NEW YORK — The December issue of The Franciscan Voice, the e-letter ofFranciscans International, provided updates on the following:
• To reduce administration costs and create a simpler Franciscan environment in the Geneva office, FI is reducing its Geneva, Switzerland, office space by more than half.
• Based on the input of the Franciscan Family, FI voiced concerns over human rights issues in the Ivory Coast, Portugal, Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Issues raised by FI were considered by the United Nations in December.
• From Nov. 2 to 14, FI-Bangkok staff hosted the fourth “Introduction to Human Rights Systems” training. Twenty participants from India, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam explored the possibilities of using United Nations human rights tools in their daily work to address social injustice.
Throughout the 12 days of capacity-building sessions with FI staff, together with external lecturers from different human rights organizations, the group tackled the rights of the child, migrants and refugees, trafficking and minority rights.
• FI is seeking two regional directors, one to manage the Americas in the New York office and one for the Bangkok office, directing the Asia Pacific program.