FMSI Visits the Marist Brothers of the English-speaking Mid-life group at Manziana
On 11th and 12th April, Br. Jim Jolley, FMSI Director of Child Rights Advocacy and Training, gave two workshops to the Marist Brothers of the English-speaking Mid-life group at Manziana (Rome). He introduced the Brothers to the world of the United Nations, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and gave them an insight into the work of advocacy that FMSI carries out in Geneva.
Armed with this information, Jim posed the question to the Brothers that perhaps this work of advocacy, using the CRC, is part of this “new land” proposed at the last General Chapter of the Marist Brothers Institute. He examined two articles of the CRC, in particular: article 3 (the best interests of the child) and article 12 (the right to be heard and to participate). These two articles make up part of the general principles on which the CRC is based when considering the rights of children.
Jim’s presentations stimulated some lively debate and gave the Brothers many things to think about as to how they might integrate these two general principles of the CRC into their own work when they return home to their provinces.