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

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

-based NGO that promotes

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

, especially in the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

, 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.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 Peace Bureau, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, and Irish Development Education Association. Its offices are in Phibsboro, 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 at Doolough in south

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) 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 Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

Feile Bride

Feile Bride celebrates and reflects on the spirit of St Brigid’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 10,302, making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. It is home to Kildare Cathedral, historically the site of an important abbey said to have been founded by Saint ...

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 at different places around

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, 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 The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

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