Edmund Rice International

Br Barry Noel pictured with the Permanent Representative of Saint Lucia to the UN in New York, Dr. Donatus (Keith) St. Aimee. The Universal Periodic Review of Saint Lucia took place in Geneva on Jan 25th. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of those involved with the Presentation Brothers ministry in Saint Lucia, ERI made [...]

The day following Australia Day (Jan 26th), Australia faced the Human Rights Council in Geneva on its record on human rights, as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This was a historic occasion, the first time Australia had entered into dialogue with its peers in the United Nations on its overall respect for human [...]

Children from Lebanon, through an initiative of the non-governmental organisation World Vision, came together in order to write and submit a submission to the Human Rights Council as part of the review of Lebanon, held on 10 November 2010. This was the first time that children have directly participated in the UPR process. The report [...]

Speaking at a Human Rights Day Event (10th December) in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Governments “to acknowledge that criticism is not a crime, and to release all those people who have been detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms to defend democratic principles and human rights.” The [...]

On November 1st 2010, the human rights situation in Liberia was put under the microscope by its peers as part of the country’s first Universal Periodic Review. (UPR) Liberia has recently emerged from a long history of instability, turmoil and conflict, including two violent civil wars. Out of a pre-war population of 3,000,000 an estimated [...]

Dr Kishore Singh an international law expert from India and an internationally recognised authority on the right to education, has recently been appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. Dr Singh has most recently been working as Senior Programme Specialist for the right to education, at UNESCO [...]

As a contribution to the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights record of the United States, due to take place in November, Edmund Rice International has made a submission about the US guest-worker program. One driver for this effort has been the 2008 Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America (ERCBNA) chapter statement, “encouraging the [...]

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the first universal statement on the basic principles of the human rights to which peoples of all nations are entitled. The theme “Reaffirming Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 60″ was chosen for the Annual Conference organized by the [...]

Interesting report from “Zenit” GENEVA, JUNE 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A draft protocol being considered by the U.N. Human Rights Council will effectively “fill a gap” in the international human rights system, says the Holy See’s permanent observer at the U.N. offices in Geneva Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said this Wednesday to a working group of the [...]