Author: ATD Ireland

Did you know that ATD has been running Street Libraries in the US for over 30 years now? The first Street Library in the US started in 1981 in Coney Island and East New York. Today ATD USA runs Street Libraries almost everywhere we have a team. The idea is simple - we bring books and creative activities into communities to share them with children. Kids learn to read, they learn to paint - more importantly, they learn to love books and art. And then little by little, they learn to take pride in their community (where all this happens), in…

Every day, around the world, people living in poverty work for peace in often unseen ways. Joining in this struggle has been the mission of ATD internationally for more than 50 years. This book is rooted in participatory research that was conducted by ATD on the violence of extreme poverty that showed just how much people living in poverty do to search for peace, to go beyond violence, and to build a sense of community. Through narratives, photos, and video links, we discover the acts of courage, as well as the creativity, experience, and insights of people living in poverty. In…

In November 2014,  All Together in Dignity  will organize a seminar on its governance.  Five workshops are being organized during 2014 to help determine the content of this seminar. Each workshop  brings together 15 to 20 people, including people who face poverty on a daily basis. Participants will be reflecting critically on ATD’s governance practices from 1988 to 2012. The whole process will be based on the experience and practice of former Head of ATD's International Leadership Team, Eugen Brand, who was member of the General Secretariat from 1988 to 1993 and Director General from 1999 to 2012.  The goal is to…

  "I almost got tears in my eyes when Jacob was making these comments... he doesn't want anyone else to experience what he has gone through and is empathetic towards others in his same situation." It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon as I walked slowly through the neighborhood of Ocean Hill getting ready for the Street Library I helped with this summer as an intern. Some of the women were chattering away and making the most of the weather. An old man was wearing a look of boredom as he sat on the benches among his friends. A small group of children were already…

“Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) takes a pioneering approach to the practice of rights;  it puts the excluded and  marginalised in charge” Inez McCormack, Trade Unionist, Human Rights Activist and Founder of PPR Established in 2006, PPR specialises in socio-economic rights. PPR places them at the service of the most disadvantaged groups and supports these groups to make real change on the ground. To make these changes lasting, PPR also focuses on ensuring the active and meaningful participation of excluded groups in government decision making processes which affect their lives. This approach which involves organising, evidence gathering, strategy building,…

Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy of Focus Ireland, writes: "Do you remember that earlier this year the Constitutional Convention voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the Constitution should be amended to include a right to a home? It was an important recognition for all the families in negative equity, mortgage debt, rent arrears or forced into homelessness." The Government seems to have forgotten. With Focus Ireland,  ATD thinks it's time to remind them and would like your help to do so. When the Government set up the Constitutional Convention and invited representative Irish citizens to discuss the future of the Irish Constitution,…

International Youth Day will be taking place on 12 August 2014. It will bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society. This year, the theme will be “Youth and Mental Health” under the slogan ‘Mental Health Matters’. In 2010, young people gathered in Europe by ATD said: "The hardest thing is knowing that you count for nothing, that your life has no value for anyone. That’s the hardest thing. We have trouble understanding this world but we want to find our place in it”. Read their appeal.…

Coincidence? While the President of the Central African Republic (CAR) assembled some of the country’s well-known figures to reflect on getting past various divisions and moving towards the mutual recognition of all as full citizens, 50 young people who lead activities in various associations got together at ATD’s Courtyard in Bangui for a professional training entitled, “Peace as the Road to Civic Engagement.” Read more at www.atd-fourthworld.org

After six days of heated intergovernmental negotiations that stretched into Saturday afternoon of 19 July 2014, the outcome document containing a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted by the Open Working Group mandated to work on this at the 2012 Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. This video shows how ATD International contributed to the debates. ATD's report includes a series of critiques brought out by our research and concludes with 5 recommendations for the post-2015 development priorities. The full report and executive summary are available for download.

Amnesty International Ireland has  launched a new report, Bringing ESC Rights Home:  Ireland and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said: “An individual has had the right to complain to the UN for violations of civil and political rights since Ireland ratified the relevant treaty and Optional Protocol in 1989. This same protection does not exist for economic, social and cultural rights. Human rights are indivisible and interdependent and protection of both types of rights is essential and a requirement of Ireland’s obligations under international human rights law.…