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. ![]() 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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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! 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. ![]() 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 [email protected] or 087 971 3204 to arrange. ![]() 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. 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. This statement was issued on the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice website. The Mary Robinson Centre and the Mary Robinson Foundation are not affiliated.
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. Today is "Gender Day" at COP21 - a day to reflect on the way that men and women experience climate change and it's impacts; and to consider the contributions and knowledge that both genders bring to the table. We know that women make up half the world’s population and the majority of the world’s poor and that the differential impacts of climate change are felt more strongly in situations of poverty, violent conflict or political instability.
The 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) commences today, the 30th of November and runs until 11th of December in Paris, France. Negotiators from 196 Parties (countries that have ratified the convention) are expected to conclude four years of negotiation with the first global climate agreement since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997.
Climate Change, understood to be the significant changes to the climate (including temperature, wind and rainfall) due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels, is the greatest environmental challenge the world faces today. Climate change intensifies poverty, food insecurity and water scarcity - affecting those in vulnerable circumstances the most and exacerbating existing inequalities. This is one of the greatest injustices of our time. Recent scientific data from the UK Met Office shows that 2015 is likely to be the warmest year on record - it is imperative that the global community comes together now to heed the warnings of science and preserve the world for all of us. They must set the goal of reaching zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century and keeping the possibility of stabilizing global warming below 1.5oC alive. Global warming exceeding 1.5oC poses a threat to the very existence of some of the world’s most vulnerable countries - it is vital that this goal is prioritized. From a climate justice perspective, whether the final agreement protects the rights of the most vulnerable will be a key measure of its success.
This year's International Human Rights Lecture was delivered by Graça Machel, one of the world’s leading women’s and children's rights activists who has campaigned tirelessly to champion equality for women and children. Machel is the former freedom fighter, Mozambique's first Education Minister, a founding member of the Elders and the widow of the late Nelson Mandela.
Machel’s lecture at The Mary Robinson Centre addressed equality and justice for all in our society, looking at issues in today’s world that adversely affect women and children, including climate change, political and social unrest and the current migrant crisis, and presented a different Africa than perhaps the one we are familiar with. At the podium, Machel profiled strong female leaders who have contributed to Africa’s political, social and economic development and spoke about the level of parliamentary gender representation achieved in countries like Rwanda (63 percent), South Africa (42 percent) and Mozambique (39 percent). However, she also notes that there is still much to do on a global level. Machel spoke of the ‘painfully slow pace’, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, “of recognising that this person, who is a woman, is a complete human being, with human rights.” “Women have moved from obscurity to visibility, but we have yet to gain the influence and capacity needed to assert action that will benefit not just women, but men and women, the human family and human dignity as a whole.” Graça Machel A discussion between Graça Machel and Mary Robinson followed the lecture, facilitated by journalist Olivia O’Leary. More coverage of the lecture in the Irish Times and the Mayo News. ![]() The Mary Robinson Centre hosted its first workshop for the academic programme on the 28th of November. This workshop focussed on the legal, humanitarian and community responses to the refugee and migrant crisis, with a discussion about the implications for Ireland and the Direct Provision system. Over 60 million people have been displaced globally through conflict and natural disaster, and 2015 has seen higher numbers of migrants and refugees on the move than at any time since WWII, with Europe as the focus of much attention. Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa has resulted in dramatic increases in those seeking refuge in Europe, while funding cuts to search and rescue operations have led to many more drownings in the Mediterranean. An effective official EU response to the crisis has been slow, but the tide is turning, with greater public awareness of the tragedy. Germany and Austria now show stronger leadership, community groups all over Europe have banded together to bring supplies to Calais and Ireland has pledged to welcome more refugees under the European relocation scheme. Speakers at the workshop included: Deirdre Campbell - a humanitarian and development practitioner with over 10 years of experience on Gender Based Violence. Deirdre worked in international humanitarian response in both Angola and Sudan and has 7 years’ experience in rape crisis and domestic violence support services in the UK and Ireland. Deirdre has been Coordinator of the Irish Consortium on Gender Based Violence since 2013. Stephen Ng'ang'a - has been involved with the fight for justice and equality for over 20 years, both in Ireland and in Kenya. Stephen was a member of the Working Group set-up by the government to look into the protection process in Ireland. Part of the Group's remit was to examine the issues around Direct Provision services in Ireland. He will be speaking about the experience of migrants in Ireland. Dr Ciara Smyth - a lecturer in the School of Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where she teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights and Immigration Law. Ciara has worked for a number of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations in Ireland and abroad, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Ciara was appointed by the Minister for Justice and Equality to the Working Group on the Protection Process, which made recommendations to government about how the Irish protection process can be improved. The women whose stories form part of the Migrant Women: Shared Experiences Exhibition also joined the workshop for an interactive discussion on life in Ireland today for recent migrants. |
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