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Mary Robinson Keynotes High Level Panel "Achieving Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development: Converting words into actions" at UN General Assembly in New York

22/9/2016

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Mary Robinson spoke today at the UN General Assembly in New York about the vital importance of Sustainable Development Goal 16 to fully realising the 2030 Agenda and the full implementation of all Global Goals. In her keynote speech at the High-level Side Panel Achieving Peaceful, Just and inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development: Converting words into actions, Robinson stressed that the agreements made in 2015 – the Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – have “given the global community the best opportunity yet to avoid climate change, to end poverty and to enable all people to live lives underpinned by dignity and human rights.”  President Robinson went on to discuss the linkages between G16, G10 Reduced Inequality and G5 Gender Equality, the importance of promoting human rights, equality and women's participation and leadership, and the central role these three goals have in achieving every one of the other Global Goals.  "Gender equality is a crucial part of all Sustainable Development Goals. We cannot achieve peaceful, just and inclusive societies without equality."  

​Citing the poet Seamus Heaney's famous lines, “if you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way,” Robinson said that these crucial agreements have given us the words, and now we need to find the way to implement them. "We know that sustainable development is not possible without action on climate change, and climate action is not possible without sustainable development. Critically, neither is possible without the rule of law and access to justice, for all. For me, climate change is fundamentally a question of justice." Mary Robinson, 22 September 2016.   

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Today's high-level event 'Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the 2030 Agenda' launched the ‘Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Promoting Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies,' which aims to harness the strengths and resources of  members to support reporting on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 and its interlinkages with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a whole. The Permanent Missions of Cabo Verde, Mexico, Norway, Qatar, Sierra Leone and Tunisia to the UN organised the High-Level Launch Event and UN Development Programme will serve as facilitator for the Global Alliance. 

​UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commented "Initiatives like this new Global Alliance, which emphasize the importance of effective reporting to capture positive progress across the world in delivering these priorities, will be essential to the achievement of the peaceful, just and inclusive societies we all deserve - and to the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda as a whole."  

Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is ground-breaking in its acknowledgement of the failures previously to reduce poverty due to conflict and insecurity globally. It is perhaps even more ambitious than many of the other Goals, setting out a framework for peaceful societies, justice for all and good governance – to make peace lasting and sustainable. Within the Goal, targets focus on quite disparate but interlinked aims of ending all violence globally, eliminating child trafficking, torture and violence, reducing illicit arms and financial flows, universal birth registration transparency and accountability of institutions and full participation in decision.  Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stated today “The aspirations of sustaining peace and sustaining development are intrinsically linked: we will not have one without the other. This is true not only within a country – in our highly interconnected world, violent conflict in one country has implications for others near and far, as we have seen with the current record numbers of refugees and internally displaced people,” (Clark's full speech can be found here).
 Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
At The Mary Robinson International Symposium 2016, in July, we focussed on two interlinked targets within Goal 16 – the elimination of all forms of violence and the importance of responsive, participatory and representative participation in decision-making at all levels. Both of these targets have particular relevance for gender equality and connect ending all violence to building a sustainable peace.  If you would like to see the panel President Robinson referred to in her speech at the UN today, you can watch it below. The rest of the panels at the two-day International Symposium can be found on our YouTube Channel here.
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Mayo Intercultural Action  - ‘thinking globally, acting locally’

8/9/2016

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Today we are delighted to shine a light on a very important organisation, Mayo Intercultural Action (MIA), whom we have been privileged to partner with at several events over the past couple of years. MIA does fantastic work in Mayo and we wanted to spread the word about the many inspiring projects they're working on. This piece was written by Natalya Pestova, the Coordinator at Mayo Intercultural Action.

In 2004, Mayo Intercultural Action (MIA) was established to address the needs of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees living in County Mayo. For over a decade, MIA has promoted equality for people of all skin colours and ethnic backgrounds; delivered dozens of intercultural projects and events and helped hundreds of people from new communities to find information, access education and employment, meet friends and integrate into the local community. Working in partnerships with other local organisations sharing common values and principle, MIA supported integration and helped to advance interculturalism and diversity in Mayo.

