100 posts
Shaped by social media? Not yet, but it’s coming!
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Number of View: 367A few days ago at the Commission’s first Digital Competence Day event, I issued a call to exchange best practices and experiences in the field of modern e-technologies. Neelie Kroes was the first to respond. No surprise...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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Last week, a female professor of employment and labour law in Canada said in a lecture to UK students in Kent that equality laws hamper women’s progress at work. Professor Fudge believes employment legislation such as the introduction of flexible &...
"Should the left be arguing for an EU wide unemployment insurance system?" by Dan Corry
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As the fiscal union screw tightens, it is time the centre-left had a debate about what it can do to make the Eurozone more progressive. Slowly, slowly, bit by bit and sometimes in big leaps, the EU – or at least the Eurozone – is moving towards a...
Central European Links
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Here’s a depressing but interesting story. More and more Jews are moving to Vienna, which sounds rather hopeful…except that they’re coming from Hungary, to get away from anti-Semitism and people like piece o’work Zsolt Bayer.
Are women better off today than their mothers were?
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Soon after I joined the Labour Party in London in the dim and distance past my Constituency Labour Party Women’s Section (yes, that was in the days when the Labour Party still had a thriving women’s organisation) held a discussion …...
UK Labour and the EU
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In Britain, Labour is in a curious spot. After it allied with Eurosceptic Tory rebels to defeat the government on a non-binding motion on the EU budget, Labour Leader Ed Miliband tried to outline a sort of pro-European realism (interview with The Tel...
Central Europe Doctors Threaten to Emigrate in Search of Better Pay
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Medical doctors of four central European countries held peaceful demonstrations Tuesday in their countries demanding an increase of their low wages or else they'll emigrate.
Getting more women on company boards is 'vital'
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Self-regulation has not worked. Companies are simply not making the necessary changes fast enough – claims Arlene McCarthy MEP...
Veiled racism: a challenge to feminist assumptions about Muslim women
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There is a widespread acceptance that the Muslim woman is a victim of her patriarchal culture. One of the most curious manifestations of this belief is the attitude of Europeans towards Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. Many Europeans accept...
EP report on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU
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Today the LIBE and AFET Committees of the European Parliament accepted the report of Monika Flašíková Beňová on the Situation of fundamental rights in the European Union. The report welcomes the steps undertaken by the European Commission in ord...
"Gender Equality and the EU’s Transformational Power in Turkey" by Kader Sevinc
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Gender equality is the main pillar of a democratic society and economic stability. Today’s politicians, legislators, judiciary authorities, bureaucrats, teachers, academics, business executives and civil society leaders in Turkey should focus more...
Forever young
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Yesterday a conference took place in Brussels concerning active and healthy ageing. The European Innovation Partnership was called to life to change how health and social care for older people are delivered across Europe. It consists of stakeholders...
European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations
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2012 is the European Year for Active Ageing and Soldarity between Generations, though unless you read something like the Society pages of the Guardian I’d be surprised if you were aware of the fact, as ‘Europe’ is such a toxic word...
New Judgment on Trade Union Freedom of Expression
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This post is written by Dirk Voorhoof* The European Court of Human Rights delivered a new and remarkable judgment on trade union freedom of expression. In Szima v. Hungary the European Court concluded that a criminal conviction of a leader of a polic...
Wrongly excluded, rightly compensated: is "but for" the best solution?
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Professors can makeexcellent Kats ... The IPKat is always thrilled to hear from former members of his blogging team, so it was with great excitement that he opened today's unexpected and unsolicited email from Professor Norman V. Siebrasse, one of t...
Human rights 'invisible' in US election campaign
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It should be a cause for concern around the world that human rights have not been on the agenda for either candidate throughout the US presidential election campaign, writes Kate Allen...
Fighting violence with hope and care
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With joy and relief, today I welcomed to the European Commission Dr Denis Mukwege. Medical Director at the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dr Mukwege has an immensely difficult and important job – to save, heal and return...
Advocates of change – dr. Mukwege and his support for Congolese women
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Number of Views :87I met today with Dr Denis Mukwege, a doctor from the DR Congo who founded a hospital for rape victims and is a fierce advocate for women. Few weeks back I was shocked to learn he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Today, hi...
Media freedom at home and abroad
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| Number of views :504I’m shortly off to Baku for the Internet Governance Forum. Azerbaijan is a country with serious issues of media freedom – where journalists regularly face arrest or imprisonment, and the suppression of very basic human...
“European Yearbook of Minority Issues” volume 9 is finally out
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'European Yearbook of Minority Issues' 2010 is now available. The 9th volume features special focus on education, minorities in the media, and minorities and religion. Continue reading →Source: ECMI InfoChannel @ European Centre for Minority Is...
