Edmund Rice in Paris
Brothers Kevin Cawley ,CFC, Denis Claivaz, FPM, and Moy Hitchen, CFC.
Photo above taken by Br. Brian Bond, CFC, of Australia serving on the Edmund Rice International Team in Geneva, Switzerland. The ERI Team met in Paris in September at the United Nations UNESCO headquarters. The UNESCO site served as the setting for the Annual Conference of the United Nations Department of Public Information and Non-Governmental Organizations. This year celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The conference was held in Paris because UNESCO Headquarters in Paris was the location for the initial ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The aim of the Conference is to highlight effective ways in which civil society, in partnership with others, can contribute to the advancement of human rights at the international, regional, national and local levels. A major feature of this conference will be its emphasis on active participation which is intended to generate greater awareness of human rights issues and strengthen commitments to address them among diverse stakeholders worldwide.
There was a series of workshops and presentations by those working in the field of human rights and appearances by people from nations reporting human rights shortcomings. The most dramatic of these events was an appearance by video conference from New York by Ingrid Betancourt recently released from 6+ years of captivity in Colombia.