Please note this is a short supplement with mainly time-limited or immediate information, not a full issue (the next one will appear at the start of September)
Hiroshima Day commemoration in Dublin goes ahead
This year sees the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, which took place on 6th August 1945. Irish CND has received permission from Dublin City Council to hold the customary annual commemoration in Merrion Square in Dublin, subject to conditions aimed at minimising the risk from Covid-19. Numbers are strictly limited and Irish CND may not be able to facilitate everyone who wishes to attend; anyone wanting to be there needs to register in advance and hear back. irishcnd@gmail.com
An estimated 80,000 people were directly killed by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with casualties reaching 140,000 within a year. Approximately 14,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world today. While this is less than the Cold War peak, it is still enough to destroy life on earth as we know it many times over and there are worrying developments particularly involving the USA, Russia and China, not least in terms of the militarisation of space.
Food for Thought – Seeds of Change
On September 11th from 12 noon to 2pm there will be a lunchtime on-line gathering and discussion on topics such as food, seeds and loss of social space in the context of the Covid pandemic .There will be guest speakers, music, commentary, imagery and reflection as we approach harvest time and look towards harvests of the future. This event is hosted by Afri and Feasta in partnership with Irish Seed Savers Association and Maynooth University. More details to follow. www.afri.iewww.feasta.org
Following the footsteps of the disappeared
Conflict Textiles in partnership with the John Hume & Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University, represented by Professor Brandon Hamber,
and National Museums Northern Ireland are organising a two-day programme incorporating seminars and a textile display on the 30th August (International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances) with a seminar on 31st August. The programme will be predominantly online and will incorporate:
An online exhibition of 20 textiles from the Conflict Textiles collection, focusing on the topic of the disappeared, with a special emphasis on the search. This virtual exhibition will be hosted by the Ulster Museum, Belfast, from 30th August 2020 – 30th August 2021.
Two online Seminars hosted at Magee Campus, 2-5.30pm, Monday 31st August. The presentations will focus on reflection, practice and discussion on the topics of:
Transnational Experiences of Enforced Disappearances (2-3.30pm)
The Search for the Disappeared: textile and art expressions (4-5.30pm).
The exhibition and seminar programme will be launched online on Sunday 30th August, 2-2.45pm and it will comprise - An introduction/overview by Karen Logan, Ulster Museum; Greeting from Roberta Bacic, curator of the exhibition; Input by Rainer Huhle, Germany, independent expert of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance; a short film on the exhibition textiles. cain.ulster.ac.uk
Good Relations Week, September
Good Relations Week in Northern Ireland will take place from Monday 14th September through to Monday 21st September as a free, online experience, with the theme of ‘Celebrating Our Journey. Embracing Our Future’. The Community Relations Council, which is celebrating 30 years this year, is encouraging local community groups and organisations, statutory bodies and local councils to get involved and host an online event or to create a piece of digital content that will demonstrate the spirit of good community relations in 2020, or to show archive material of past work. This might be an online workshop, a Zoom lecture or panel discussion, a collaborative podcast, a virtual musical or dance performance, storytelling, a work of individual or community art or craft or a photography exhibition, or your vision for the future. Register at goodrelationsweek.com and also see www.community-relations.org.uk
Development education and Covid-19
The Centre for Global Education’s ‘Policy and Practice’ review has published a short set of reflections on the implications of Covid-19 for the development education sector. See www.centreforglobaleducation.com (and click on ‘Policy and Practice’).
ICCL publicise concerns on Covid app
Experts have raised the alarm about serious privacy and data harvesting concerns related to Google Play Services. This software component must be running on the phones of all Android users who wish to use the Covid-19 contact-tracing app rolled out in Ireland. It is also turned on by default on almost all Android phones. Professor Douglas Leith and Dr Stephen Farrell, of Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that Google Play Services sends highly sensitive personal data to Google servers every 20 minutes and this potentially allows for IP address-based location tracking of the phone user. Even where users do turn Google Play Services off, data is still collected, possibly in contravention of GDPR. ICCL flagged concerns about transparency surrounding Google and Apple's involvement in the HSE app in person with the previous Minister for Health. In its submission to the COVID-19 Oireachtas Committee, they also said the Government must "push for international companies such as Apple and Google to be completely transparent about how their Covid-tracking software works". See www.iccl.ie [As the more recently launched system in Northern Ireland is similar to that in the Republic, it can be presumed that the same concerns apply north of the border - Ed]
The annual report of ICCL/Irish Council for Civil Liberties for 2019 can be found at www.iccl.ie
Front Line Defenders publish Cypher digital magazine
Front Line Defenders has launched a new monthly digital magazine Cypher – Comics as Eyewitness. This project advances the organization’s storytelling and narrative framing work in collaboration with and in support of human rights defenders (HRDs). Working with artists from around the world, including the award-winning visual storyteller, Beldan Sezen, as creative director, the ’zine will be a monthly publication featuring 3 or 4 stories of HRDs, their work and the challenges they face. Each month, Front Line Defenders will collaborate with comics artists from around the world, pairing them with HRDs to develop stories that portray their work and the challenges, risks and threats they face. The first edition features stories from Kenya, Pakistan, Lebanon and Brazil. The magazine is hosted at www.frontlinedefenders.org/cypher and on Instagram (@cypher_comics). [Maybe not urgent news but we thought perhaps you couldn’t wait to ‘get your hands on it’ so including news of it in this supplement – Ed]
Covid Conversations – Human rights in a pandemic
The Equality Coalition in Northern Ireland has formed a partnership with the Transitional Justice Institute and the Human Rights Consortium to hold a series of webinars designed to start important conversations about the human rights implications of the pandemic for people in Northern Ireland. All events will take place on Zoom during August including sessions on childcare (10am 6th August), domestic abuse (10am 13th August) and black lives matter (10am 20th August). The Equality Coalition is co-convened by CAJ and UNISON. See www.equalitycoalition.net
Covid-19 feminist recovery plan
A COVID-19 Feminist Recovery Plan has been developed by the members of the Women’s Policy Group NI. This thorough and detailed 126 page plan reflects the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women both locally and globally, and sets out recommendations for decision-makers. At the core of the plan is the belief that recovery planning in NI must be co-developed with the communities affected and done in a way that takes into consideration the institutionalised inequalities within society. The report can be downloaded at wrda.net/lobbying/womens-policy-group
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