Human Rights Comment
Countries of the former Yugoslavia need to step up their efforts to resolve cases of missing persons
The presidents of Serbia and Croatia have met on several occasions recently and the issue of missing persons has been high on their agenda. It has been reported that the president of Serbia, Mr Boris Tadic, brought with him important documents to the latest meeting concerning persons who have...
Human Rights Comment
Desecrations of cemeteries are hate crimes that exacerbate intolerance
Every second day a cemetery is desecrated in France. Acts of profanation, such as the destructions of tombs and sprayed hate messages on religious and other symbolic places, are on the rise in Europe. This is not just an issue of serious concern for the respect of religious freedom – these are...
Human Rights Comment
Europe should accept more refugees in need of safe resettlement
European countries are closing their borders to migrants, arguing that they have room only for “genuine” refugees, who cannot return to their home countries without risking their lives or freedom. Yet Europe’s role to help such refugees into safety is relatively small. More ought to be done in...
Human Rights Comment
European Muslims are stigmatised by populist rhetoric
European countries appear to face another crisis beyond budget deficits – the disintegration of human values. One symptom is the increasing expression of intolerance towards Muslims. The Swiss referendum banning the building of minarets was no exception: opinion polls in several European...
Human Rights Comment
Freedom to demonstrate is a human right – even when the message is critical
Sunday 31 October will be a test for the effectiveness in practice of the right to peaceful assembly, which is enshrined in Article 31 of the Russian Constitution. For more than a year “Strategy 31” rallies have been held in Moscow, St Petersburg and some other Russian cities on months with that...
Human Rights Comment
Inhuman treatment of persons with disabilities in institutions
The prosecutor general in Bulgaria has initiated criminal investigations into 166 deaths and 30 more cases of abuse of children living in state homes for young people with mental disabilities. This was an important signal not only for the Bulgarian authorities but for several other states with...
Human Rights Comment
Airlines are not immigration authorities
European states seek to reduce immigration through improper threats of sanctions against airlines and other transport companies. They pass heavy responsibility on to the carriers in order to limit access to their territories. Travel personnel, who cannot possibly have the appropriate competencies...
Human Rights Comment
The public has the right to know what those they elected are doing
Voters have the right to know about the decisions taken by their elected politicians and public administrations. The need for such transparency is recognised in principle in several European countries, but is not yet a reality throughout large parts of the continent. While the authorities collect...
Human Rights Comment
The ‘Dublin Regulation’ undermines refugee rights
The asylum procedures of European countries are still flawed – they need to be improved and better harmonised. One of the necessary reforms is to overhaul the dysfunctional so-called Dublin Regulation within the European Union. Under the Dublin system, the responsibility for examining asylum...
Human Rights Comment
Do not stigmatise Roma
Repatriation of Roma EU citizens is now common in several European countries. France’s crackdown on crime has specifically targeted Roma from Romania and Bulgaria. And France is not alone. Italy, for instance, has arrested and deported a considerable number of Romanian Roma in the last few years....
Human Rights Comment
Forced divorce and sterilisation – a reality for many transgender persons
The rights of transgender persons are still ignored or violated, but some signs of understanding now begin to appear. One example is the outcome, at long last, of Lydia Foy’s struggle in Ireland. She was registered as male at birth but has lived as a woman since 1992. This summer she finally...
Human Rights Comment
Refugee children should have a genuine chance to seek asylum
The real asylum policies in Europe today largely ignore children among refugees. They are often not listened to and rather treated as if they were possessions belonging to their parents. It is often forgotten that they could have their own reasons for seeking protection. Some of them do. When...
Human Rights Comment
Stateless Roma: no documents – no rights
Tens of thousands of Roma live in Europe without a nationality. Lacking birth certificates, identity cards, passports and other documents, they are often denied basic rights such as education, healthcare, social assistance and the right to vote. The exclusion and marginalisation that Roma persons...
Human Rights Comment
Elderly across Europe live in extreme hardship and poverty
Hundreds of thousands of elderly persons across Europe are struggling for their everyday survival. Many suffer a shocking level of poverty. They tend to be ignored by politicians and are often seen as being non-productive and worthless in modern society. The human rights of the older generation...
Human Rights Comment
Landmines still kill in Europe: Time for an absolute ban
There have been more than 3 000 casualties caused by landmines in Europe in the last ten years. Anti-personnel landmines continue to kill or maim indiscriminately long after wars have finished. They are therefore banned under international law. However, this prohibition has not been effectively...
Human Rights Comment
Those responsible for the death of Natalia Estemirova must be brought to justice
One year has passed since human rights defender Natalia Estemirova was brutally murdered. On 15 July 2009 she was abducted near her house in Grozny, Chechnya. She was pushed into a car by several assailants and some hours later her body was found in a forest in Ingushetia. She had been shot in...
Human Rights Comment
Children victimised when families are forced to return to Kosovo
Several thousand persons have been forcibly returned to Kosovo by west European states in the last few years, mainly from Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. Among the returnees have been persons belonging to minorities, and in particular Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians. For them these...
Human Rights Comment
European states should respect advice by UNHCR
Advice by the authoritative United Nations refugee agency is nowadays not sufficiently respected by governments and state agencies in Europe. Strong recommendations by UNHCR have simply been ignored in a number of recent cases. This policy puts refugees at risk and undermines the agreed...
Human Rights Comment
Atrocities in the past must be recognised, documented and learned from - but not distorted or misused for political purposes
Gross human rights violations in the past continue to affect relations in today’s Europe. In some cases the right lessons have been learned; genuine knowledge of history has facilitated understanding, tolerance and trust between individuals and peoples. However, some serious atrocities are denied...
Human Rights Comment
Rulings anywhere that women must wear the burqa should be condemned - but banning such dresses here would be wrong
Prohibition of the burqa and the niqab would not liberate oppressed women, but might instead lead to their further alienation in European societies. A general ban on such attires would constitute an ill-advised invasion of individual privacy. Depending on its precise terms, a prohibition also...
Human Rights Comment
European migration policies discriminate against Roma people
European governments are not giving Roma migrants the same treatment as others who are in similar need of protection. Roma migrants are returned by force to places where they are at risk of human rights violations. In Germany, Austria and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, large...
Human Rights Comment
The Strasbourg Court is a source of hope for many – its continued effective functioning must be guaranteed
The European Court of Human Rights has been overwhelmed by the response from ordinary people all over Europe. More than fifty thousand applications were received during 2009 and the number of pending cases is now well over one hundred thousand. These figures underline the need to reform the...
Human Rights Comment
Language rights of national minorities must be respected – their denial undermines human rights and causes inter-communal tensions
Language rights have become an issue of contention within several European countries, and as a consequence also between neighbouring states. While some governments take steps to strengthen the standing of the official language, national minorities are concerned that their linguistic rights are...
Human Rights Comment
Impunity for rape of women has to be stopped
Sexual assault crimes must be taken more seriously by governments and parliaments. The injuries inflicted by rape are deep and long-lasting, in many cases gravely hurting the physical and psychological integrity of the victims. Though these crimes are largely hidden and their precise scale is...
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- Human rights defenders
- Justice system
- Lgbti
- Media freedom
- Migration
- Persons with disabilities
- Racism
- Roma
- Statelessness
- Terrorism
- Torture
- Transitional justice
- Violence
- Women's rights
Human Rights Comment
Austerity budgets will cause further child poverty
While the European Union promoted 2010 as the “European Year Against Poverty”, several member states presented austerity budgets which will inevitably push more people into destitution. There are already large numbers of children among the poor, and it is obvious that the struggle against child...
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