Dominican Call to Action

*As Dominicans we:* • challenge the systems that dominate and oppress our world; • preach truth that liberates all; • study the interrelatedness of all; • pray to sustain hope; • encourage a life style that fosters equitable and mutually enhancing life for Earth community.	Click here to download a PDF version of this document. (You need Adobe Acrobat Reader). The Dominican Call to Action document describes the priority issues of justice and peace for North American Dominicans. It is updated annually and will be revisited in its full context in 2006. This represents the work of justice and peace promoters in the United States and Canada. Care of creation is the context out of which flows all that we do as Dominican Justice Promoters.
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The Issues/Actions	Background/Links
We will establish and implement a Dominican Immigration Committee. Convener: Pat De Marco, OP We will: + Support and promote McCain-Kennedy Legislation, SB 1033 and HB 2330. + Create a fact sheet on McCain-Kennedy legislation by January 2006. + Create fact sheet on the “No Child Left Behind Act” on military presence in schools by March 2006. + Recommend that Dominican institutions, schools,motherhouses/provincials offer meeting space for immigrants. + Make immigrant referrals to Catholic Charities as needed. + Promote the Catholic Campaign Immigration Reform launched by USCCB in May 2005. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”	Immigration, the right to work and free trade agreements are issues shared by both North American Justice Promoters and Justice Promoters in Latin America and the Caribbean. On behalf of IMMIGRATION AND MIGRANTWORKER RIGHTS, both our North American Dominican Justice Promoters and the USCCB ask us to notify political leaders that we support comprehensive immigration reform as embodied in the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 (S-1033, and H.R. 2330) introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA.) Learn more at Justice for Immigrants website US Bishops Office on Migration and Refugee Services Latin America pages of DomLife.org.
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MIDDLE EAST – IRAQ The Dominican UN representatives will: + Continue to work with key UN personnel in New York/Geneva and other internationals NGOs, member delegations and independent experts of the UN Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and UN Special Rapporteurs. + Continue to provide oral and written statements to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. The Iraq Coordinating Committee will: + Create a communication plan to include justice promoters, communicators and preachers. + Submit a written report at the North American Dominican Justice Promoters Meeting. "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and never train for war again."	Dominicans have family in Iraq. Dominican friars, sisters and laity in Iraq have kept US and Canadian Dominicans informed of the tragic impact of the US invasion and occupation of their country. The Iraq Coordinating Committee, a project of the DLC and the North American Justice promoters, continues to monitor the situation. For an update on their action steps click here. Learn More: Iraq Coordinating Committee Iraq Body Count The Financial Cost of War
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To join a working group: contact Eileen Gannon, OP We will: + Read A Primer: Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Phyllis Bennis. To order, e-mail triprimer@yahoo.com. + Continue to support the Palestinian Solidarity Project. BECOME MORE PUBLIC We will: + Use DomLife.org and the Dominican Leadership Conference websites. + Use congregation/province websites to promote actions and statements.	The conflict between Israel and Palestine is a complex and ancient. We believe that every citizen has a right to safety and national identity. The human tragedy of this conflict remains almost invisible in the west. The voice of the poor the displaced and the fearful cannot be heard. Learn more:
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TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS We will establish and implement a Dominican Trafficking Network. Co-Conveners: Reg McKillip, OP, 708-714-9124 Judith Hilbing, OP, 708-714-9050 We will: Educate + Gather resources for the Dominican family. + Develop and encourage educational workshops on trafficking at the local level. Advocate + Provide workshops and information wherever Dominicans reside for local police, health and legal agencies. + Work to create and pass state legislation on trafficking. Network + Create network with Dominican Sisters International and International Justice, Peace and Care of Creation Commission. + Connect with national and international organizations, e.g. Stop Trafficking, Anti-Slavery, Center Against Violence and Human Trafficking. "I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you gave me shelter."	Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.” Trafficking Victims' Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003. “We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time." — President George W. Bush, Address to the U.N. General Assembly, September 2003 Learn More: Stop Trafficking newsletter Rescue and Restore Campaign National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
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AFRICA We reaffirm our solidarity with the Dominican family in Africa. We will: + Collaborate with the Dominican Alliance Africa. + Encourage participation and support of the Dominican Alliance Care Bear Project for an HIV/AIDS clinic in Africa by: a) introducing this project to our congregations and provinces b) ordering bears. + Read and promote A Call to Solidarity with Africa, USCCB, November 2001. + Promote the Millennium Challenge Account to relieve the African food crisis, debt and global health issues. Contact: Eileen Gannon, OP + Urge congregations/provinces to make alternative investments through an international intermediary such as Shared Interest. + Continue to encourage congregations/provinces to be involved in shareholder advocacy regarding HIV/AIDS and with pharmaceutical companies.	Our concerns with Africa primarily focus on the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS virus and the work Dominicans carry out in places like Zambia.
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COLOMBIA We reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Colombia. Contact: Marta Inés Toro, OP, 401-728-8490 We will: + Continue to raise awareness of human rights abuses in Colombia. + Connect Colombia with congregation/province corporate responsibility work. + Continue to be involved in the School of the Americas (SOA Watch) annual demonstration and legislative reform.