Dear friends,
Ifor is pleased to extend to all of you the invitation to join us in Geneva for the "Introduction to UN" week.
As we already proposed last year, this IFOR program is aimed to provide an opportunity to get to know more about IFOR work at UN and to find better ways to closely collaborate with branches.
Do not hesitate to contact us for questions.
During November 2018 the quadrennial IFOR council took place, before council the Migration conference ‘On the Move’ was held. After this week a press release was released to the public mentioning the appointment of Lotta Sjöström Becker, from Sweden as the new president of IFOR. Followed by some important actions and visits made by IFOR delegates from all over the world that were attending council during this week.
Read on to find out more!
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation is the world's oldest interfaith, pacifist movement, and its US branch is similarly the oldest of its kind in that country. As IFOR prepares to gather in Italy for its quadrennial Council, we learned with sadness of the murders of a worshipping Jewish community at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano.
November 2 & 3, 2018, IFOR will be hosting a conference about migration in Catania Sicily. “On The Move” will be a conversation about migration, its causes, the journey and strategies of welcome.
The conference is supported by the City of Catania and will be hosted at
Palazzo della Cultura, Via Vittorio Emanuele 121.
The conversation will be global in scope, featuring both local contributors and special guests from around the world. We will address the impact that war, climate change and global economic forces have had on people’s choices to leave their communities to seek safety and opportunity. We are prioritizing conversations led by people who have themselves migrated and who are participating in finding the solutions to the challenges migrants face.
The following organizations are contributing to the conversation:
Un Ponte Per, SOS Mediterranée, Sant'Egidio, Rete Recosol, Christian PeaceMaker Teams, BASTOB Bangladesh, members of the Sanctuary Movement in the U.S. and many others.
“On The Move” will begin Friday morning, November 2, 2018 at 10:30 and it will end in the evening of Saturday, November 3, 2018 with a musical event by
Jhonny’s Family Project and Ciauda.
To see a draft program for the conference click here
The conference precedes IFOR’s quadrennial international council that will be held from November 4-11 in Zafferana Etnea. IFOR has invited its members from 40 different countries and all delegates to the international council are invited to attend and participate in the conversation.
Conference participants are encouraged to find their own accommodation in Downtown Catania. The conference is free to the public but we do ask that those who are able consider making a contribution to support this effort.
the illustration was provided to IFOR by Anonima Fumetti
IFOR issued a statement expressing gratitude for the work of the Special Rapporteur for her steadfast reporting on human rights violations in Eritrea. It has not been an easy task, she has faced threats and dangers and nonetheless stayed true to her commitment of exposing human rights violations to the world.
IFOR’s Main Representative to the United Nations in Geneva made a statement warning of the dangers of businesses exploiting the procedures of of the Human Rights Council in order to advance their narrow interests. The concern was illustrated by a British corporate lawyer posing as an African NGO in order to deny well-documented human rights violations by her client, exploiting slave labor in Eritrea. Download statement here
During the 38th session of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva, IFOR organized a side event, co-sponsored by War Resisters International, focusing on the causes of migration from Eritrea and the struggles of Eritrean refugees.
The event was well attended and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Eritrea, Ms. Sheila B. Keetharuth, offered a valuable contribution to the discussion.
Among the speakers was Father Mussie Zerai, a well known advocate for the rights of refugees and chairman of the Habeshia Agency. In addition to his participation on the panel, Father Zerai offered an additional statement calling on European governments to respond to migration in humane ways.
On June 12, the rescue ship Aquarius was prevented from docking in Italy after it had rescued migrants who were trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The Aquarius is one of the ships operated by of SOS Mediterranee and is actively supported by IFOR and by our local branch MIR Italia. On June 25th, IFOR's Representatives in Geneva delivered the statement below about the humanitarian crisis during the 38th Session of the Human Rights Council.
During the 38th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, IFOR joined a group of organizations calling attention to the repeated violations of international law through the ongoing occupation of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco. The coalition of nongovernmental organizations submitted a report calling for the following:
