With the world rapidly changing around us, we want to let you know what you can expect from CIEL in the weeks and months ahead.
The outbreak and impact of COVID-19 is reminding us of just how interconnected we all are with each other and with our planet.
During this period, CIEL is committed to continuing our work to protect the environment and to promote human rights. But for a little while, that work will look a little different.
COVID-19 affects all of us. And CIEL’s priority is the health and security of our community—including those we serve around the world, our partners, and our staff.
In response to COVID-19, CIEL has temporarily closed its physical offices in both Washington, DC, and Geneva. We, like you, are learning how to juggle working from home while taking care of our families and our communities.
Our in-person meetings and work travel have been suspended. Where possible, we are exploring options to reschedule or transition to digital gatherings. And, most importantly, we are actively communicating with our in-country partners to identify and support their needs in the face of this challenge.
Because even though how we do our work will change, the work itself will move forward.
CIEL remains committed to four things:
- Continuing to hold corporations and governments accountable: We cannot let COVID-19 provide cover for environmental destruction, profiteering, and continued human rights abuses.
- Protecting human rights: Knowing that the pandemic will severely impact those around the world, we will work with our partners to ensure that responses to COVID-19 keep human rights at the forefront.
- Looking to the future: As governments formulate responses to the pandemic, we will ensure that we are building solutions towards a better future rather than ones that lock us into problems of the past.
- Elevating voices of already marginalized communities: As conversations shift to virtual technologies, we will continue to work to ensure that virtual tools do not undermine public participation or long-term engagement.
For many of us, COVID-19 will amount to a mere inconvenience—requiring us to change our routines, stay home more, and learn new ways to connect. But for countless more people in countries around the world, COVID-19 is much more than an inconvenience: it is a significant new threat that will exacerbate an already marginal existence and make life even more precarious.
This is a time for community, care, and consciousness. It is a time for each of us to look beyond our own lives to identify those even more at risk, and to ask: how can I help?
CIEL remains as committed to that principle today as we were a month ago—and three decades ago. The world is changing at incredible speed, but we will face these uncertainties together and work alongside all of you to ensure we emerge from this crisis into a world that is safer, stronger, more sustainable, and more just.
The entire CIEL team wishes you, your families, and your communities well.
By Carroll Muffett, President & CEO of CIEL
Originally posted on March 25, 2020