IIMA's Human Rights Office works with the UN and also collaborates with the NGO Vides to carry out its activities and, at the same time, to highlight the work of the entire congregation for children and young people on the five continents.
Within the United Nations, IIMA also works to promote the right to education, urging governments to respect the agreements stipulated on this issue. It also asks that preventive action be taken in the most urgent situations and, thanks to side events, presents a series of good practices implemented by the Salesian Family
The IIMA also supports the presence of UN experts to inform on the situation of human rights across the globe; offers the opportunity to participate in UN meetings and organizes courses to make international procedures for the protection of Human Rights know.
Since 2009, it has organized 20 side events, focusing on the recovery and integration of children at risk all over the world. Of note, its having helped governments to focus on young people, urging them to take action in the sessions of the Human Rights Council.
Since 2009, IIMA has organized 21 training courses in Geneva for 146 participants from 53 countries, and has presented reports to the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights for at least 46 countries, always collaborating with experts and government representatives, who have shown their admiration for Salesian work.
In the office itself there are young people who collaborate, have the opportunity to carry out their internships at the UN and share their lives with the Salesian community. 96 young people from 16 different countries have collaborated thus far.
The method that guarantees the success of IIMA and Vides is the "positive denunciation" that, in full Salesian style, "highlights all that is positive in those contexts where the weakest live in more difficult situations," says Sister Maria Grazia Caputo.