National Museum of Ireland, Turlough, is a great example of such partnership: it hosted a number of exhibitions and displays featuring Mayo migrant women. The recent exhibition ‘Migrant Women – Shared Experiences’ invited eight Mayo women from different countries to have the objects from their home countries displayed at the Museum so the visitors could relate to different cultures. The exhibition achieved important outcomes of promoting intercultural awareness and sharing positive vision of diverse Ireland. Most importantly, it allowed migrant women to become visible in the high profile public space and to represent their country, culture and personal story.
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The Immigration and Ireland Seminar was a culminating point to the exhibition that offered a space for sharing experiences and reflection on domestic and international challenges of integration. The Seminar connected global dimensions of contemporary refugee crisis presented by Professor Jane Freedman with local responses to immigration, including those delivered by Mayo Intercultural Action.
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Seminar organisers and participants: Susan Heffernan (Mary Robinson Centre), Natalya Pestova (MIA), Kany  Kazadi (MIA), Prof. Jane Freedman (University of Paris), Vukashin Nedelkovich (Asylum Archive), Aoife O’Toole (National Museum of Ireland), Blessing Moyo (Eglington Self Help Group Galway), Rosa Meehan (National Museum of Ireland), Natasha Price (Mary Robinson Centre)
The Immigration and Ireland Seminar allowed MIA representatives, Natalya Pestova - Project Coordinator and Kany Kazadi - MIA Board Member and passionate spokesperson, an opportunity to share their experience of promoting human rights for migrants and asylum seekers, giving voice and enabling migrant women to participate in all aspects of life in Ireland.  Kany shared a few personal insights into the process of integration to Ireland, such as working in MIA, becoming a passionate GAA fun, getting used to Irish food, educating GMIT social science students about injustice in Ireland and developing a strong connection with Mayo - her new home.
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Kany Kazadi, speaking at the Immigration and Ireland Seminar, National Museum
At their recent visit to the Mary Robinson Centre’s Symposium on Sustainable Development Goals the delegation of MIA women were delighted to learn about international development and to relate their local experience to the global issues. They were especially delighted to meet the most inspirational Mayo-Irish woman – Mary Robinson.
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Sanita Vecbrale (Latvia), Kate Donnely (MIA founder), Kany Kanyeba Kazadi (MIA Board Member), Mary Robinson, Phaw Shee Hta (Myanmar), Natalya Pestova (MIA coordinator), Say Lawla Say (Myanmar), Therese Ruane (MIA founder), Linda Herarty (Philippines)
Migrant women are at the heart of MIA’s work. We have supported and witnessed migrant women taking up education challenges, starting up successful businesses, challenging racism, winning awards, featuring in local media, raising a generation of new Irish citizens children, exhibiting their art work, setting up language schools for their children, proudly supporting Mayo GAA team, climbing Croach Patrick, delivering intercultural awareness training, protesting against Direct Provision, running marathons, sharing their culture and tradition with Mayo people. Every day we witness real integration making its way to the hearts of Mayo and its communities.
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If you would like to find out more about Mayo Intercultural Action, or if you are passionate about our cause, want to meet people from new communities or wish to help us in any way, please email us on miamayo@eircom.net, call us on (+353) (0)949044511 and like our Facebook page.
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The Mary Robinson Centre International Symposium 2016

11/7/2016

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On the 1st-2nd of July, The Mary Robinson Centre hosted our International Symposium 2016, The Sustainable Development Goals: Equality, Human Rights, Peace, in conjunction with the Centre for Global Women's Studies, NUI Galway at the Great National Hotel Ballina.  The event was a fantastic success, with speakers and delegates who have particular interests in promoting equality, human rights and peace converging in Ballina from all over the world to learn from each other.

