Monthly Archives: April 2012

Good Shepherd Agency Directory for New York, Mid North America and Canada.

Good Shepherd of North America is a network of community based social services agencies established by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to help meets the needs of children, youth and their families.
The three provinces within North America are Province of New York, Mid North America and Canada. You can find the agencies within those specific provinces by clicking the appropriate province on the menu bar to the left. Otherwise you can search below by agency name, state or service.
http://www.goodshepherdsistersna.com/en/Services/Agencies/agencydirectory.aspx

Marvel at this array of services!  22,000 youth in New York City.    A Place to Heal after Violence Strikes at Home in Los Angles.     CELEBRATE CONFLICT RESOLUTION DAY 2012 — OCTOBER 18   Watch this 3-minute video describing the benefits of mediation –   http://www.phillymediators.org/  http://youtu.be/MvEG4aU5CX0

A Co Cork teenager born without arms or legs told delegates at a United Nations conference yesterday that technology was the limb she never had.

Read the story, see the video and have a copy of Joanne’s text.  Congratulations Joanne!http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0427/  breaking12.html#.T5qXTDgSau8.mailto

130 World Leaders Pledged to attend the Sustainable Development Conference in Rio in June 2012

A newsletter updating  on current planning for Rio+20 is now available http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/Vol3_Issue4.html

A Second round of ‘informal-informal’ negotiations on the zero draft of outcome document  ‘The Future We Want’ began this morning 23 April 2012 in New York and will continue until 4 May 2012

Have you read the document ‘The Future we Want’?   http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=12&nr=324&menu=20

There are 7 Critical Issues –  http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/7issues.html   The preparations for Rio+20 have highlighted seven areas which need priority attention; these include decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness. Which one are you following? 

Earth Day 2012

In less than two months, the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The first Earth Summit in 1992 gave us important legally binding conventions, the far-reaching Agenda 21 blueprint, and the conceptual breakthrough of sustainable development. Rio+20 offers us a timely chance for a similar change in course — for a much-needed paradigm shift and a recommitment to implementation.

In the next twenty years, the world will need at least 50 per cent more food …
45 per cent more energy … 30 per cent more water … and many millions of new jobs. Our challenge at Rio+20 and beyond is to take a holistic, integrated approach to these linked challenges — driving at the interrelations such that solutions to one problem translate into progress on all.

Hard but necessary choices lie ahead. We need an outcome that is simultaneously practical and transformational. We must use Rio+20 to promote better respect for nature and to cultivate an environment – natural and social – in which all children feel safe and all people can prosper. Mother Earth belongs to us all; Rio+20 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that all of us must seize.
This year in June, world leaders will gather at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference, to discus on two main themes: how to build a green economy to achieve sustainable development and lift people out of poverty; and how to improve international coordination for sustainable development.

                                                                    

Interactive Dialogue on ‘Fighting Human Trafficking’ at the UN on April 3. 2012

View the webcast – it’s the same as being present at the debate:  Post your comments below.  What question are you left with?  What questions would you want to ask? 

 Opening session of Interactive Dialogue on “Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children” – General Assembly
03 April 2012      http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/04/general-assembly-interactive-dialogue-on-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-english-2.html

(Part 2) Interactive Dialogue on “Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children” 03 April 2012       http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/04/general-assembly-interactive-dialogue-on-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-english-2.html 

In the afternoon the following member states spoke – Qatar, Bahrain, Australia, Malta, Bangladesh, Georgia, Cambodia, USA, Japan, Thailand, Luxemburg, Vietnam, Tanzania, Albania, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Mexico, Kurdistan and Argentina. 

The President of the General Assembly H.E. Mr Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nassir and his wife contributed 10,000 dollars from their personal funds to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking while  Australia announced that they would contributed 200,000 dollars. 

The address of Michelle Bachelet is on the UN Women Website in three languages

English:   http://www.unwomen.org/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/                   Spanish:   http://www.unwomen.org/es/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/         French:  http://www.unwomen.org/fr/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/

Madam Bachelet emphasised four points:  

  • Put human rights and justice for victims at the centre of efforts
  • Place more focus on prevention, gender equality and women’s empowrnment, and zero tolerance for violence against women, including trafficking.
  • Make the links between migration and trafficking. 
  • Support trafficking suvivors to be at the policy table so that they can testify and claim their rights and entitlements, and policy makers can listen and learn what needs to be done.

List to survivors tell their stories – Somaly Mam, President and Co-founder, Somaly Mam Foundation.  Somaly was born in Cambodia and sold into a life of sexual slatery many times by a man who posed to be her grandfather.  Rani Kong, Co-Founder, Tronie foundtion was also present. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children  Dr Joy Ngozi Ezeilo also address participants.