100 posts
A worrisome convergence- a European’s Anti-Islamist appearance in New York
BERLIN — On September 11, Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch politician who likened the Koran to Mein Kampf, will speak in New York on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, warning about the supposed dangers of...
The Follow-up on Roma Expulsions from France
The debate in the European Parliament on the mass expulsions of Roma from France to both Bulgaria and Romania was obviously quite heated. The European Commission failed to provide a clear answer to the question whether France has violated relevant &#...
Article on Interim Measures
The newest issue of our own Utrecht-based Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights has just been published (vol. 28, nr. 3, 2010). It includes an article on interim measures, comparing the experiences of the European and Inter-American human rights syst...
News from Ireland 2020: Michael O’Leary led for-profit trades union declares results.
WorkRights, the private for-profit trades union founded by former Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has posted a post-tax profit of €1.2m after its first year of operation. O’Leary, addressing the company’s first AGM, welcomed the profi...
Third issue in the Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series published
The third issue of the Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series has been published. The paper by Dr. Kevin Chin describes facilitators' educational beliefs about human rights education. "Exploring Facilitators' Beliefs about Human Rights Educ...
Introductory e-course on the rights of refugees
HREA launched an introductory e-course on the rights of refugees and displaced persons. This e-course gives an overview of the institutions and mechanisms that serve to protect refugees and internally displaced persons. It combines text with rich mul...
Results of impact assessment by HREA now available
In 2008 and 2009, HREA conducted an impact assessment of Amnesty International's human rights education programmes in ten countries. Amnesty International's Rights-Education-Action-Programme (REAP) focuses on "multipliers", people who through their w...
Civil Liberties and Stockholm Programme
Starting in November 2010, this project proposes a series of deliberative democracy panels in six European countries centred around crucial themes in civil liberties and citizenship rights. The six participating countries are: The United Kingdom, Fra...
French rally over pensions
PARIS Thousands of people are gathering in the autumn sunshine on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. They are here to fight President Sarkozy's pension reforms, which will see the retirement age increase from 60 to 62. There are...
Course „European System of Human Rights Protection“ – Will be Regularly Updated
After the opening of the new semester (I have already held four lectures on state law, and am trying to read two more today), on 4th September I depart for Frankfurt (Oder), wishing to participate in the summer course “The European System of Human...
How do we complain to the EU?
Who do you turn to when you feel hard done by the EU? There’s more than one way to make a complaint but you need to know who deals with which issues. Watch the video.
Going Dutch or going bust
Last week, three associations of Dutch pension funds' issued a quite startling warning to the Dutch Parliament: "If interest rates remain so low" they said "the the entire pensions system will be undermined”, adding that insurers could take a seri...
Article on Russia and the ECHR
The newest issue (volume 2-2, 2010) of the online journal Göttingen Journal of International Law has been put online. It includes an article entitled 'The Russian Federation, Protocol No. 14 (and 14 bis), and the battle for the soul of the ECHR', by...
Nicolas Sarközy, the Roma and the Junkies he feeds at French taxpayer's expense.
Nicolas Sarközy is deporting Roma. Does any one care about Roma? He is deporting men , woman and children and according to him this is to suppress crime.Does any one care about Roma?Nicolas Sarközy is a descendant of Hungarian emigrants to...
Europe must act on Roma expulsions, says UN racism committee
The UN’s anti-racism committee is to call on the European Union to act to improve the conditions of the Roma, in the light of France’s controversial collective deportation programme. The committee, meeting in Geneva, urged President Nicol...
Uniform Codeine Regulation Needed
As some of you may be aware I work for a pharmacy chain. As part of my job I cover the Pharmacy Counter. As of the 1st of August new regulations came in on the supply of products containing Codeine. This has created some confusion which is not helped...
Help Save Sakineh Ashianti’s Life!
Help Save Sakineh Ashianti’s Life! Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iranian Mother, could be put to death at any moment August 5: Sakineh’s lawyer arrested; fate of Sakineh to be handed down next week – hanging likely; President Lula’s...
Reclaim the Streets!
I’d like to see a day when I don’t have to worry about having obscenities yelled at me or disgusting gestures made out of car windows when all I’m doing is walking to work or going about my business. I am sick and tired of being told this is al...
France's 'gypsy deportation' is becoming the EU's problem
The controversy over France’s deportation of Roma (gypsies) who are Romanian nationals continued unabated this week, as Sarkozy prepares to host what some are calling an “anti-gypsy summit” in Paris next week between 5 of the EU’s biggest pow...
AEL on appeal convicted in (in)famous Dutch Holocaust cartoon case
This guestblog is written by our colleague Hannes Cannie* The Arnhem criminal court (the Netherlands) has overruled the judgment of the criminal tribunal of Utrecht (22 April 2010) in the (in)famous Dutch Holocaust cartoon case, in which the Dutch br...
