News

ATD Ireland is joining women, men and children from more than sixty countries who are taking to the streets, markets, workplaces and online throughout the month of May to demand that world leaders take ambitious actions this year to end poverty, inequalities and climate change. Some 15 million people from every region of the world are expected to participate in the action/2015 May Month of Actionunited by an overarching call to the world's nations to adopt ambitious anti-poverty and climate agendas at two major forthcoming UN summits. action/2015 brings together more than 1600 organizations from some 130 countries, united by a…

Campus is an annual seminar of ATD International, organized by its Research Centre. It offers researchers and professionals an opportunity to share their work and their questions related to chronic poverty and the commitments necessary to bring poverty to an end. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it offers also the opportunity to study in depth how the ideas of Joseph Wresinski (1917-1988), founder of All Together in Dignity, are relevant to today’s issues. Research and various approaches related to chronic poverty and social exclusion raise ethical, methodological and epistemological questions. Discussion sheds light on these questions in a new way for academics,…

On 27thMay, the remains of Geneviève De Gaulle Anthonioz, the niece of General de Gaulle, will be placed in the Pantheon in Paris with three other people for their role as leading members in the French resistance Movement during the Second World War. The Pantheon is dedicated to famous and important French citizens, whose lives are recognised for their exceptional action . From 23rd May to 1st June 2015, ATD Ireland plans to organise a week of events highlighting the life and commitments of Geneviève De Gaulle Anthonioz. This special week will be dedicated to making her more widely known and…

ATD invites you to a Dóchas Events on 16 April, 9.30am-3.30pm, Woodquay venue, Dublin. Participate 2015 and Dóchas will run an advocacy workshop on the active role of people living in poverty in monitoring and accountability of the  new Sustainable Development Framework. In September 2015, the member states of the United Nations are set to agree a new global agreement on how to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, including poverty, inequality and environmental destruction. This new “Sustainable Development Framework” will have binding consequences for all UN member states, and will therefore also impact on Ireland’s own development in a number…

ATD Ireland with all other members of the European Alliance of Investing in Children, welcomes the publication of  a new handbook on the Implementation of the Investing in Children EU Recommendation . The 2013 European Commission Recommendation “Investing in Children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage” presented a comprehensive policy approach to child poverty and well-being. The new Implementation Handbook by Eurochild and its partners in the Alliance of Investing in Children, shows how Member States can translate the policy guidelines into action.  It is a key asset for legislators, policy makers and decision makers, as well as a resource tool to…

A landmark collective complaint against Ireland, which outlines appalling and widespread sub-standard housing issues across 20 Local Authority housing estates, has been deemed admissible for further investigation at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg  (Decision by the European Committee of Social Rights adopted on Tuesday 17 March 2015). Tenants of Local Authority housing estates were assisted in compiling the collective complaint by Community Action Network (CAN), The Centre for Housing Law, Rights and Policy at National University Ireland Galway, Ballymun Community Law Centre, Dr. Rory Hearne of the Geography Department at National University Ireland Maynooth and the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM).…

In March 2015 ATD launched the project “Let's put Human Rights in our Manifestos”. From March 2015 to June 2015, ATD volunteers and community groups from the North Inner City will look at what Economic, Social and Cultural Rights mean today and will discuss the request of Irish Constitutional Convention to strengthen the protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Irish Constitution. The Housing crisis, the Right 2 Water demonstrations, the Constitutional Convention recommendation from 23rd February 2014 to include Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Irish Constitution are converging issues. They tell us it is the right time…

As people across the globe celebrate International Women's Day (8 March), United Nations member states are in discussions that could prove to be the most important negotiations for women in history, according to the global citizens' movement action/2015. Two unique political processes - one that will lead to the adoption later this year of the Sustainable Development Goals and another that is expected to endorse the first climate treaty in a generation - offer an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically transform the lives of women and girls and fulfill their human rights. The UN Summit for the adoption of the Post-2015 development…

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights  (GPs BHR) state that governments have the duty to protect human rights, companies have a responsibility to respect rights, and both governments and companies must work to provide a remedy when violations occur. This is known as the “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” framework. As a follow-up of the adoption by  the UN of the GPs BHR, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is developing a National Plan on Business and Human Rights, and seeked consultation with interested individuals and groups, both Irish and international. In the past few weeks many…

ATD with the Irish coalition “ESC Rights Initiative” is calling on the current Government and on the future candidates to 2016 General Election. Who is going to accept the one year old recommendation of the Constitutional Convention to strengthen protection of ESC rights in Ireland? Who will allow the Irish people to decide whether future governments should be obliged to make decisions that prioritise the fundamental dignity of people living within the state? On 23 February 2014, the Constitutional Convention recommended to the Irish Government, by an overwhelming majority of 85 per cent, that Economic, Social and Cultural Rights be given…