UNHCR: World leaders must act to reverse the trend of soaring displacement

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today urging world leaders to step up their efforts to foster peace, stability and cooperation in order to halt and begin reversing nearly a decade-long trend of surging displacement driven by violence and persecution.

Despite the pandemic, the number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations in 2020 rose to nearly 82.4 million people, according to UNHCR’s latest annual Global Trends report released today in Geneva. This is a further four per cent increase on top of the already record-high 79.5 million at the end of 2019.

The report shows that by the end of 2020 there were 20.7 million refugees under UNHCR mandate, 5.7 million Palestine refugees and 3.9 million Venezuelans displaced abroad. Another 48 million people were internally displaced (IDPs) within their own countries. A further 4.1 million were asylum-seekers. These numbers indicate that despite the pandemic and calls for a global ceasefire, conflict continued to chase people from their homes.

“Behind each number is a person forced from their home and a story of displacement, dispossession and suffering. They merit our attention and support not just with humanitarian aid, but in finding solutions to their plight.”

“While the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Global Compact on Refugees provide the legal framework and tools to respond to displacement, we need much greater political will to address conflicts and persecution that force people to flee in the first place,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

Girls and boys under the age of 18 account for 42 per cent of all forcibly displaced people. They are particularly vulnerable, especially when crises continue for years. New UNHCR estimates show that almost one million children were born as refugees between 2018 and 2020. Many of them may remain refugees for years to come.

“The tragedy of so many children being born into exile should be reason enough to make far greater efforts to prevent and end conflict and violence,” said Grandi.

The report also notes that at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, over 160 countries had closed their borders, with 99 States making no exception for people seeking protection. Yet with improved measures – such as medical screenings at borders, health certification or temporary quarantine upon arrival, simplified registration procedures and remote interviewing, more and more countries found ways to ensure access to asylum while trying to stem the spread of the pandemic.

While people continued to flee across borders, millions more were displaced within their own countries. Driven mostly by crises in Ethiopia, Sudan, Sahel countries, Mozambique, Yemen, Afghanistan and Colombia the number of internally displaced people rose by more than 2.3 million.

Over the course of 2020, some 3.2 million IDPs and just 251,000 refugees returned to their homes –a 40 and 21 per cent drop, respectively, compared to 2019. Another 33,800 refugees were naturalized by their countries of asylum. Refugee resettlement registered a drastic plunge – just 34,400 refugees were resettled last year, the lowest level in 20 years – a consequence of reduced number of resettlement places and Covid-19.

“Solutions require global leaders and those with influence to put aside their differences, end an egoistic approach to politics, and instead focus on preventing and solving conflict and ensuring respect for human rights,” said Grandi.

UNHCR 2020 Global Trends Report – key data:

• 82.4 million people forcibly displaced globally (79.5 million in 2019) – a 4 per cent increase
  • 26.4 million refugees (26.0 million in 2019) including:
    • 20.7 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate (20.4 million in 2019)
    • 5.7 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate (5.6 million in 2019)
  • 48.0 million internally displaced people (45.7 million in 2019)
  • 4.1 million asylum-seekers (4.1 million in 2019)
  • 3.9 million Venezuelans displaced abroad (3.6 million in 2019)
• 2020 is the ninth year of uninterrupted rise in forced displacement worldwide. Today, one per cent of humanity is displaced and there are twice as many forcibly displaced people than in 2011 when the total was just under 40 million.
• More than two thirds of all people who fled abroad came from just five countries: Syria (6.7 million), Venezuela (4.0 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million), South Sudan (2.2 million) and Myanmar (1.1 million).
• Vast majority of world’s refugees – nearly nine in 10 refugees (86 per cent) – are hosted by countries neighbouring crises areas and low- and middle-income countries. The Least Developed Countries provided asylum to 27 per cent of the total.
• For the seventh year in a row, Turkey hosted the largest refugee population worldwide (3.7 million refugees), followed by Colombia (1.7 million, including Venezuelans displaced abroad), Pakistan (1.4 million), Uganda (1.4 million) and Germany (1.2 million).
• Pending asylum applications globally remained at 2019 levels (4.1 million), but States and UNHCR collectively registered some 1.3 million individual asylum applications, one million fewer than in 2019 (43 per cent less).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Join the World Drug Day campaign, #ShareFactsOnDrugs and #SaveLives

2021 THEME

“Share Facts On Drugs, Save Lives”

The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, or World Drug Day, is marked on 26 June every year, to strengthen action and cooperation in achieving the goal of a world free of drug abuse.