​We will be sharing more information about this fantastic event over the coming weeks and months, but today we wanted to draw your attention to this article in the
Irish Times below, written by Paul Gillespie, the chair of our opening plenary session. To all those who joined us at the event, thank you for making it such a resounding success!
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Worldview: Gender and climate issues are linked
Women must be centrally involved if sustainable development goals are to be achieved

Paul Gillespie, The Irish Times
Jul 9, 2016

The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 subsidiary targets agreed last September by the 193 member states of the United Nations are a remarkable achievement. For the first time they bring together social, economic, civil and gender goals with those required to deliver a sustainable future because of climate change. They are universal, applying to all states, and cross-cutting between each other, even though their implementation is legally voluntary and their political accountability ambiguous.

Those who take them seriously now face the task of communicating their message and convincing states, governments and publics that they create obligations to act. That will be helped by the monitoring and progress reviews built into the UN process between now and 2030.

The goals are relevant at global, regional, national and local levels, creating opportunities to act at each of them. They were drawn up after extensive consultation with NGOs and civil society organisations, creating a stakeholder commitment that goes well beyond governments.

Ireland’s participation involved Irish Ambassador to the UN David Donoghue who coordinated the final negotiations last year with his Kenyan counterpart.

Former president Mary Robinson is also involved. This week she is in Ethiopia with the heads of Concern, Goal and Trócaire as the UN secretary general’s special envoy on climate change on a mission to highlight how the El Niño weather system creates drought there and to help finance regional mitigation.

Social change
Robinson was UN high commissioner for human rights from 1997-2002 and UN special envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa in 2013-2014.Throughout her career she has advocated using law to achieve social change and argues for the normative aspect of realising human rights and creating climate justice. She participated in the Paris climate change negotiation in Paris last December which agreed to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees and to aim for 1.5 degrees.

Last weekend Robinson organised a conference with the NUI Galway Centre for Global Women’s Studies at the new centre in Ballina which bears her name. It explored how the SDGs dealing with gender equality, reduced inequalities and peace and justice can be implemented.

Items 5, 10 and 16 of the 17 goals were selected to focus attention on how gender and human rights issues cross-cut and reinforce one another. The other goals, in their summary listing, are: no poverty, no hunger, good healthcare, quality education, clean water and sanitation, renewable energy, good jobs and economic growth, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption, climate action, life below water, life on land and partnerships for the goals.

Developmental growth
The conference heard important contributions from women involved in the UN on how important the gender equality dimension is to achieve these goals. Noeleen Heyzer, the former UN under-secretary general from Singapore, spoke of how Asian states learned from the 1997-1998 financial crisis to harness policies tackling inheritance, education, health and other inequalities to create developmental growth.Her work at the UN convinced her that women must aim to be centrally involved in its main power centres if they are to change priorities in these directions. She wants greater transnational involvement of social movements to match that of economic and political elites rather than relying only on law and government to realise rights.

Monica McWilliams made a similar case about UN involvement in Syrian, Bosnian and African peace processes, drawing on her Northern Ireland experience. The three women ridiculed ideas that “women can wait” or that you “grow first and clean up later”, bringing together gender and climate issues.

Other speakers linked them to growing inequalities which empower the world’s richest people through market-based globalisation. Solidarity between the losers from such an unfair globalisation is another motivation to act on the SDG agenda.

The human rights approach is not embedded in the UN agenda for the SDGs but is consistent with it. Realising the goals requires an advocacy strategy going beyond human rights.

Robinson said that responding to Ethiopian drought or Africa’s doubling of population by 2050 would help make the world safer for everybody since all are affected.

Such appeals to risk-based precautionary, prudential and preventative principles when asking people to act on climate change, security conflicts or demographic shifts underline the ethical value of these universal goals.

​The full text of this article is reproduced here in its entirety and can be found originally on the Irish Times Website.  
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Immigration and Ireland Seminar, National Museum of Ireland, Castlebar

18/6/2016

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Twenty five years ago, President Mary Robinson put a light in the window of Áras an Uachtaráin as a beacon of hope, a signal to Ireland’s emigrants that our Diaspora were not forgotten.  Today, we live in a very different Ireland, but that light still shines as a beacon of hope, not just for Ireland’s diaspora but also to welcome Ireland’s newest citizens to the country they now call home. 

