6th December 2017
Holy See
To mark the UN-led 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Girls, the British Embassy to the Holy See is delighted to introduce you to Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem, whose network of religious sisters in Nigeria is trying to make a reality of the UN’s theme “Leave no-one behind” for modern slavery victims […]
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18th September 2017
Geneva, Switzerland
The seasons change fast in Switzerland though nothing quite takes the shine off a summer break like a week holed up in UN meetings. Once they begin, life becomes a strange combination of rapid high energy bursts of darting about, mixed with prolonged bouts of repetitive drudgery. Spending hours arguing over the wording of resolutions […]
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9th December 2016
Holy See
On 10 December, the UN will commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The focus this year is “standing up for the rights of others”: a call to uphold human rights in our global community, where each of us can make a difference. The Foreign Office in London and all British Embassies […]
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10th February 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Francis is on record as calling modern slavery “a crime against humanity”. Over 200 years since the British Parliament abolished the transatlantic slave trade and began an international campaign, led by the Royal Navy, to eradicate it, the Home Office estimates that there are around 13,000 potential victims of modern slavery in the UK […]
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30th July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
In my last blog posting on the concept of “the common good”, I noted that the Archbishop of Canterbury had included UK efforts to tackle human trafficking as one of three specific areas in which, in his view, Her Majesty’s Government was working for the common good. 30 July is the UN World Day against […]
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23rd July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
There are many definitions of “the common good”. It is an idea born from early Christian thought, especially the writing of St Augustine, and a key concept of Catholic Social Teaching. As a phrase, it is used regularly by successive Popes, including Pope Francis, to describe a worthy objective of man’s strivings in society. A […]
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11th April 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
“An open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge on upon the body of Christ. It is a crime against humanity”. With these words, Pope Francis addressed the second international conference in the Vatican organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales and the Metropolitan Police on “Combating Human Trafficking: Church […]
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30th September 2013
Geneva, Switzerland
Council sessions are bad for your health. So bad, in fact, that I’m thinking of inviting colleagues from the World Health Organisation along to the next session to see if they agree with me that all delegates should be issued with a health warning so that they can take suitable precautions at the outset. The […]
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23rd September 2013
Geneva, Switzerland
I’ve often thought that subscribers to chaos theory would do well to spend a week or two watching meetings at the Human Rights Council. The principal idea is that a small random change at one point can result in major unexpected consequences later on. It would be fascinating to try to catalogue the seemingly minor […]
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16th September 2013
Geneva, Switzerland
September didn’t used to be like this. It was the session which could be relied upon for a genteel beginning as delegates eased themselves in after the summer, meeting new colleagues and renewing old acquaintances before getting down to some serious Council business. But not any more. This session has got off to a blistering […]
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