And each year, individuals like yourself, entire communities, and various organizations all over the world join in on this global observance, to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent for society.

Together, we can tackle the world drug problem!

What Can You Do?

All you have to do is #ShareFactsOnDrugs to help #SaveLives.

Do your part and combat misinformation by sharing the real facts on drugs — from health risks and solutions to tackle the world drug problem, to evidence-based prevention, treatment, and care.

1)    Know the facts

2)    Only share information from verified sources, like UNODC

And you can start now. Get engaged by sharing the right facts on drugs right from our Twitter and Facebook channels.

You can also access and share our social media resources and support us in promoting the facts on drugs.

What UNODC Does

Every year, UNODC issues the World Drug Report, full of key statistics and factual data obtained through official sources, a science-based approach and research.

UNODC continues to provide facts and practical solutions to address the current world drug problem, and remains committed to attaining a vision of health for all based on science.

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented public awareness on health, protective measures for staying healthy, and most importantly, and on  protecting each other. A growing sense of global community and solidarity continues to emerge, as does the need to ensure health care for all.

World Drug Day is a day to share research findings, evidence-based data and life-saving facts, and to continue tapping into a shared spirit of solidarity.

UNODC invites everyone to do their part, by taking a firm stance against misinformation and unreliable sources; while committing to sharing only the real science-backed data on drugs and save lives.

By working together, we can tackle the world drug problem.

What happens if you eat cherries every day?

What happens if you eat cherries every day

The season of fruits and berries has arrived. And already on every counter, you can find ripe, tasty, and most importantly, healthy cherries – it’s hard to resist. But what will happen to the body if you include it in your daily diet? Let’s tell you now.

Memory may improve

Sweet cherries are rich in anthocyanin, a compound that has a beneficial effect on memory and brain function in general.

100 day to anniversary of United Nations "Peace Day", UN chief urges: Stand up against hatred and care for planet

Every year on 21 September, the United Nations invites people around the world to celebrate peace by observing 24 hours of ceasefire and non-violence. On Sunday, the UN chief kicked off the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace.

As we strive to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic and reimagine a better future for people and planet, Secretary-General António Guterres introduced this year’s theme: “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.”

Regardless of ethnicity, location or religion, the virus attacks everyone.

Confronting this common enemy, we must remember that we are not each other’s enemy.

To be able to recover from the devastation of the pandemic, we must make peace with one another.

“Peace is the foundation of that recovery. The global vaccination effort cannot advance amidst armed conflict”, he said in his countdown message.

Moving forward

Moreover, the top UN official underscored that we cannot build a sustainable, resilient and peaceful world while we are “at war with nature”.

“The world cannot go back to what it was”, he stressed.

The Secretary-General upheld that COVID recovery efforts offer humanity an opportunity to transform its relationship with the environment and the entire planet.

“As we count down to the International Day of Peace, I call on people everywhere to be part of a transformation for peace, by standing up against hatred and discrimination, by caring for the planet, and by showing the global solidarity that is so vital at this time”, he concluded.

Looking back

The International Day of Peace was established by the UN General Assembly in 1981.

Two decades later, in 2001, the Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire.

Record: A South African woman gave birth to 10 babies conceived naturally

Gossiame Tamara Sitole, 37, and her husband now have 6-year-old twins

A 37-year-old South African woman broke the Guinness World Record after giving birth to 10 babies in a hospital in Pretoria, Pretoria News reported.