The Moral Authority of Europe
Despite the rhetoric of the EU as the "EUSSR", a neo-liberal project or as some sort of Papist plot, Europe holds an - at times, surprising - amount of moral authority, even in the more Eurosceptic member states. This is probably because of the pract...
Death penalty unconditionally abolished by 25 EU member states
Twenty five of 27 EU member states have abolished the death penalty in all circumstances, and even the recalcitrant two have done away with capital punishment during peaceful times. What do Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denm...
‘De minimis non curat praetor’ principle in the Court’s practice
The Court has recently issued an inadmissibility decision in the case of Korolev v. Russia invoking the new admissibility criterion, introduced with the entry into force of Protocol No.14 to the Convention on 1 June 2010. The new admissibility criter...
Is nursing war by another means?
It has been reported by EUReferendum and by the Daily Express in the UK, that EU law is preventing safety checks (and in the caase of the Daily Express), language checks on nurses from other EU countries that want to be registered as nurses in the UK...
Social Europe Needs a New Economic Model
As a rhetorical slogan, “Social Europe” is enjoying a greater political profile – in terms of inclusion in almost every declaration on economic policy by the European Union – since the “glory years” of Jacques Delo...
The Spirit Level’s Political Wobble: The Inequality Debate Rages On
Wilkinson and Pickett’s The Spirit Level: why equality is better for everyone is an admirable book and has generated a long-overdue debate about the high social costs of inequality. Inequality is not just about the poor staying poor; it is about th...
Is the demand for Gay Marriage down?
This is a question no one is asking after LGBT Noise’s March For Marriage on Sunday. In 2009 Over 3,000 people took part in that Year’s March For Marriage. This year the number is down to 2000 (Figure from Irish Times). That is compared...
New Journal Articles on ECHR
Summer brings a range of new articles on the European Convention and the European Court in various academic journals on human rights. The newest Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 10-3, 2010) includes:* Alastair Mowbray, 'The Interlaken Declaration—The...
The Roma of France: beware of oversimplification
We could easily agree that the plight of the Roma, as accurately and alarmingly portrayed by George Soros on this Social Europe website, remains a human tragedy of unprecedented historical proportions. The Roma’s unremitting story of poverty, (se...
The Plight of the Roma
The Roma have been persecuted across Europe for centuries. Now they face a form of discrimination unseen in Europe since World War II: group evictions and expulsions from several European democracies of men, women, and children on the grounds that th...
Expelling the Roma: Is It Legal?
The recent police operation in France leading to the expulsion of thousands of Roma citizens of Romania and Bulgaria has been a hot topic in the news for some time. Now Euractiv reports that Italy has also plans to expel … Continue reading U...
Militant Democracy, Religion, and the ECtHR
Patrick Macklem of the University of Toronto has posted 'Guarding the Perimeter: Militant Democracy and Religious Freedom in Europe' on SSRN. It covers the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the religion-state nexus. This is th...
Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up
I can only imagine what a tense morning it must have been for A-level students awaiting their exam results last Thursday. I still remember my own results day, more years ago than I care to think. It was great to read about all kinds of achieve...
Rene Cuperus: Christian-democrats prefer islamophobic populists
Christian-democrats prefer islamophobic populists from Social Europe Journal by Rene Cuperus In the Netherlands, like in Belgium, the formation of a new cabinet is underway. In these small, but ultracomplex coalition countries, it takes weeks and w...
Stop Basildon evicting Roma and Travellers!
. URGENT: Stop the evictions from Dale Farm! Dear Friends, More than 20 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans at Hovefields Drive, nearby the largest Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller community in the United Kingdom, Dale Farm, Essex C...
Editorial: Gypsy and Roma People in Europe
The Roma people have long been at the heart of controversies, especially in Europe where they represent one of the largest ethnic minorities, with 10 to 12 million people distributed over many countries. The majority of Roma people suffer extreme lev...
Gypsies, Travellers, Roma: the Black Sheep of Europe
Many different names to actually talk about the same people. The difference between them? They live in various countries, from one end of the Old Continent to the other. The Roma, who arrived in Europe in the 16th century, speak the Romani language,...
Useful idiots…and Galloway
Dan Katz, of Workers Liberty, caught a BBC World Service programme I missed: The question that John Sweeney’s programme posed was interesting: why have so many seemingly intelligent people turned themselves into apologists for terrible, brutal, mur...
End Legal Loan Sharking
It is nice to see that Compass has decided to campaign for an end legal loan sharking. I have blogged about this particular issue about a year ago and also suggested at a FEPS meeting that this is something that should be banned everywhere the single...
Gypsy Gotev
The Roma expulsions from France are stirring controversy. It is difficult not to take sides. What I dislike most in the whole story, is hypocrisy. Sarkozy has a low rating and is obviously trying to please his core right-wing electorate. As the presi...
The Roma repatriation
It is a desperate way to survive. In many European cities you can find women begging for money. Many of them are Roma. They squat on the Champs Elysees. They stand by the Brandenburg gate in Berlin or in the...
