Press releases

Tomorrow, European migration ministers are set to meet to discuss a proposal to erode EU asylum standards. The so-called Instrumentalisation Regulation allows European countries to ignore EU asylum law if they think that non-EU countries or others are using migration to put pressure on Europe.  

Today, EU finance ministers again failed to agree on an EU minimum tax for multinational companies. This follows a deal struck at the international level to implement a global minimum tax. 

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

Today, European justice ministers agreed on a proposal for a law to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet.

In reaction to today’s UN 2023 Global Humanitarian Outlook report, revealing that 339 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid - the highest caseload in history -  Oxfam’s Global Humanitarian Director Marta Valdes Garcia said: “One in every 23 people around the world –the equivalent of nearly half of the entire population of Europe– is now in urgent need of humanitarian aid. This news must be an immediate wake-up call. 

Today, the European Commission published its EU Global Health Strategy. This document sets out the EU’s global vision for funding and international cooperation in relation to health.

akarta, 28November 2022 –Oxfam is supporting the Humanitarian Knowledge Hub (JMK) in responding to the earthquake which hit Cianjur and Sukabumi in Indonesia last week. The partners have started distributing basic sanitation kits to displaced people.

International and Ukrainian NGOs strongly condemn the latest round of missile strikes across Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces. News reports estimate that 10 civilians have died and at least 50 have been wounded. The targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is in direct violation of international humanitarian law.

Tomorrow, EU migration ministers will meet at an emergency meeting to discuss the latest plan from the European Commission to reduce the number of persons entering Europe.

G20 world leaders have failed to take definitive action to tackle poverty, hunger, climate, debt and deprivation that is crippling millions of people around the world, says Oxfam.

Governments around the world are putting women and girls in danger of unprecedented new levels of poverty, peril, overwork and premature death as a result of near-universal “slash-and-burn" efforts to recover their economies from the pandemic and tame inflation.

Rich countries have secured almost three times as many courses of a World Health Organisation (WHO)-recommended COVID-19 medicine, Pfizer’s Paxlovid, according to new analysis from Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

"The establishment of a loss and damage fund is a monumental achievement for vulnerable developing countries and communities at the frontlines of the climate crisis. They have been calling for funding to cope with the devastating impacts of climate change for over 30 years.

“As the COP27 enters the final crucial days, it is a shame that rich countries – especially the US – continue to reject calls from the G77 Group, representing 134 developing countries, for a loss and damage fund to be established here at COP27."

G20 countries are receiving $136 million every day in debt repayments from the world’s poorest countries at a time when up to 828 million people are facing hunger.

This Pan Africa Program/AU Liaison Office (PAP) Progress Report covers the period from April 2018 until August 2022. These four turbulent years were dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts - which are still being felt, especially by the poorest and most vulnerable people, many of whom are in Africa.

Today, EU finance ministers agreed on the reform of the mandate of the Code of Conduct Group, the body within the Council of the EU that assesses harmful tax regimes and is responsible for the EU tax haven list. This reform updated the definition of harmful tax regimes in EU countries. No progress was made on updating the criteria for the EU tax haven list.  

The investments of just 125 billionaires emit 393 million tonnes of CO2e each year – the equivalent of France – at an individual annual average that is a million times higher than someone in the bottom 90 percent of humanity.

Oxfam in Ethiopia’s Country Director Gezahegn Gebrehana said: “Oxfam welcomes today’s announcement from South Africa that the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the TPLF have agreed to a cessation of hostilities during African Union mediated peace talks. 

“While this report provides helpful information on various actions to advance the climate finance agenda, it fails to boost confidence that developed countries will make significant and swift progress on meeting their commitment to provide $100 billion annually, over 2020-2025 to assist poor countries. The report would have been an ideal moment for developed countries to spell out how they will compensate for missing the $100 billion mark earlier through additional climate finance in subsequent years. Also, it lacks a robust roadmap as to how they’re going to double adaptation finance by 2025, something they agreed to at COP 26.”