The Mary Robinson Centre’s mission is to perpetuate the ideals and work of Mary Robinson’s career and to inspire others in that same way.  An important part of Mary’s work through the years has been to give a voice to those who don’t have one.  The ‘Immigration and Ireland’ seminar at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life and the exhibition it accompanies ‘Migrant Women: Shared Experiences’ both give voice to very different perspectives of Mayo and its people. 

During the seminar, keynote speaker and Visiting Scholar at The Mary Robinson Centre Professor Jane Freedman gave voice to migrants and refugees who are still on their journey to reach safety and security in Europe based on her first hand experiences visiting refugee camps across Europe – a rare voice that we seldom hear, but a very important part of the conversation.  And who knows, some of these self-same migrants may yet call Mayo home!


Blessing Moyo, facilitator of the seminar, echoed the wishes of Mary Robinson herself in summing up the day’s events.  The work of The Mary Robinson Centre must make us ask questions of ourselves, and we must be compelled to take action on behalf of others.  Blessing challenged participants, reminding us of the answer to the often asked question ‘What can I do?’, saying ‘We can use our voices, we can give voice to others’.  And that, that is what we must do. 
​For more information about the Immigration and Ireland Seminar, see the National Museum's website:  http://www.museum.ie/Country-Life/Events-Projects/Seminar-Immigration-and-Ireland

​Coverage of the event in the Irish Times here: "Direct Provision has to go!"

More pictures of the day can be found on our Facebook page.

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Inclusive Centenaries Conference, NUI Galway

17/6/2016

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The Inclusive Centenaries Conference, which took place today, Friday 17th of June, ahead of World Refugee Day on Monday, was to be a space for reflection on the meaning and significance today of the ideals set out in the 1916 Proclamation from the perspective of Ireland’s newest communities. In a spirit of dialogue and celebration of Ireland’s diversity in 2016, Inclusive Centenaries brought together people living in direct provision – especially women and young people – as well as members of other immigrant and local communities, elected representatives, policy advocates and NUI Galway leaders and decision makers.


As part of the conference, NUI Galway launched a new, merit-based Inclusive Centenaries Scholarship Scheme with support from Galway University Foundation. This national pilot scheme aims to assist high-achieving, second-level school leavers from Ireland’s newest communities to pursue their third-level educational goals at NUI Galway, to realise their full potential, and to contribute to shaping Ireland of today and tomorrow.
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Pictured: Minister of State for Justice, David Stanton TD with student Victoria Chihumura


Minister David Stanton TD
, the newly appointed Minister of State for Justice with responsibility for Equality, Immigration and Integration, said during his address that the Government is committed to further improving the living conditions in the State provided accommodation through the provision of enhanced catering facilities and increased living space for families and children. The Minister also noted that the accommodation system would come within the remit of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Ombudsman of Children.

The opening conference keynote address was delivered by former Justice Bryan McMahon, Chairperson of the Government’s Working Group on the Protection Process, including reform of direct provision.  McMahon spoke strongly about the need to reform Direct Provision and that the Irish people supported doing so.  


​Other sessions at the conference included:
“Women Voices” was coordinated by Blessing Siphathisiwe Moyo and performed by the Eglinton Self Help Group who are currently living in direct provision in the Eglinton Hotel. The performance also includes students from St. Enda's College in Galway.


“Cherishing all the Children of the Nation: Voices of Young People Living in Direct Provision” featured moving speeches from young people currently living in direct provision in Galway, and a performance entitled “Endless Possibilities” through which the young people expressed their aspiration to be allowed to partake in third-level education and improve their living conditions within direct provision, as well to raise awareness of the inequalities of the system.  The group premiered their original song “Shaping Futures” about educational inequality, under their group name “The Key” as part of this presentation.

