New from Edmund Rice International (ERI)

our international children’s-rights advocacy arm

Attention, everyone in the ERN in the following countries:

• Bolivia, Grenada, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, and USA;

• Argentina, Australia, Grenada, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Sierra Leone.

The countries in the first group are to be the subject of this year’s Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council of the UN. As part of the process, NGOs have the opportunity to bring issues of concern before the international community. Your special opportunity to provide input is via our children’s rights and advocacy body, Edmund Rice International, based in Geneva. ERI, in its January newsletter, invites you to participate on the basis of your on-the-ground experience.

The countries in the second group are due to report this year to one or more of the committees overseeing particular conventions they have signed. Once again, you might have valuable input to pass on to ERI.

ERI’s January newsletter also suggests another way we can all be part of a practical response to Haiti’s plight: by becoming part of the groundswell urging international debt-relief. It is stunning to hear that the world’s poorest countries, including Haiti, are paying almost $100 million every day to the world’s rich nations! There is an on-line petition you can sign to support the strategy of debt-relief.

For more information, see the ERI’s January newsletter by clicking the link in the left-hand column of our Home Page. This newsletter also outlines ERI’s new strategic plan for 2010, and carries an article about ‘second chance’ Life Centres for adolescents in St Lucia, founded by Presentation Brother Dominic Brunnock, in the 90s.

Also see the Profile of ERI team member Denis Claivaz, published around this time, in which he appeals for the involvement of ‘ground-roots’ experience.

The ERI website - www.edmundriceinternational.org – is available directly or via our LINKS page.

Editor

January 2010