Edmund Rice International

 An estimated 27 million people are presently enslaved around the globe as a result of trafficking, debt bondage, illegal contract labour and prostitution – more than the total figure of all people trafficked during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. After learning about modern day slavery as part of their transition year program, students from Presentation College, [...]

 ERI Team member Peter Harney visited the Philippines in February to conduct two training workshops, one in Maasin and the other in Kabankalan. The latter was held at the San Columbano Retreat and Conference Center, on, 21-23 February, 2013. Here is a report from Br Rod Ellyard who facilitated the workshop:- Those who attended the training [...]

 UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré  At the commencement of the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council on 25th February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, acknowledged the 20th-year anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action and described the VDPA as “the most significant overarching human rights document produced in the [...]

Following a two-year process and a series of workshops around the world on how better to implement Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the ‘prohibition of incitement to national, racial and religious hatred’, the resulting Rabat Plan of Action was launched at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 21st [...]

 ”Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.” – Eleanor Roosevelt This morning, on my way to the office, I passed a young woman, let’s call her Fatima, sitting on the footpath, [...]

 “In some States, converts may face criminal prosecution, at times even including the death penalty, for offences such as ‘apostasy,’ ‘heresy,’ ‘blasphemy’ or ‘insult’ in respect of a religion or the country’s dominant tradition and values,” stated Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief when presenting his report to the [...]

  Human Rights are inscribed in the heart of people; they were there long before lawmakers drafted their proclamation. (Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) Through an invitation from Peter Clinch and Shane Wood who lead the ministries outreach of Oceania, I was privileged to present workshops on the vision and work [...]

   In a joint submission for the Universal Periodic Review of the United Kingdom, Edmund Rice International joined with Franciscans International, VIVAT International and United for Change – a coalition of fifteen community and faith-based support groups for asylum seekers and refugees (including the Christian Brothers) in the Greater Manchester area – to recommend that [...]

On October 24 and 25, a Christian Brothers’ Oceania Province training workshop in advocacy was conducted in which the Province Directors of Formation- Mary Murphy, Ministry- Peter Clinch and Networking/Communication-Bernie Gartland met with the Regional Coordinators of Ministry and Formation. Another person, already working for the province from each region, was invited to attend and [...]

Immediately after its UPR session in May, the government of Papua New Guinea indicated its acceptance of seventy five of the one hundred and forty six recommendations put to it in the course of its review. However only two recommendations were rejected outright with the remaining sixty nine to be the subject of further consideration. [...]