Court Statistics Halfway 2010
The Court has published two documents (a pie chart and a table) which provide a snapshot of the current state of applications at the Court. The snapshot was taken exactly halfway the year, on 30 June 2010. As the table shows the majority of pending a...
‘Strong women don’t need asylum’ (the European Court on FGM)
Summertime in rainy Belgium! Relaxed after a sunny family holiday abroad, with no lectures or meetings on the agenda, I finally find some time to write a blog entry. Only to realize that it is August, and that the judges at the European Court of Hu...
Whisper it: Our health service is actually quite good.
Noel Whelan makes a very good point about cancer services in this piece, and also a general observation about media attitudes towards health-care in this country. It’s almost impossible to read a positive story in the Irish media about healt...
Article on Subsidiary Character of ECHR - Lithuania as Case Study
The newest issue of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law has been published (Volume 9, 2009). It includes an article on the relation of the European system of human rights protection to national jurisdictions by Danutė Jočienė, entitled 'The S...
UK versus USA and EU: Oceans apart on fundamental rights
After yesterday’s blog posts on a new pocket-sized version of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and basic information about the Council of Europe and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, it is time to turn to the odd man out among civ...
New tools needed to relieve malaria burden in Africa, study finds
Researchers in the UK have demonstrated that the tools currently available for combating malaria could dramatically reduce the burden of malignant malaria on parts of Africa if a comprehensive, sustained intervention programme were in place.
Council of Europe and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
This is an introductory post for those who need basic information about the Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union. Human rights, democracy and the rule of law are the hallmarks of the pan-European Council of Europe (CoE; Wikip...
Pocket-size European Human Rights
The Council of Europe (CoE) has published a small and convenient booklet with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as amended by the provisions of Protocol No. 14 which entered into force on 1 June 2010. The Online Bookshop of the Council...
Protection of Human Rights from Tyranny of the Ballot Box
As we here in the US know, Proposition 8 in California has been, rightfully, struck down. The challenge by opponents and action to affirm the rights of Gay minorities indicates the strength of American courts to challenge and defeat discriminatory me...
EU Opens Access to Studies on Drug Side Effects
The European Medicines Agency agreed to make available reports on possible side effects of drugs it has on file, adding a significant weapon to the arsenal of citizens pursuing lawsuits against drug companies.
İnan Suver: Conscientious objector arrested
TURKEY: Conscientious objector İnan Suver arrested from KARAKOK OTONOMU TR/CH War Resisters’ International has been informed today that Turkish conscientious objector İnan Suver has been arrested today while trying to get an ID paper from the off...
Melek Çetin begins to comment on Constitutional changes: Equality before the Law
Erkan’s Field Diary is really proud to present a new regular “guest author”: Melek Çetin. She will prepare a series of posts that discuss the proposed changes… Equality before the Law What do two sentences bring to women, chi...
"scientifically proved to be effective and safe"
This will be fun.According to the Eurpopean Communities Health Care Scheme (JSIS). Money spent on homeopathic remedies will be reimbursed if it,"has been scientifically proved to be effective and safe."We have sent in a question asking how many homeo...
Social Dialogue between strong Social Partners: Vital for Democracy, Vital for Europe
In most EU member states, social dialogue between trade unions and employers is an essential feature of the democratic process. Trade unions and employers negotiate pay and working conditions, and, in some countries, they also have a say in social se...
Public Health, Private choice.
You know when it a quite news period when Professor Steve Field's comments get front page staus in the Observer. There is so much wrong with his articlem, after a couple of basic platitudes that I leave it to the far more erudite Longrider to point y...
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is at imminent risk of execution
This is a press release from Iran Solidarity and the International Committee Against Stoning The victim in the Iran stoning case, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is at imminent risk of execution in Tabriz prison. Moreover, her well known human rights l...
Now Sweden considers restrictions on the Burka
The education minister was talking to public radio and said,“Teaching is communication. It’s about being able to look at each other in the eyes and communicate with each other,” Jan Bjoerklund told Swedish public radio.“In that way, I mean it...
Suffer the Little Children
Labour’s General Election campaign should have featured more women. Labour’s record on increasing women’s representation is one to be proud of, yet it is taken for granted. It should be better and I will continue to campaign for mo...
Practicing ill-treatment
In Davydov and others v. Ukraine, the European Court of Human Rights was confronted with particularly disturbing facts. The case concerned ill-treatment committed by special forces on prisoners during training exercises. Not during an actual emergenc...
Legitimacy of Human Rights Review at the ECtHR
Professor Andreas Føllesdal of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights has posted 'The Legitimacy of International Human Rights Review: The Case of the European Court of Human Rights' on SSRN. The article, published in the Journal of Social Philosophy...
Europe: Speak up on Rights and Citizenship!
It's been disturbing over the last week or so to read about the state of politics in Europe when it comes to the Roma community and immigration. There's a great post over at 1848 that picks up on a Guardian story of the treatment of the Roma across t...