Gossiame Tamara Sitole and her husband Teboho Coteci already have 6-year-old twins and were shocked when doctors initially told Gossiame that they saw 6 babies in the video area. The woman became pregnant naturally and was never treated for infertility, as is common in multiple pregnancies.

The WHO seeks to end human rights violations in psychiatry

The mental health care services in Europe and globally in the main continues to be provided in psychiatric wards and hospitals. As The European Times is documenting human rights abuses and coercive practices in these facilities are common. The World Health Organization (WHO) in new guidance material released this week evidence that providing community-based mental health care that is both respectful of human rights and focused on recovery is proving successful and cost-effective.

Mental health care recommended in the new guidance by WHO should be located in the community and should not only encompass mental health care but also support for day-to-day living, such as facilitating access to accommodation and links with education and employment services.

WHO’s new “Guidance on community mental health services: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches” further affirms that mental health care must be grounded in a human rights-based approach, as recommended by the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2020-2030 endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2021.

Fast transition to redesigned mental health services required

“This comprehensive new guidance provides a strong argument for a much faster transition from mental health services that use coercion and focus almost exclusively on the use of medication to manage symptoms of mental health conditions, to a more holistic approach that takes into account the specific circumstances and wishes of the individual and offers a variety of approaches for treatment and support,” said Dr Michelle Funk of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, who led the development of the guidance.

Since the adoption of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006, an increasing number of countries have sought to reform their laws, policies and services related to mental health care. All European countries have signed and ratified this Convention. However, to date, few countries have established the frameworks necessary to meet the far-reaching changes required by international human rights standards.

Reports from around the world highlight that severe human rights abuses and coercive practices are still far too common in countries of all income levels. Examples include forced admission and forced treatment; manual, physical and chemical restraint; unsanitary living conditions; and physical and verbal abuse.

The majority of government mental health budgets still goes to psychiatric hospitals

According to WHO’s latest estimates, governments spend less than 2% of their health budgets on mental health. Furthermore, the majority of reported expenditure on mental health is allocated to psychiatric hospitals, except in high-income countries where the figure is around 43%.

The new guidance, which is intended primarily for people with responsibility for organizing and managing mental health care, presents details of what is required in areas such as mental health law, policy and strategy, service delivery, financing, workforce development and civil society participation in order for mental health services to be compliant with the CRPD.

It includes examples from countries including Brazil, India, Kenya, Myanmar, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom of community-based mental health services that have demonstrated good practices in respect of non-coercive practices, community inclusion, and respect of people’s legal capacity (i.e. the right to make decisions about their treatment and life).

Services include crisis support, mental health services provided within general hospitals, outreach services, supported living approaches and support provided by peer groups. Information about financing and results of evaluations of the services presented are included. Cost comparisons provided indicate that the community-based services showcased produce good outcomes, are preferred by service users and can be provided at comparable cost to mainstream mental health services.

“Transformation of mental health service provision must, however, be accompanied by significant changes in the social sector,” said Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. “Until that happens, the discrimination that prevents people with mental health conditions from leading full and productive lives will continue.”

Patients see psychiatric restraints as torture

The widespread use of a variety of coercive measures in psychiatry has a strong and traumatic impact on patients. Stronger than the psychiatric staff actually believe.

The European Times reported that studies have looked at the patient’s viewpoints of the use of coercion in psychiatric services. In a 2016 study by Paul McLaughlin of the Unit for Social & Community Psychiatry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development in England, he and the co-authors reported, that: “qualitative studies consistently show that coercive measures can be experienced by patients as humiliating and distressing.”

Studies make it clear that there may be very serious problems related to the use of force and coercion in psychiatry. The use of seclusion and restrain have been investigated and reported on in hundreds of publications that are available through the medical bibliographical database Medline.

