Afri (''Action from Ireland'') is a

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

-based

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

that promotes

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...

, especially in the

Global South The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify region ...

, with a focus on injustice caused by conflict. Its patron is Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

. Another patron of is former UN Assistant Secretary General

Denis Halliday Denis J. Halliday (born c.1941) was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq from 1 September 1997 until 1998. He was previously Deputy Resident Representative to Singapore of the United Nations Development Programme.Murphy, C.N., 2006 ...

.Fran Brady Writings: 'Causes', dated 2014, at franbradywritings.com
Accessed 15 April 2017 It is a member of the

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (abbreviated to ICAN, pronounced ) is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campa ...

, the

International Peace Bureau The International Peace Bureau (IPB) (french: Bureau international de la paix), founded in 1891, is one of the world's oldest international peace federations. The organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for acting "as a link be ...

Stop Climate Chaos Stop Climate Chaos is a climate change coalition of environmental and international development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that was formed in September 2005. The coalition ran the "I Count" campaign in 2006–07 and organized 'The Wav ...

Coalition, and Irish Development Education Association. Its offices are in

Phibsboro Phibsborough (; ), also spelled Phibsboro, is a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. The Bradogue River crosses the area in a culvert, and the Royal Canal passes through its northern reaches, not ...

, Dublin.

Mission

Its mission is the promotion of global justice and peace, and the reduction of poverty; this includes, but is not limited to, the progressive reduction of global militarisation.

History

Initially, as of 1 September 1975, AfRI was taken from the phrase "Aid from the Republic of Ireland". At the International Conference on World Peace and Poverty in 1982 the Afri name was re-designated, now meaning "Action from Ireland".

Annual events

Famine Walk

Each year since 1988, Afri has hosted a Famine Walk to commemorate the

Great Hunger The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

at Doolough in south

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Feile Bride

Feile Bride celebrates and reflects on the spirit of

St Brigid Saint Brigid of Kildare or Brigid of Ireland ( ga, Naomh Bríd; la, Brigida; 525) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiogra ...

’s millennium-old message of justice, peace and hope. It happens annually in

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...

around the start of Spring in February. Its roots may be traced back to an episode in 1983 when five young men from Derry learned how to make Brigid Crosses and donated the proceeds from their sale to Afri. This developed into a schools’ campaign, the Brigid Peace Cross Campaign. Ten years later, in 1993, the first Féile Bríde was organized, to celebrate the success of the schools’ campaign, intended as a ‘one-off’ justice and peace conference. It was held in Kildare and has been re-run there every spring-time since.Website, www.afri.ie
Accessed 15 April 2017

Hedge school

Since 1998, Afri has runs a

hedge school Hedge schools (Irish names include '' scoil chois claí'', ''scoil ghairid'' and ''scoil scairte'') were small informal secret and illegal schools, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, designed to secretly provide the rudiments of ...

at different places around

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, which has become an annual event reflecting on 'contemporary issues of injustice and oppression through conversation, debate and music'.

Campaigns

Afri initiated a national “active citizenship” campaign in 2010, after a Government-initiated 'Active Citizenship Office' was closed the previous year, saying “traditional sources of authority have proven to be ineffective”."Rights body Afri plans citizenship campaign" 23 November, 2009, at irishtimes.com
Accessed 10 April 2017 Afri were co-organisers of the POSSIBILITIES event, which in 2011 welcomed the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

to Ireland. In 2014, the organisation ran two petitions on Change.org including one to ban fracking and another to inspect war planes using Shannon Airport. Their partnerships with the global south include the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network and the Niger Delta communities. Afri also work in Northern Ireland with the charity Children in Crossfire.

References

External links

Website, www.afri.ie

Activelink ('the online network for Irish nonprofit organisations'): Home» Irish Links» World Development: AFrI

(Archived) Listing for Afri on now-defunct page at mycharity.ie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afri (Organisation) Human rights organisations based in Ireland 1975 establishments in Ireland International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Organisations based in Dublin (city) Political advocacy groups in Ireland