“Education is a major driving force for human development”, stated UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the opening of the High Level Panel on Human Rights Mainstreaming, held on the 1st of March during the 22th Session of the Human Rights Council. In addition, he argued that education “opens doors to the job market, combats inequality, improves maternal health, reduces child mortality, fosters solidarity, and promotes environmental stewardship. Education empowers people with the knowledge, skills and values they need to build a better world” Furthermore, The UN Secretary General launched his new...

Yesterday evening, Wed. March 13, 2013, the cardinals met in conclave and elected the new Pope: the Jesuit Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who chose the name Francesco. A crowd of thousands welcomed him, despite poor weather. With his smile and his simple words, the new Pope has now established a relationship of mutual exchange between himself and the whole community. After praying for Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI before the blessing and the final plenary, in fact, he asked the community for a moment of silence to pray and bless his mandate. The first South American Pope deserves...

From February 18th through February 21st, an Open-Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group (OEWG) met to discuss the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Right to Peace. Delegations from nearly 80 States, and nearly 30 Civil Society Organizations, along with several intergovernmental organizations participated in the meeting. IIMA participated in all sessions, and had the opportunity to give an Oral Statement during the session of the meeting focused on Article 4 on Peace Education. Maria D’Onofrio spoke on behalf of the Institute, underlining the importance of peace education for child development and for...

On Thursday, February 21st, 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay participated in an event to launch the, “Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”   The plan was inspired by several events in recent decades, from the role of media in spurring the Rwandan genocide to the recent film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” that led to retaliatory riots across the world.  As the High Commissioner said, “this spiral of violence has...

The Platform on the Right to Education is composed of NGOs committed to this Right. On 29th of January, the platform met to prepare a statement for the High Level Panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming which will be held on March 1st, 2013, during the 22nd session of the HRC. This Panel will focus on human rights and the post-2015 development agenda, with a particular focus on the right to education. The NGOs agreed to say that the failure to achieve education for all is in part due to the politics surrounding education in developing countries. Several activities will be...

On January 29, 2013, the State of Israel was scheduled to undergo its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), but the Israeli Mission to the UN did not present its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), or attend the designated session.  Other States made statements regarding this unprecedented occurrence. Many shared the concern that by breaking the pattern of cooperation, Israel has opened the door to non-cooperation by others. All States present expressed enormous respect for the UPR, but disagreed about how to respond to the situation in order to preserve the universality and integrity...

On 24 January 2013, the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Coalition on the Right to Peace organized a meeting in preparation for the first session of the Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on the Right to Peace to be held from 18-21 February 2013. Established by the Human Rights Council in July 2012 through resolution 20/15, the OEWG has been charged with “progressively negotiating a draft UN declaration on the right to peace on the basis of the draft submitted by the Advisory Committee, and without prejudging relevant past, present and future views and proposals.” The meeting was moderated by Mr. Ricardo Espinosa, Chief, Non-governmental...