An open letter to Pope Francis on the occasion of his address before the United Nations Summit 25 September 2015 Your Holiness, The NGO Mining Working Group is honored to write you on the occasion of your address to the United Nations General Assembly before the opening of the Summit for the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Agenda is historically significant and will undoubtedly have great influence over the actions of governmental, philanthropic, business, and civil society actors over the next 15 years. Our members and partners in affected communities and grassroots networks experience first-hand the effects of failed development policies that neglect, exploit, and violate the dignity of people and planet. From this vantage point, we have been intensely advocating for a human-rights-based approach to development in the processes leading up to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are concerned that the orientation of the Agenda ignores the role that neoliberal development policies—and especially the extractive development model—have played in creating and exacerbating many of the global crises we face. Without critical assessment and reexamination of several key areas of the Agenda as we embark on implementation, we risk undermining the objectives that the Agenda itself sets out to reach. Pope Francis, as the UN launches the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we ask you to join us in calling for an ethical, moral, legal and practice orientation of the Agenda as exemplified in the critical message of Ladauto si’. Although much has been agreed already, the implementation of the Agenda and the multitude of international, regional, national, and local processes it will catalyze are still susceptible to orientation. At this pivotal moment, we have four critical reflection priorities that we believe will enable such an orientation. 1. We must acknowledge the structural causes of social, economic, and environmental injustices and properly orient the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development based on these common understandings. The consultative and intergovernmental processes giving input to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development brought to light myriad symptoms of the crises we are living—poverty, inequality, discrimination, climate change, unemployment, conflict, forced displacement, natural resource depletion. However, the Agenda presents the grave issues of our day as though they were natural disasters, mere “challenges to sustainable development.” Ultimately, we must acknowledge that much of what we hope to eradicate with this Agenda has actually been inflicted in the name of development and intentionally change course. We are particularly concerned with the Agenda’s conflation of economic growth with poverty eradication, which avoids addressing the root causes of inequality related to wealth and power concentration. Instead, the Agenda risks doublingdown on policies that have been shown to generate prosperity for a few at the cost of insecurity, poverty, and marginalization of many. To achieve just, equitable and sustainable development, there must instead be a global commitment to the intentional redistribution of wealth and power. In implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development, governments must adopt redistributive policies that operationalize more equitable distributions of income and ownership of productive resources including land, finance, technology, services, and industries. 2. Implementation of the Agenda must be anchored in the human rights framework to ensure that people are at the center and States are reaffirmed as primary duty bearers. As we know from the ground, development initiatives that fail to prioritize human rights in fact inflict systemic human rights violations including displacement, forced labor, negative health impacts, armed conflict and violence, and discrimination. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declares it is “grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties.” A rights-based framework is not only ethically and legally mandated but also pragmatic in terms of, inter alia: reaching the objectives of development, promoting equality and non-discrimination; ensuring participation by all rights-holders; taking advantage of existing accountability mechanisms; and evaluating policy results. Truly upholding this commitment to human rights framework in implementation would ensure stronger accountability by enabling monitoring and review through existing mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies, and the Universal Periodic Review that have proven to be important spaces for evaluating human rights compliance of states and monitoring human rights abuses by third parties. 3. The success of the processes catalyzed by the 2030 Agenda will hinge on meaningful, effective participation by affected communities, marginalized sectors, and organized civil society. We must intentionally prioritize peoples’ voices over corporate voices in implementation. In addition to being legally mandated, meaningful participation by rights-holders is essential for achieving democratic, inclusive, and effective sustainable development. The experience of poverty is characterized by lack of capabilities, opportunities, choices, security, and social power. Lack of power manifests itself in many ways; at its core is the inability to participate in or influence decisions that profoundly affect one’s life. Therefore, empowerment and agency are not just tangential or procedural objectives of the Agenda, but rather required elements of poverty eradication. People must be agents of development at all levels-- not passive recipients. Meaningful participation through democratic spaces must be prioritized at all stages of SDG rollout. We are particularly concerned that the Agenda unequivocally promotes business and private sector participation in implementation--including through the Global Partnerships framework--without acknowledging any of the risks associated with this strategy. The disastrous global experiences with privatization and public-private partnerships that undermine transparency and community participation in decision-making are particularly evident in the areas of water and sanitation. For this reason, we have consistently advocated that in implementation, the 2030 Agenda should exclude essential public services that implicate States’ obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights from private financing.

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In acknowledging the context of broader global trends and in launching the 2030 Agenda, it is essential that States ensure accountability for all private sector actors, including by moving toward a robust international legal framework on business and human rights. Pope Francis, in parallel to the launch of this Agenda, we call for your support of the ongoing process for a legally binding international instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. 4. Implementation of the SDGs must recognize water and sanitation as human right, not just additional commodities to privatize and submit to the will of the markets. Water, especially in its necessity for life and a gift for human dignity, must be upheld as a human and collective right. Pope Francis, we gratefully acknowledge that Laudato si’ provided the imperative impetus for our successful campaign to name the human right to water and sanitation in the 2030 Agenda. We celebrate the pledge made by Heads of State to “A world where we reaffirm our commitments regarding the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation [...]” in the Declaration of the Agenda, as this human right is critical to framing SDG 6 on water and sanitation. For the Agenda to reach out first to the most marginalized, SDG 6 must be interpreted through a human rights lens, prioritizing people’s needs over other interests. Water and sanitation services must remain in public hands in order to actively combat inequalities in access rather than accelerating access only for those who afford it. Conclusion As the United Nations celebrates its 70th Anniversary, it is critical that Heads of State and governments give leadership to the UN’s founding principles, by upholding people’s human rights in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Pope Francis, Laudato si’ expresses our hope for a just, equitable sustainable and integral development agenda. We will act in solidarity with you as you continue to name and encourage a legal, ethical, moral and practical orientation of the Agenda that moves from a model of charity to one of justice. We ask: Whose development the Agenda is set to serve? Whom might it burden? Is people’s agency prioritized? Will the Agenda be sustainable for people and planet? Are root causes being addressed? Does it hear the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor?

In solidarity and hope, The NGO Mining Working Group

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The NGO Mining Working Group (MWG) is an international coalition of NGOs that, in partnership with our members and affected local communities, advocates at and through the United Nations for human and environmental rights as related to extractive industries. Member Organizations:

Blue Planet Project Council of Canadians Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd Congregation of the Mission Dominican Leadership Conference Edmund Rice International Feminist Task Force Franciscans International Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Council (GOAC) International Presentation Association Loretto Community Marianists International Mennonite Central Committee UN Office Medical Mission Sisters Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) Passionists International Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Salesian Missions Sisters of Charity Federation Sisters of Mercy, Mercy International Association: Global Action Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace Society of the Sacred Heart Temple of Understanding UNANIMA International United Methodist Women, the United Methodist Church VIVAT International Yamasi People, Southeast Indigenous Peoples Center

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