catharine Ashton (Europe’s top ambassador) both spoke out forcefully in favor of giving women the right to drive.

Challenging Unjust Governments: India’s government signed a written submission to all of Anna Hazare’s demands after she declared a fast unto death until the government agreed to let civil society draft a powerful new anti-corruption law.

Human Trafficking: Hilton Hotels have signed a code of conduct on the rape trade and employees will be trained to spot and prevent the horror of sex slavery of women and girls.

Care of Earth: In April the Senate defeated a series of pro-polluter amendments that would have gutted the Clean Air Act and to varying degrees block the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting Americans from dangerous air pollution.

Care of Earth: U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the protection of more than 1 million acres of public lands bordering Grand Canyon National Park from new mining claims and mineral exploration for the next 20 years.

Protecting Human Species: The U.S. House passed a ban prohibiting the patent of a human organism. The Senate version already passed did not contain the ban. A conference committee will reconcile the bills and alerts will be sent if more action is needed.

Confronting Unjust Systems: The U.S. FY 2011 budget passed in mid-April preserves nearly all funding for key programs fighting poverty in the developing world.

Confronting Unjust Systems: In May, the U.S. Senate rejected both Ryan’s Budget bill and Senator Toomey’s budget bill that would hurt low- and moderate- income people, cost millions of jobs, threaten the U.S. fragile economic recovery and leave millions without vital medical coverage.

Confronting Unjust Systems: In May, U.S. tobacco giant, Reynolds acknowledged that it had a responsibility to work with farmworkers to address human rights in their supply chain. It is important to continue the pressure for further action.

Challenging Unjust Governments: The U.S. Senate voted to end subsidies for corn ethanol in June.

Single Payer Healthcare: The U.S. state of Vermont became the first state to enact universal health care for all when Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law H. 202, “An act relating to a single-payer and unified health system.

Promoting Fair Trade: A New York rally entitled, “Raise the Bar, Hershey” had so many people show up to promote fair trade from Hershey that the space for the rally needed to be expanded. This rally included students learning about social justice in their classrooms.