Monday Update: Eurosceptism, gay rights and separatism
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Happy Monday. EU budget in times of austerity 53 Conservative Members of Parliament demanding that the EU cut spending sided with the opposition, in direct defiance of Prime Minister David Cameron, while an EU commissioner challenged the UK to decid...
EFD Rights Watch: Tear gas strike at hunger strike protestors… Pressure on journalists still on the agenda…
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A woman is helped by demonstrators as Turkish riot police fire water cannon and tear gas during a Kurdish demonstration in support of a widespread hunger strike by Kurdish prisoners, on November 4, 2012 in Istanbul (AFP Photo / Bulent Kilic) VIA Turk...
P and S v. Poland: adolescence, vulnerability, and reproductive autonomy
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The Strasbourg Observers are delighted to publish this guest post by Johanna Westeson, Regional Director for Europe, Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights represented the applicants in P and S v. Poland before the ECtHR;...
ECHR Articles in the Modern Law Review
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The newest issue of the Modern Law Review (vol. 75, issue 6) includes two articles on the European Convention of Human Rights. The first is an article written by Ian Leigh and Rex Ahdar entitled 'Post-Secularism and the European Court of H...
Cameron still terrified of being branded Thatcher ‘Milk Snatcher’
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David Cameron is terrified of being labelled a ‘Milk Snatcher’, according to civil servants managing proposed nursery budget cuts. Whitehall mandarins have told parties to a consultation on the Nursery Milk Scheme that Number 10 are still despera...
Conference: “The Challenge of Non-Territorial Autonomy” on 9-10 November in Belfast
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European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and partners are preparing for the multidisciplinary conference this weekend. A draft programme of 'The Challenges of Non-Territorial Autonomy' is now available. Continue reading →Source: ECMI InfoChan...
Bring women on board
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On 24 October, in a spectacular display of lack of solidarity following weeks of public discord, the college of European commissioners failed to give its backing to a draft directive presented by Commissioner Viviane Reding aimed at increasing the nu...
Women are main guardians of crucial livestock diversity
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Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognised as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, crucial for rural food security and animal genetics, a new FAO study argues. Yet women's contribution to indigenous livest...
Supporting bottom-up, multi-stakeholder Internet governance
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The Internet has been built from the bottom up. From its origins as a US Government research project, private business, public authorities, civil society, academia and 2.3 billion users have built it over the past three decades into a global informat...
Les aides d’État applicables aux SIEG: Le cas du logement social soutenu par les Fonds structurels
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Lestraités reconnaissent la place des services d’intérêt économique général (SIEG) parmi les valeurs communes de l’Union européenne. Cependant, afin que certains SIEG puissent accomplir leurs missions, un soutien financier public p...
Natasha Baker – Gold Medal Profile
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In her first ever Paralympics at the age of 22, Natasha Baker could not have asked for a better introduction to the equestrian events at this level. She broke Paralympic records and took home Team GB’s first equestrian gold medal … Cont...
New book: "Activating Human Rights and Peace"
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An interesting read for all of us who work in the field of HRE (Human Rights Education):Goh Bee Chen, Baden Offord and Rob Garbutt (eds.), Activating Human Rights and Peace: Theories, Practices and Contexts, Ashgate, June 2012.A book review by Kris...
No Holiday for ECB Gender Drama
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The Nov. 1 bank holiday means many have decided to make a long weekend of it. One thing only interrupts the peace... “It’s obviously a trick to try and do this via a written procedure on a long weekend,” MEP Syvie Goulard from the ALDE liberal...
Blinded, half-paralysed man dies day after Atos stop his benefits
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Yet another disabled person has died after being declared “fit for work” by DWP contractor Atos, despite being struck down by a crippling illness. Brian McArdle died the day after his disability benefits were stopped, suffering a fatal heart atta...
Helena Lucas – Gold Medal Profile
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Helena Lucas holds the impressive distinction of being the first Brit ever to take a gold in the sailing events at the Paralympics. Helena suffers from a condition that affects both her hands. Despite this, she initially focused on competing …...
Abortion Laws in Europe
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For the past few weeks, another great debate has griped Ireland; the issue of abortion. The debate is not new in Ireland and in fact it has intensified for the past few years. Both camps, the "pro-choice" that supports the practice to be legalized in...
MEPs call for greater respect of human rights in Cambodia
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Last week in Strasbourg, two of the South West MEPs spoke in the debate on the situation in Cambodia and called on the Cambodian government to grant its citizens the fundamental right to freedom of expression, conduct free and fair elections and ensu...
New Publications on the ECHR
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At the start of the month, again a short selection of articles published in various journals or online, with the Convention or Court as their subject-matter. First off, the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review includes an article by&...
Should there be Quotas for Women in Boardrooms across Europe ?
