ERI makes joint submission as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Kenya
Edmund Rice International recently joined with five other NGO’s, Franciscans International, Pax Romana, the Kenyan Movement of Catholic Professionals (KMCP), the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and International Movement of Catholic Students, and the Marist Foundation for International Solidarity (FMSI) to prepare and submit a report to the Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights situation in Kenya, scheduled to take place in Geneva in 2010.The submission focused on a range of issues:- the right to adequate housing, the right to food and safe drinking water, gender issues (the situation of single mothers and domestic violence), the right to education, the right to health (especially in regard to HIV/AIDS, peace building, the administration of justice and human rights, and conditions in prisons. Each section of the submission was accompanied by recommendations to the Government of Kenya.
Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements
The next stage of the process will be to invite the Edmund Rice Justice and Peace group in Kenya to formulate questions for the Kenyan government, based on the reports. Although NGO’s cannot take part directly in the UPR process at this next stage, (only members of government delegations can do that) it is possible to lobby sympathetic governments to ask the questions.
Finally there will be a role for the Edmund Rice Justice and Peace group in monitoring the implementation of the recommendations that eventually emerge from the UPR process.
It is hoped that the involvement of the East African Edmund Rice Network in this exercise can serve as an example of what is possible and be a source of encouragement to other provinces and regions to become involved in advocacy.
ERI at Caritas conference on Children and HIV/AIDS
Brian Bond travelled to Rome in October to make a presentation at a Conference on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and TB among children. The conference was jointly organized by the International Catholic Relief Agency, Caritas Internationalis, and the US Embassy to the Vatican. It was co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the Stop TB Partnership, Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.
The conference was held at the Pontificia Universita della Sante Croce.
Some of the other presenters included Miguel Humberto Diaz, the US Ambassador to the Vatican; Lesley Ann Knight, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis; Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva; Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS which oversees the UN program to combat HIV/AIDS and Dr Deborah Birx the Director of the Center for Disease Control's Global AIDS program.
Some key points made by speakers included the following:-
- 800 children die every day from AIDS related illness
- inexpensive and effective measures to prevent these deaths already exist
- 97% of children with HIV are infected when the virus is transmitted from the mother (2007 figures) - something that is also easily preventable
The fundamental reason for the persistence of this scandalous state of affairs of course is that it is the children of the poor who are largely the ones who are infected with HIV and who are susceptible to TB (another easily preventable disease). As a result there is no profit incentive for pharmaceutical companies to research, test, manufacture and market suitable medication. Nor is their sufficient political will in developing countries to address the underlying issues that contribute to the problem.
More information can be found at the conference website here.
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Irish Report Welcomed
Edmund Rice International welcomes the recent publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Industrial Schools in Ireland.
In welcoming the report we strongly endorse it as a significant step towards remedying the injustices of the past and ensuring that such abuse is never repeated.
Children continue to be at risk and to be abused throughout the world. It is imperative that we commit ourselves unequivocally to ensuring a safer, better and fairer world for children through the promotion and protection of the rights of the child.
In this regard Edmund Rice International commends the current advocacy campaign in Ireland, led by the Children's Rights Alliance, for a constitutional amendment to incorporate the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child within Irish domestic law.
Edmund Rice International remains committed to working at the international level to promote and protect the rights of children and the bringing about of God’s dream for the world and for humanity.