Archive for the ‘UN and Civil Society’ Category

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Sunday, March 6th, 2011

Birmingham UNA Group

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Meeting Phil Mulligan 

In November Phil Mulligan, who became UNA-UK Executive Director in September 2010, visited the branch. He was touring the country to meet members, introduce himself and speak about his ideas. 

After graduating from Cambridge, he spent five years volunteering and working for charities around the world. This included a 10,000 mile charity bicycle ride, serving on the Rainbow Warrior for Greenpeace and leading development projects for Raleigh International in Africa and Central America. He became CEO of Environmental Protection UK, an organisation that aims to raise awareness of local environmental quality issues and influence policymakers in at the local, UK and EU levels. Before working as Country Director for VSO Indonesia VSO, he worked at the University of Sussex as a tutor while at the same time undertaking an MPhil in Development Studies.Learning about children accused of witchcraft in Nigeria 

At another meeting Ravi Kumar, chair of Birmingham UNA, showed two videos about children in Nigeria, some as young as a few months old, blamed for misfortune, branded as “witches” and rejected by their families or treated with extreme cruelty in order to extract “confessions” of sorcery. 

According to a recent report by UNICEF, “Children Accused of Witchcraft,” accusations in witchcraft are on the rise in general in Nigeria, in particular against children and adolescents.

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Earlier this year, the Nigerian government formally condemned the practice of abusing children as witches and wizards. Nigeria’s permanent secretary at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development, Alhaji Idris Kuta called the practice “unacceptable and should receive outright condemnation.” It was decided that a letter be written to the Nigerian High Commissioner. 

The UNICEF report may be downloaded here: 

www.unicef.org/wcaro/wcaro_children-accused-of-witchcraft-in-Africa.pdf        

Posted in Human Rights, UN and Civil Society, Reports | No Comments »

THE INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

THE INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT (ICRtoP) brings together NGOs from all regions of the world to strengthen normative consensus for RtoP, further the understanding of the norm, push for strengthened capacities to prevent and halt genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and mobilize NGOs to push for action to save lives in RtoP country-specific situations.

World Federation of United Nations Associations (New York and Geneva) is one of its members.  

See the latest Nato Watch News Briefing: 24 February 2011

Responsibility to Protect in Libya: calls for intervention intensify 

As UN experts denounce massive human rights violations in Libya, calls by civil society to halt mass atrocities have intensified . . .

Posted in Human Rights, Peace and Security, Current Interaction | 1 Comment »

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