Professor of psychiatry, Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino, carried out an analysis of the views of patients who had been subjected to the use of seclusion and restraints. The analysis was based on a review of 300 Medline publications that were available in 2004. In a lecture to the Association of European Psychiatrists’ 12th European Congress of Psychiatry she stated based on this review, that: “in all the studies that have studied patients’ negative experiences the patients have emphasized the experience that it has been a punishment.”

Prof. Kaltiala-Heino specified,

“So, many of the patients think that they have been secluded or restrained because they were punished for some behaviour that was unacceptable or because of a breaking of rules of the board. From more than half of the patients up to almost 90 percent of the patients in various studies have reported that they perceive seclusion as punishment even as torture.”

Coercion causing psychiatric symptoms

Prof. Kaltiala-Heino added, “And patients have also reported increase in a number of psychiatric symptoms including depression, suicidal ideation, hallucinations, loss of contact with reality. So, they feel depersonalized and de-realization experiences have been reported. Patients have also reported persisting nightmares in which they in kind of in their eyes are featured in the seclusion processes, the seclusion situation, the seclusion room of being locking in or tied. It can easily be traced back to the experience of seclusion or restraint.”

The use of such interventions not only may be humiliating and seen as punishment or torture, they also cause strong feeling against the psychiatric staff. In the studies patients talk about, and discuss the anger against the staff who carried out the procedure.

Patients who themselves had been secluded also felt angry and threatened when others were being secluded indicating the lasting traumatic effect the use of seclusion and restraint may have.

Prof. Kaltiala-Heino further noted, that “in most of the studies that have concentrated on patients’ experiences of seclusion and restraint, the negative experiences reported greatly outnumber the positive aspects.”

Psychiatric staff misperceive the actual negative effect

Prof. Kaltiala-Heino said, that from the review of the studies one can conclude that: “staff assumes that patients have a much more positive experiences than what patients actually have.” And she added: “The patients also report much greater variety of negative experiences and much more, much stronger feeling of negative experiences than staff assume they have.”

The misperception goes even further. Prof. Kaltiala-Heino found that: “While staff believes that the seclusion primarily helps the patients, all the patients, the other patients in the ward … when the one who is behaving in the most disturbing and violent way is removed from the interactions. And secondly it benefits the patient her or himself – the target patient. And only in the third rank it is useful for the staff. Then patients who have been secluded actually think that it is the staffs who gains the most benefit of this processes and the least themselves – the persons who was secluded, him or herself.”

Prof. Kaltiala-Heino concluded that despite the research is sporadic and the methodology used is inconsistent that they all nevertheless point in the same direction, that: “the more powerful restriction and the more coercion is used, the more negative the experiences of the patients.”

UN welcomes creation of GlobE Network to end cross-border corruption

 © UNODC

New York, 3 June 2021 — The first ever UN General Assembly special session against corruption welcomed the launch of a new global network today to “develop a quick, agile and efficient tool for combatting cross-border corruption offences.”

The Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network) offers UN Member States and States parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) the ability to connect anti-corruption practitioners with their counterparts in different countries. It provides channels for secure and informal information exchange on specific cases, legislation, intelligence and anti-corruption tools.

“The Network will enable law enforcement authorities to navigate legal processes through informal cooperation across borders, helping to build trust and bring those guilty of corruption to justice,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a special video message. “We expect the Globe Network to empower all countries with practical solutions and tools to track, investigate and prosecute corruption, complementing existing frameworks.”

The GlobE Network was officially launched today at an in-person event at the Vienna International Centre, along with an online option. More than 340 representatives of Member States, anti-corruption authorities and law enforcement networks participated. They discussed the importance of timely cross-border cooperation to end corruption and the unique role of the GlobE Network.

“Conceived during the G20’s first-ever ministerial meeting on anti-corruption in 2020, this network will put into action an important provision of the Convention: the improvement of direct cooperation between law enforcement authorities,” said Ms. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“Many countries are still not able to access anti-corruption networks whether due to decentralized processes or lack of capacity and resources,“ said H.E. Mr. Mazin Ibrahim M Al Kahmous, President, Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, Nazaha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “The G20 ‘Riyadh Initiative’ to create the GlobE Network, is meant to address this gap.”