“Inclusive Centenaries, Women’s Voices” featured presentations by Mercedes Varona an entrepreneur originally from Cuba, Ludmila Snigireva, representing Russian speaking migrants and Simmy Ndlovu, from Zimbabwe, reflecting on her journey from seeking asylum to integration.  This session was moderated by Dr Nata Duvvury, NUI Galway, and our Visiting Scholar, Professor Jane Freedman spoke as discussant.


Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, currently UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on El Nino and Climate was unable to deliver  the closing address and launch of the Galway Intercultural Forum Resource Booklet 2016 as planned, but sent her compliments on the new scholarship scheme “The new scholarship launched by NUI Galway today is a very fitting expression of the Inclusive Centenaries theme – it captures the traditional value placed on education in Ireland while looking forward and supporting young people in new communities to follow their educational dreams.”


The Inclusive Centenaries Conference was funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations scheme and organised jointly by the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, School of Political Science and Sociology, the School of Law, and the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance at NUI Galway in partnership with The Mary Robinson Centre, Ballina and local partners: Galway County Council, Galway County Council Intercultural Forum, Youth Work Ireland, Galway and Galway City Partnership Intercultural Consortium and the vital input and inspiration from the Eglinton Self Help Group.

Speaking on behalf of the organisers, Drs Niamh Reilly and Ciara Smyth said: “Today’s presentations and performances by members of ‘new’ communities, especially young people, have reminded us that realising the values of the 1916 Proclamation is something that we all wish for and that education can be a shared journey that gets us there together.”

For details on the Inclusive Centenaries Scholarship please see http://www.nuigalway.ie/scholarships/

Further coverage of the scholarship launch can be found here: http://www.universitytimes.ie/2016/06/with-new-scholarship-nuig-to-support-students-from-irelands-newest-communities/
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The Mary Robinson Centre welcomes our First Visiting Scholar, Professor Jane Freedman from Université de Paris

14/6/2016

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This week The Mary Robinson Centre welcomes its first International Visiting Scholar Jane Freedman.  Jane is Professor of Politics at Université de Paris 8, where she leads major international research projects on asylum and migration and violence against women.  She is also a Specialist in Gender Equality with UNESCO, Paris on issues relating to: Women asylum and migration; Prevention of violence against women; Gender, peace and security; and Women’s political participation, and has published extensively in both English and French.

Today,
Tuesday 14th of June, in conjunction with The Centre for Global Women’s Studies, NUI Galway, we hosted a public book launch for Professor Freedman for her most recent book: Gender, Violence and Politics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ashgate, 2015).  During the launch, Jane spoke about the complexities of both the war and gender based violence (both in conflict and non conflict zones) in the DRC, stating "There is no one explanation for gender or any other sort of violence," and described some of the intricacies of issues facing the country.  The talk was absolutely fascinating and left the audience keen to find out more! 
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During her time as Visiting Scholar at The Mary Robinson Centre, Professor Freedman will be speaking at two further events this week. 

Friday 17th of June - Professor Freedman is speaking at Inclusive Centenaries, an event hosted in collaboration between NUI Galway, the Galway County Council Intercultural Forum and The Mary Robinson Centre, in Galway. This event will include three workshops aimed at an enhanced understanding among the wider community and decision makers about the experiences and perspectives of members of the asylum/refugee community in Ireland in 2016, especially of people living in direct provision. Mary Robinson, David Stanton TD, Minister of State for Justice with responsibility for Equality, Immigration and Integration and former Justice Bryan McMahon are also among the line-up of keynote speakers at the Inclusive Centenaries conference.

Saturday 18th of June – The National Museum of Ireland, Country Life is hosting a full day workshop Immigration and Ireland with a focus on women. It will explore the impact of immigrant policies on individuals and communities in Irish society and Professor Freedman will be giving the keynote address “Women's Experiences in New and Ongoing Refugee Crises.” It is organised as part of the Museum’s temporary exhibition Migrant Women - Shared Experiences. http://www.museum.ie/Country-Life/Events-Projects/Seminar-Immigration-and-Ireland

In addition to the activities above, Professor Freedman will also spend time during the week collaborating with The Mary Robinson Centre and the Centre for Global Women's Studies to generate commentaries, essays and articles that will be disseminated after her visit.  We are absolutely delighted to have Professor Freedman join us and look forward to hearing her share insight and knowledge at our events later in the week.
 

