TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has congratulated volunteering groups in Ireland for their successful bid to host a major world volunteer conference in Dublin in 2012.
The International Association for Volunteer Effort world conference is expected to attract civil society activists, leaders and organisations from around the world, as well as political leaders and policy-makers.
Volunteering Ireland, a national volunteer development agency which made the bid to host the conference, says it hopes the gathering will raise the profile of volunteering and human rights worldwide.
Elaine Bradley, chief executive of Volunteering Ireland, said: “This conference represents an important opportunity to reflect on the kind of society we want, the kind of world we want, our contribution in worldwide terms and the values that underpin our relationship with each other and the rest of the world.”
The bid was supported by politicians across the political spectrum, as well as civil society organisations and artists such as Seamus Heaney.
Minister of State for Justice, Equality and Law Reform John Curran also pledged the Government’s full support to “ensure the success of this important event”.
Amnesty International Ireland’s executive director Colm O’Gorman said that the theme of the conference, volunteering and human rights, was especially apt.
