Atheist Ireland today told the annual OSCE human rights meeting that Ireland and other OSCE States must tackle prejudice-motivated crimes and religious discrimination. We will be speaking again tomorrow on freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.
Here is our contribution to today’s session:
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Atheist Ireland today told the UN Human Rights Council that Ireland needs to remove the ban on blasphemy, religious discrimination in schools, and the ban on abortion. In doing so we became the first atheist advocacy group to address the full UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The Council was reviewing Ireland’s human rights record under the Universal Periodic Review process. We spoke as members of Atheist Alliance International, which has accredited observer status at the United Nations which enabled us to speak.
We will next be going to Warsaw, where we will address the annual OSCE human rights meeting on Monday and Tuesday.
Atheist Ireland’s speech [click to continue…]
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The Government today launched its Action Plan for Education, which it says is aimed at becoming the best education service in Europe. It is already the best education service in Europe for breaching the human rights of atheists, secularists, and members of minority faiths who want inclusive schools that treat all children equally regardless of religious belief.
Atheist Ireland will immediately highlight this in three ways:
We will raise it next week when we address the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the OSCE in Warsaw about Ireland’s human rights record. We regularly brief the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE and other human rights regulatory bodies about religious discrimination in Ireland.
We will be seeking a meeting with the Oireachtas Education Committee which will be reviewing the Action Plan before it is adopted as a Statement of Strategy. When Atheist Ireland addressed the Oireachtas Education Committee two years ago, they agreed with us that our system of multiple patronage and multiple ethos in schools can lead to segregation and inequality. We now ask them to build on this conclusion.
We have already sought a joint meeting between the Minister for Education and Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland. We are three groups with very different world views, but we are united in our support for freedom of religion or belief, freedom from discrimination and equality before the law.
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Update 1: I’m baffled at the 0-1 performance against Huddersfield. These players are better than that. Update 2: Better result, 2-1 against Blackburn. Now only five points off the play-off spots. Update 3: 2-0 win away at Cardiff. Looking good!
Original article: Despite the paucity of points to date, I remain stubbornly optimistic that this will be a good year for my childhood favourite club Leeds United. My latest reason: new manager Garry Monk has signed a midfield duo that brings back subliminal memories of the Leeds glory years, with Irishman Eunan O’Kane partnering Scottish club captain Liam Bridcutt.
The pair should give cover to the often shaky Leeds defence, which looks somewhat safer with the transfer deadline gone. Former England and QPR goalkeeper Rob Green faces competition from Marco Silvestri, Ross Turnbull and young Bailey Peacock-Farrell. They will have to command the penalty area more effectively than in recent years.
Charlie Taylor remains at left back, despite several top clubs wanting to buy him, and youngster Tylor Denton scored a goal when he replaced Taylor against Luton two weeks ago. Luke Ayling, signed from Bristol City, has taken over the right-back slot vacated by the injured Gaetano Berardi, with youngster Lewie Coyle as back-up.
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