Initial funding for the GlobE Network was provided by the Government of Saudi Arabia during their G20 Presidency and as the chair of the Anti-Corruption Working Group of the G20. The GlobE Network will be headquartered in Vienna under the auspices of the UNODC.

For a list of speakers at today’s launch event, please click here.

A recording of today’s launch will be made available on the GlobE Network website at https://globenetwork.unodc.org

About the GlobE Network

The Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network) is a platform for secure peer-to-peer information exchange and informal cooperation to better track and prosecute cross-border corruption offences and recover stolen assets. Founded in 2021, the GlobE Network is open to anti-corruption law enforcement authorities in all UN Member States and States parties to the UN Convention against Corruption.

Visit: https://globenetwork.unodc.org

The European Union and the United Kingdom agree on fishing quotas

RTL.de>

Negotiations lasted six months

After Brexit, many areas of life and the economy between the EU and Great Britain will have to be renegotiated, including fishing. Because important fish stocks will continue to be jointly managed even after Great Britain leaves the European Union. After nearly half a year of negotiations, it is now possible to determine the catch quotas for these commonly used fish stocks.

The European Union Commission announced on Wednesday evening that the successful conclusion of the negotiations that began in January will create a solid basis for further cooperation in the field of fisheries. The agreement sets the total allowable catch for 75 of the joint fishing stocks for 2021 and for some deep-sea stocks for the years 2021 and 2022. It will also provide clarification on access restrictions for species that are not subject to quotas.

The responsible EU commissioner, Virginius Syncevicius, commented that the agreement creates predictability and continuity for the rest of the year. It is beneficial for fishermen, coastal communities and ports, but is also beneficial for the sustainable use of marine resources.

The negotiations were based on the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom agreed upon after Brexit at the end of 2020. In it, the contracting parties set themselves a common goal of “the application of the quota system to the management of common stocks, with a view to preserving the stocks of species that They are caught and gradually reduced by biomass values ​​at the highest possible level that a sustainable yield can be achieved.”

Together with Great Britain, the European Union manages large parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Fisheries has been the hardest part of the post-Brexit trade deal negotiations between the EU and the UK.(dpa/aze)

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EU Bishops address President von der Leyen: “The EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion should have adequate resources"

 

EU Bishops address President von der Leyen: “The EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion should have adequate resources” 

In a letter addressed to EC President von der Leyen on Wednesday 2 June 2021, the Bishops of the European Union recall the need of strengthening the EU Special Envoy of Freedom of Religion or Belief with institutional and financial support. Card. Hollerich: “reasonable and adequate resources are needed to promote this fundamental right under threat in many parts of the world.” 

 

On behalf of the Bishops of the European Union, H. Em. Jean-Claude Cardinal Hollerich SJ, President of COMECE, addressed a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, following the early-May 2021 statement welcoming the appointment of Christos Stylianides as ‘EU Special Envoy on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Religion and Belief outside the EU’. 

 

Cardinal Hollerich emphasises the remarkable work done by the EU mechanism since its creation in May 2016. The previous EU Special Envoy addressed challenging situations in many countries where freedom of thought, conscience and religion is seriously threatened or violented, “despite its limited mandate and resources”. 

 

In the letter, Cardinal Hollerich recalls the need of strengthening the EU mechanism, and requests EC President von der Leyen to support it “with reasonable and adequate human and financial resources that enable the EU Special Envoy to carry on his high responsibility, with a more ambitious and defined mandate and capacity”, as expressed by the January 2021 resolution of the European Parliament. 

 

The President of COMECE expresses Bishops’ satisfaction with the recent appointment of Stylianides, whose previous commitment as Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid opened “fresh space for cooperation with Churches and Faith-Based Organisations in humanitarian activities as well as for interreligious dialogue leading to a better protection of human rights and mutual understanding in conflict situations.” 

