Edmund Rice International

Human Trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of exploitation whether it be forced labour, sexual exploitation, or organ extraction. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), dedicated to drug control and crime prevention, states that human trafficking is made up of three elements; the act, the means, and the purpose. […]

A Culture of Silence, or the conspiracy of silence, is the idea of a situation or issue not coming to light due to the fear of an array of repercussions. In other words, people stay quiet about an issue instead of voicing their concerns because they are afraid of how they will be treated if […]

Fifty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted two international treaties that would forever shape international human rights: The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Created in the aftermath of WWII, the two Covenants along with the Universal Declaration of Human […]

 “On the short time that children get to be children, statelessness can set in stone grave problems that will haunt them throughout their childhoods and sentence them to a life of discrimination, frustration and despair. If our hopes for the future generation are to be realised, that generation must be a meaningful part of the […]

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, began his opening address at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva by poetically referring to the pivotal image that shocked the world. It was an image that evoked sadness, disgrace and anger. It was the image of Alan Kurdi, lying […]

The USA presented for Universal Periodic Review on 11 May. State parties in their comments and Recommendations targeted heavily the ‘big ticket’ issues of equality particularly all forms of racial discrimination, abolition of the death penalty, closure of Guantanamo Bay detention facility, use of torture and drones, surveillance policies and ratification of core international human […]

  The representative of the Holy See, speaking before the recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conference, addressed the issues the current economic state has presented for young people. Unemployment continues to be a major issue for young people, with the average rate of unemployment for youth being on average three times higher than their adult […]

In his opening address to the 28th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called upon representatives to display ‘profound and inspiring leadership’ to combat the challenges of discrimination and deprivation, and the address the conflicts and crises currently generating needless human suffering. […]

In a statement to the Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Archbishop Tomasi urged a ‘creative and innovative approach’ to intellectual property rights so that ‘the right to health for all people without any form of discrimination can be fully […]

In the first week of December 2014, the United Nations in Geneva hosted the third Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. This is designed to showcase and review how fast the UN Guiding Principles (on Business and Human Rights) are being taken up by States, businesses and civil society, and notably by those who […]