About the Visiting Scholars Programme:
The Mary Robinson Centre hosts the International Visiting Scholars Programme in partnership with the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, National University of Ireland Galway.  The Visiting Scholars initiative is a vital component of the academic programme and aims to bring together international scholars, experienced practitioners, and engaged communities to generate new thinking to effectively address pressing global issues.  A commitment to promoting women’s participation and leadership in implementing the sustainable development goals and devising human rights-based solutions to contemporary challenges, especially in relation to conflict, forced migration and sustainable livelihoods – underpins The Mary Robinson Centre’s International Visiting Scholars programme.
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Bringing Human Rights to Life - Our 2016 Schools' Programme 

26/4/2016

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This month, The Mary Robinson Centre began an exciting new programme to bring human rights alive in schools across the community in Mayo. We received an enthusiastic welcome from students at Gortnor Abbey, Crossmolina, St Patrick’s, Lacken Cross, and St Mary’s Secondary School, Ballina, where we spent several days talking to students about the timely issues of human rights and migration. 

​Students in all three schools were very engaged and asked reasoned and inquisitive questions throughout. At the end of sessions, students brainstormed ways we could improve our response to the current refugee crisis in Europe, coming up with a range of answers our leaders might learn from! We'll be sharing some of these responses on social media as we think they're too good to keep to ourselves.

​A limited number of pilot sessions are still available in May, and The Mary Robinson Centre will be delighted to offer more sessions in the autumn. These talks have been designed to challenge, inspire and engage students of today - and leaders of tomorrow - on the importance of human rights. This pilot session begins with a discussion of the origins of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the significance of human rights for all of us. Talks are tailored to connect with second level students' geography and history programmes and cover patterns of migration - from Ireland's famine to the recent Syrian crisis and it's implications for Europe. 

If your school would like to participate please get in touch with Natasha Price, Academic Coordinator at natasha@maryrobinsoncentre.ie or 087 971 3204 to arrange.   

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Protecting Dignity and Rights of Women Refugees and Asylum Seekers

3/3/2016

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​The EU Parliament’s Women’s Rights Committee organised an
Interparliamentary Committee Meeting on Thursday 3 March to mark International Women’s Day by focussing on women refugees and asylum seekers in the EU. Presided by Women’s Rights Committee Chair Iratxe García-Pérez (S&D, Spain) and commenced by EU Parliament President Martin Schulz and Nawal Soufi, a social activist involved with helping newly arrived refugees in Greece and Italy, the day focussed on meeting the particular needs of women and girls with workshops on violence, health and integration.

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President Mary Robinson opened the meeting with
a speech about the need to preserve the dignity and uphold the rights of women refugees and asylum seekers in the EU:
 
“We cannot claim ignorance of the grave risks faced by women and girls seeking sanctuary at a time of great upheaval. We know that women are disproportionately vulnerable when forcibly displaced from their homes. Existing social inequalities based on gender roles are exacerbated as traditional support structures and formal justice systems break down. We know that women face increased risks of violence, sexual assault, exploitation and trafficking. We have heard the reports from the UNHCR and others of the increased incidence of transactional sex, as women are forced to resort to desperate measures to “pay for” travel documents on their journey. We know that barriers to reproductive health care result in increased prevalence of maternity related deaths.
 
“If we know all this, then is it not inhumane and unconscionable to fail to act? The violent scenes of police action against migrants at either end of Europe diminish us all. The European Union must immediately undertake a coordinated fair and robust response to secure the rights and safety of women and girls seeking asylum and refuge within our borders.“
                                                                                                                                  President Mary Robinson 


Participants included: MEPs Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spain), Barbara Matera (EPP, Italy),  Maria Noichl (S&D, Germany), Daniela Aiuto (EFDD, Italy), Catherine Bearder (ALDE, UK), Mary Honeyball, (S&D, UK) and Malin Bjork (GUE/NGL, Sweden) as well as members of the national parliaments  such as Gisela Wurm (Austria), Anna Vikström (Sweden) and Petra Stienen (the Netherlands), amongst others.

