Every year in Warsaw, Poland the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes a two-week conference called the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM).
The HDIM is a forum where OSCE participating States together with Partners for Co-operation, civil society, OSCE institutions and field operations and other international organizations discuss the implementation of human dimension commitments that were adopted by consensus at prior OSCE Summits or Ministerial Meetings.
Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly attended the Conference on behalf of Atheist Ireland.
Working sessions are held on each day of the Conference, on subjects relevant to particular OSCE commitments. The particular session that we wanted to attend was on ‘Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief ’ and this was on Tuesday 27th of September. We intended to take the opportunity to speak on behalf of Atheist Ireland at this meeting.
One of the vital points with regard to these meetings is that NGO’s have an opportunity to address the full conference. Delegations from the Irish Government and the Holy See attended the Conference, among many other OSCE members states.
Report from the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism
Last Tuesday 10th April the Minister for Education & Skills released the Report from the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism.
http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=&pcategory=10861&ecategory=10876§ionpage=12251&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=56996
The Minister for Education & Skills has asked that the interested parties examine the report and take time to reflect on and digest the recommendations. The Minister will outline his official response in May. In the next few weeks Atheist Ireland will be examining the Report in detail and seeking clarification on various Recommendations.
This Report could be a significant contribution to the future of Irish schools, and we want to ensure that we have considered it fully before we respond formally to it. In the meantime, here are some initial observations on some of the contents.
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