Conferences and Research Archive

Children

In 2000, HRI was commissioned by the organizers of the Second World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children to research and produce a theme paper on the role of the private sector in the commercial sexual exploitation of children.  The paper drew on HRI’s previous studies in the area of children’s rights, including the Canadian component of the Protection Project based at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.  The first draft of the theme paper was presented at a pre-conference symposium on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Kyoto in February, 2001.  The final draft was published by UNICEF and used as an official background document for the World Congress held in Yokohama from December 17-20, 2001.  For the Yokohama Global Commitment 2001 go to http://www.unicef.org/events/yokohama/outcome.html.

For a copy of the paper,  click here : “The role and involvement of the private sector”

Freedom of religion or belief

HRI, in partnership with the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, (http://www.oslocoalition.org) situated at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law, the University of Oslo, maintained an electronic library dedicated to freedom of religion or belief and all of its sub-topics. The library formed an important resource for those working towards freedom of religion or belief at the national or international level. The focus of the material was on the international, regional and legal instruments which exist to protect these fundamental rights. It included country-by- country analyses including details on the religious composition of each population, full text excerpts of relevant sections of national constitutions, HRI’s For the Record summaries of the annual reports of the Special Rapporteur and links to related international reports. Individual pages were available for over 130 countries. The library also provided a searchable database of organizations working in the field, a documentation centre, a database of relevant books and articles, a comprehensive links section and a calendar of events. This project was made possible with funding from the Norwegian government and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The Oslo Coalition continues to offer specific resources and projects related to the freedom of religion or belief.

Anti-Racism

The UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) was held in South Africa in 2001. HRI was very active in the conference preparations, proceedings and follow-up. In March, HRI co-organized the WCAR civil society regional meeting for the Americas in Quito, Ecuador. The centrepiece of HRI’s contribution to the conference was a WCAR Website which HRI set up. The site was created early in 2000 and became an important resource for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) preparing for the meeting. The portal included Briefing Notes from the NGO Liaison, a calendar of events, accreditation information and WCAR related documents from the human rights community. During the conference, HRI provided daily updates from Durban on the Website and via a ListServ for its partners who were not able to make the trip to South Africa. In the following year the site continued to provide a place for the human rights community to discuss the impact of events at Durban. For the Conference’s declaration, the “Durban Declaration,” go to http://www.un.org/WCAR/durban.pdf.  Funding to support this initiative was provided by Canadian Heritage.