More information on the day can be
found here.

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Statement from Mary Robinson on the Paris Agreement

12/12/2015

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This statement was issued on the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice website. The Mary Robinson Centre and the Mary Robinson Foundation are not affiliated.

The unprecedented call for climate justice has echoed from all corners of the world and was brought inside the walls of the negotiating rooms at COP21 in Paris.  We see it reflected in the pages of the Paris Agreement – even if the means to achieve it will have to come in the coming years.

Climate change is already affecting us all and the Paris Agreement adopted tonight provides the opportunity to transform our way of life to one that is fairer and more sustainable.  It establishes the need to keep global temperature rise below 2oC and closer to 1.5oC.  It also compels countries to act urgently to increase the capacity of communities to cope with climate change and to uphold human dignity in the face of unmanageable climate impacts.

I am pleased that the agreement is more people centred than its parent Convention, building on our growing understanding of climate change as a social, economic and environmental issue.  While falling short of adopting a rights based approach to the implementation of the provisions of the agreement, the Paris Agreement recognises the need to respect and promote human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, women’s empowerment and intergenerational equity to achieve a just transition.

As a result, the Agreement and accompanying decision have the potential to set in train the steps needed to protect people living in the most vulnerable situations.  They also provide a foundation to deal with any shortcomings which remain, including the provision of support for developing countries.  This will require the continued engagement of governments working in partnership with citizens, businesses, local authorities and civil society. The inclusive process that enabled countries to come together in Paris is the key to strengthening the values signalled in the agreement so that they inform the design and implementation of climate actions over time.

​In the years leading up to this agreement more and more people, businesses and civil society organisations have engaged with the climate agenda; as an issue of development, justice, rights and human security. The reference to climate justice in the preamble of the agreement is evidence that the calls of people through marches, petitions, online campaigns, music and the arts have been heard. We need to keep building this momentum between now and 2020, to translate the agreement into ambitious actions both at the national and local level.

Despite their differences, 196 countries came together to prove that a multilateral process built on trust and dialogue, and that respects the capacity of smaller delegations to engage, can yield strong results.  By applying this Principle of Climate Justice, ensuring that decisions on climate change are participatory, transparent and accountable; the voices of people in vulnerable situations were heard and will be acted upon.

We have set the direction of travel in 2015 with this Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.  Together they send a strong message of hope that we can achieve a safer world with opportunity for all.

ENDS


Mary Robinson, seventh President of Ireland, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, and the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change


The Paris Agreement can be found
here.

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International Human Rights Day at COP21

10/12/2015

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Today we celebrate International Human Rights Day while COP21 continues in Paris, the historic city where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on the 10th of December 1948.  In conjunction with the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, UN Special Envoy on Climate Change Mary Robinson has a full day of climate justice dialogue at COP21.

Climate justice links human rights and development in a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. In an interview, Ms Robinson stressed the importance of including not just "words, it's the values" of human rights that are important in the COP21 agreement. 

The international human rights framework provides the global norms and legal tools with which to seek appropriate, rights-based responses to climate change, rooted in equality and justice.  Human rights gives us internationally agreed values and legally defined minimum thresholds around which there is widespread consensus and a starting point from which common action commitments can be negotiated and implemented.  The guarantee of basic rights rooted in recognition of the equal worth and respect for the dignity of each person at the core of this approach makes it an indispensable foundation for action on climate justice. 

The UN Human Rights Council has recognized the relationship between existing human rights and the right to a healthy environment and accepts that climate change “poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world.”  Human rights such as the right to safe and adequate water and food, the right to health and adequate housing are threatened by climate change.



 
"Climate change is fundamentally an issue of human dignity, and is, therefore, inseparable from human rights,”  Georgetown University, Women and Climate Change: Impact and Agency in Human Rights, Security and Economic Development. 
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