Amplifying Local Voices: Addressing Human Rights Impacts of Logging and Mining in the Solomon Islands

In May 2025, Dominicans for Justice and Peace and Franciscans International traveled to the Solomon Islands to gather information and prepare the local partners on their participation in the upcoming United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of their country. 

Throughout our time there, we were able to meet with representatives from the Ministry of Environment, faculty and staff of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU), Archbishop Christopher Cardone O.P., the Australian High Commission and the European Forest Institute. We also visited three local communities to see and hear about the firsthand impacts of logging and mining on them and their environment.

The goals of these meetings and visits were to get a better understanding of the serious human rights impacts logging and mining have on local communities, to share the concerns of those communities with national authorities, and to explore potential partnerships for the future. 

We were also glad to provide a three-day training workshop that gathered members of the Dominican, Franciscan, and Anglican families as well as community leaders and civil society representatives. Throughout the workshop, participants strengthened their advocacy strategies, refreshed their knowledge on the UPR process, and identified key recommendations to be integrated in our upcoming UPR submission. 

We also had the chance to interview Sr. Teresa Tebaia O.P., Member of the Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia and Solomon Islands, about her experience of how the workshop strengthened and improved the Dominican family’s ability to advocate for local communities and address the adverse impacts of logging and mining in the Solomon Islands.