“The right to non discrimination regarding any origin or personal condition that opens the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, together with the rights of every person to participate in the construction of their society recognised in the declaration on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, or that of Emerging rights; empower us to underline the access to equal rights and to citizenship of any person regardless of their origin. ”
Declaration of the IVS movement on the situation of Human Rights and Peace, 2015
We believe that every person has the right to choose where to live. And that many people leave their homeland because they are forced to do so. Laws and policies that draw discrimination according to the origin, that ban the access to a territory or to a basic social service, or deny asylum for any person who needs it, are against the Human Rights. Besides that, migrations are on the basis of the development of cultures and humanity, a global phenomenon that can only be approached through global thought and actions, which have peace and human rights on their basis.
On the following lines you will find: testimonies of IVS activists on the topic of migrations, reference materials of the campaign for the topic; and explanations and reports on the Peace Weeks and activities regarding the Rights of migrant people, refugees and to citizenship.
MIGRATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND IVS ACTIVISTS
Many international voluntary service organisations work in their local projects to guarantee the access to equal rights for every person. Many activists work hard to change the unfair reality in many countries regarding the rights of migrant people and refugees. The Raising Peace campaign will train activists, facilitate their exchange of experiences, and will advocate for the mentioned rights. The CCIVS also launched the Campaign for the Freedom of Movement after its General Assembly in 2014.
Owen Fern, Xchange Scotland, participant PeaceWeek on migrations & human rights
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
Created and adopted by the IVS movement
– The Declaration by the IVS networks on human rights: It includes a specific chapter on this thematic. See it here.
– The Declaration on the need to change European policies and laws to stop the massacre in the Mediterranean, by IVS organisations: See it here
– The Freedom of Movement Campaign of the CCIVS. A campaign to guarantee the capacity to move for every person in the world.
For the classics and universal:
– The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The basic charter of human rights, download it here.
– The convention on the rights of migrant workers. The reference document adopted by the UN on this thematic. If countries would accept their responsability and put this convention in practice…we would avoid many injustices. Download: International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers
– The UD of Emerging Human Rights. It describes in depth the right to migrate of every person. It comes from the civil society, and underlines the role of CSO in assuming the impulse to guarantee of Human Rights: DOWNLOAD!
Among the many actions by IVS organisations, awareness raising activities will be implemented during 2015 all over Europe, and in May, a Peace Action Week for activists in the thematic is being organised.
PEACE ACTION WEEK: YES! WE ARE CITIZENS!
The Peace Action Week on the Rights of Migrant people, Refugees and to citizenship will be implemented in Brussels 2 – 8 May 2015 and hosted by the partner organization JAVVA.
Around 30 participants will take part in the Training for Trainers on Advocacy, Visibility and Awareness Raising “Yes, we are citizens! The rights of migrant people, refugees and IVS role”.
The aim is to develop capacities and understandings that empower the movement to reach the situation of equality for everybody.
Objectives of the training:
• To develop knowledge of the pluridimensional concept of sustainability, linked to human rights and social inclusion.
• To train young activists, involved volunteers in IVS organisations, on the topic of Human Rights and Migrations, developing skills for awareness raising actions.
• To raise awareness on the topic of Human Rights of all people and specially linked to the right of mobility, migrations and refugee people.
• To conduct advocacy and institutional action about the topic and following the Campaign for Freedom of Movement of the CCIVS.
raisingpeacecampaign.wordpress.com 