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There is a rather surprising shortage of women in corporate boards across Europe, resulting in a serious lack of skilled human resources, when taken into consideration the high number of female graduates from university in recent years and their unde...
Announcement #2: Swedish Forum for Human Rights 2012 (Göteborg)
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The Swedish Forum for Human Rights (Mänskliga Rättighetsdagarna) is the biggest annual forum about human rights in the Nordic countries. The forum is held in November every year in various places in Sweden focusing on a variety of themes concerning...
Parce que je suis une fille
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Les Nations Unies ont déclaré le 11 octobre 2012 la première Journée internationale des filles. Le but de cette journée mondiale est de sensibiliser les citoyens à l’impact de la scolarité des filles dans la lutte contre la pauvreté et d...
"What is Pre-distribution?" by Kitty Ussher
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Pre-distribution may be a new word but it is a route into exploring some far older ideas that lie at the heart of progressive debate. Jacob Hacker, the US academic credited with inventing the concept of pre-distribution, says it is “to focus on ma...
14 November: European unions to strike together
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Instead of the Tories’ little-Englandism and Miliband’s shameful opportunism, let’s have a working class response to the present European crisis: 14 November: European inions to strike together (from Workers Liberty) By Ruben Lomas...
Deeper EU - Israel trade relations: what about human rights concerns?
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By Marnix de WitteOn the 23rd of October, the European Parliament (EP) passed the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) to further enhance Israel – EU trade relations. A questionable agreement; what about t...
Open Society Paper on ECHR Implementation
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The Open Society Justice Initiative has drafted a paper as a kind of counterweight to all the plans and initiatives from the ECHR state parties and those from within the Council of Europe itself. The paper, entitled 'National Implementation of the In...
EU Staff Calls Strike Over Budget
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The main unions representing EU employees have called a strike for Nov. 8 to protest a push from several member states to cut staff and administrative costs during the bloc’s next budget period.
Tory tells chemo patient: stop “scaremongering” on cancer cuts
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A senior Tory councillor has accused a colleague undergoing chemotherapy of “scaremongering” over a decision to cut treatment that has “helped her to keep her alive”. At a council meeting in Thurrock, Labour councillor Diana Hale was seeking...
Company Boards and Thwarted Quotas: the Glacial Pace of Change
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Aileen McColgan Women hold fewer than one in seven seats on the boards of the largest listed public companies across the European Union.[1] In Norway, where a 40% quota has been in force for some time, they account for 42% … Continue reading &#...
Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi – winners of the 2012 Sakharov Prize
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Left: Jafar PANAHI and Nasrin SATOUDEH - Sakharov Prize Winner 2012 © European Union 2012 EP and © Handout/afp/ European Union 2012 EP 26-10-2012 - Two Iranian activists, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and film director Jafar Panahi, are this year's...
Video in German about the Court
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Das Erste, one of Germany's main national public broadcasters has produced a short video about the European Court of Human Rights. The short feature (just a bit over seven minutes) in the series Ratgeber - Recht gives a short overview of what the Cou...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round-Up
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It was a busy week for Commissioner Reding who is responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship. For many months she has been working on draft legislation which would see a mandatory quota of 40% women who sit on Europe’s … Co...
Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine)
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Malala Yousafzai: Trotskyist hero(ine) In Shiraz Socialist’s coverage of the cowardly shooting by Taliban fascists of this 14 year-old hero(ine), we have not so far mentioned the fact that she is a Trotskyist sympathiser. Here is a statemen...
The EU ready to fight back on ractopamine use in the aftermath of the Codex vote
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Following the vote at the Codex Alimentarius, the European Union reaffirms its position against the use of ractopamine, a controversial veterinary drug hat boasts growth and increasing leanness in pigs. It questions not only the legitimacy of a Codex...
Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking – Gold Medal Profiles
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Of all the four gold medals won at Dorney Lake, that of Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking was by far the most joyously unexpected. They had only joined forces in a boat three months earlier, boasting a solitary World Cup … Continue reading...
The fallout of waning superiority
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This morning, my husband brought an article to my attention, which deals with the increasing rape of young women in India [major TW]. He pointed out to me one paragraph in particular: “In a rapidly changing country, rape cases have … Co...
#Freevaxevanis; Greek Police issued an arrest warrant for journalist Kostas Vaxevanis
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In this current issue of HOT DOC Magazine, its editor Kostas Vaxevanis published a list of 2.059 Greek citizens who ... Continue reading...
ICANN, UDRP and freedom of speech: a call for humility
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This Kat is a silent follower of the CyberProf listserve. I read with interest the comments and exchanges that appear on the site, penned by some of the most thoughtful members of the IP/cyberlaw community. I have never expressed my view in conn...
