Caritas Europa
Overview
Caritas Europa is a network of 49 member organisations in 46 European countries and one of the 7 regions of Caritas Internationalis. Our members assist and provide services to millions of people in need. Caritas Europa aims at lifting people out of poverty by empowering them and by influencing unjust structures and unfair policies that keep people trapped in positions of disempowerment.
Caritas Europa has a heartfelt commitment to analyse and fight poverty and social exclusion. The network promotes true integral human development, social justice, and balanced migration and asylum policies. Therefore, Caritas Europa advocates for and with people in need in order to transform society into a more just and inclusive civilisation. Caritas Europa opposes every form of oppression and is committed to justice.
Advocacy is important for Caritas Europa as it works to achieve structural change, starting at the grassroots level and extending globally, to improve the quality of life of people and communities experiencing poverty and marginalisation. This commonly translates into working to change institutional policies and practices, legal and political processes and systems as well as attitudes, mentalities and the behaviours of residents and stakeholders throughout Europe.
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Support in the field of migration
Caritas Europa functions as an observing member of the ERSO network. The ERSO project is an expression of the importance that Caritas Europa attaches to ensure that return policies are implemented in a humane and dignified way, in respect of refugee rights and human rights frameworks.
Based on the experience of our members, Caritas Europa developed the position paper entitled “Human rights and human dignity at the centre in return policies”, which is the basis for our advocacy work on return (forced and voluntary) towards policy makers.
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Funding
Member Organisations, donations, and different Directorate Generals of the European Commission. Information about the EC funded projects can be found here.