An Interview with Maria D’Onofrio, Advocacy Officer at  Istituto Internazionale Maria Ausiliatrice The IIMA Human Rights Office conducted an interview with Maria D’Onofrio, Advocacy Officer at Istituto Internazionale Maria Ausiliatrice (IIMA) and Secretary General of the International Catholic Center of Geneva (CCIG). On September 22nd D’Onofrio sat on the Panel Discussion on Youth and Human Rights during the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council. As a young women and a former intern of the IIMA Human Rights Office, we asked D’Onofrio to share the story of her personal empowerment and how this led her to become a permanent human rights advocate in...

An Interview with Simon-Pierre Escudero, Founder of  Asociación Tierra de Jóvenes in El Salvador The IIMA Human Rights Office conducted an interview with Mr. Simon-Pierre Escudero, founder of Asociación de Tierra de Jóvenes in El Salvador. On September 22nd, Mr. Escudero sat on the Panel Discussion on Youth and Human Rights during the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council. Tierra de Jóvenes was founded in February of 2014 to protect the rights of street children and youth ages 4-25 in El Salvador. Gang activity in this country is particularly pervasive and street children are...

The Committee is holding its 91st session at the Palais Wilson from November 21 to December 9, 2016.  The Committee is a body of 18 independent experts tasked to monitor the implementation of this Convention by its State Parties.  During this session, the Committee will be considering the reports of the following States: Argentina*, Italy*, Portugal*, Togo*, Turkmenistan, and Uruguay*. * These reviews are attended by IIMA representatives. The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was adopted on December 21, 1965 and entered into force on January...

Since 1996, November 16th has been designated as the International Day for Tolerance. The yearly recognition of this day continues to hold relevance, especially as we find ourselves in a world where violent extremism is on the rise, where there is no foreseeable end to armed conflicts, where differences in race, religion, gender, social-status, etc. are often enough to trigger violent—and sometimes deadly—outbursts. Every two years on this day UNESCO awards the Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. This year, the award goes to the Federal Research and Methodological Center for Tolerance Psychology and Education of...

November 10th is World Science Day for Peace and Development and has been celebrated since 2001. The 2016 celebration seeks to emphasize the importance of science centers and museums to foster science communication. One of its goals is also to support teachers who are making children excited about science and are encouraging them to use their creativity to make a positive impact on the world. Furthermore, this day can be especially useful for inspiring young women to enter STEM fields, seeing as they are vastly underrepresented in these careers. On this...

The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22), the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12) and the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) will be held in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco from 7-18 November 2016. The COP, CMP and CMA are the supreme decision-making bodies in relation to the implementation, respectively,...

       November 6th marks 15 years since the first celebration of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. The environment is the “unpublicized victim of war.” According to the United Nations Environment Programme, over the last 60 years 40% or more of internal conflicts have been linked to the exploitation of valuable resources or the scramble for scarce ones.  Resolution 15 of this year’s UN Environment Assembly highlights the fact that healthy ecosystems and sustainably managed resources reduce the risk...

The Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group is holding its 26th session at the  Palais des Nations from October 31 to November 11.  The UPR is a state-driven process in which States present the steps they have taken to fulfill their human rights obligations and committments, assessing both positive developments and identfying challenges. Each State review is facilitated by groups of three Council members from different regional groups, or troikas, who act as rapporteurs.  The reviews are based on information obtained from three different sources: 1) from the State...

On October 21, 2016, IIMA attended the 25th Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Room XX of the Palais des Nations. This event was organized due to the urgency of addressing the emergency human rights situation in Aleppo, Syria.The Special Session was proposed by the United Kingdom on behalf of a core group of States including Germany, France, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United States, and supported by 33 other Member States. The day was used as a discussion platform for Resolution A/HRC/S-25/L.1, which...

On 20 October 2016, the United Nations Institute for  Training and Research (UNITAR) hosted the panel discussion, “Young People as a Driving Force to Prevent Violent Extremism.” The panel discussed the capacity of young people to be drivers of positive change and leadership, particularly for youth in fragile settings. The speakers included retired Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, Amanda Fazzone, Senior Countering Violent Extremism Officer of global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), and trained psychologist Dr. Ellis. UNITAR executive Nikhil Seth moderated the event that took place in Room XXIII in...