 

“His appointment – continues the letter – will give voice to the voiceless individuals and communities whose freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are violated, being subject to intolerance, discrimination and, in some cases, even, persecution.”

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Letter (EN)

Press Release: FR – DE – ES – IT

Council of Europe in big controversy on human rights abuse

A Committee of the Council of Europe is about to complete the work on a possible new legal instrument, that if approved will authorize states the continued use of practises deemed a violation of human rights by the United Nations. This include such practices as locking up persons or forcing certain medications on people, stated to be suffering from a mental disorder.

The Committee on Bioethics, a Committee working at the Committee of Ministers’ level of the Council of Europe is meeting this week to discuss a final draft of a new legal instrument that was to protect human rights and dignity of persons with mental disorders. The document however has received severe criticism culminating in the United Nations stepping in with a joint statement of its human rights experts requesting the delegates of the meeting to “object to the draft Additional Protocol in the upcoming meeting and we urge the Council of Europe to end legitimising forced institutionalization and the use of coercion against persons with disabilities, including older persons with disabilities.”

“we urge the Council of Europe to end legitimising forced institutionalization and the use of coercion against persons with disabilities, including older persons with disabilities“.

UN Experts

About the draft of Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe.

The United Nations experts, which include their Special Rapporteurs on rights to physical and mental health and on disability and the UN Committee specialised on Disability, stated that, “The coercive approach to mental health is doing harm to people with disabilities and we should not go backwards to authorize this outdated approach. People with psychosocial disabilities have the right to live in the community and to refuse medical treatment.”

Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE against the drafted Protocol

The statement follows a long series of protests already voiced. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has worked over several years looking in to the matter and already in 2016 issued a recommendation stating that “Involuntary placement and involuntary treatment procedures give rise to a large number of human rights violations in many member States, in particular in the context of psychiatry.”

The Parliamentary Assembly with the Recommendation stated, “While the Parliamentary Assembly understands the concerns that prompted the Committee on Bioethics to work on this issue, it has serious doubts about the added value of a new legal instrument in this field. Nevertheless, the Assembly’s main concern about the future additional protocol relates to an even more essential question: that of its compatibility with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” (read full Recommendation here)

The Parliamentary Assembly noted that the United Nations’ Committee monitoring this Convention “interprets Article 14 as prohibiting the deprivation of liberty on the basis of disability even if additional criteria, such as dangerousness to one’s self or others, are also used to justify it. The committee considers that mental health laws providing for such instances are incompatible with Article 14, are discriminatory in nature and amount to arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

Since then, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly issued another recommendation in 2019, “Ending coercion in mental health: the need for a human rights-based approach.” The Assembly reiterated “the urgent need for the Council of Europe, as the leading regional human rights organisation, to fully integrate the paradigm shift initiated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) into its work regarding the protection of human rights and dignity of persons with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities.”(full recommendation here)

In a follow-up Resolution, the Parliamentary Assembly noted that “The overall increase in the use of involuntary measures in mental health settings mainly results from a culture of confinement which focuses and relies on coercion to “control” and “treat” patients who are considered potentially “dangerous” to themselves or others.”

The Assembly based a concern on evidence from sociological research in the field on persons with mental health conditions “points to overwhelmingly negative experiences of coercive measures, including pain, trauma and fear. Involuntary “treatments” administered against the will of patients, such as forced medication and forced electroshocks, are perceived as particularly traumatic. They also raise major ethical issues, as they can cause irreversible damage to health.”

The Assembly further considered that “Mental health systems across Europe should be reformed to adopt a human rights-based approach which is compatible with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and is respectful of medical ethics and of the human rights of the people concerned, including of their right to health care on the basis of free and informed consent.”

Commissioner on Human Rights: the draft endanger protection

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner on Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, in a written comment to the Committee on Bioethics called on the Committee to not adopt the new legal instrument. She added that “While noting that the Committee on Bioethics started this work with the commendable intention of improving the protection of persons with psychosocial disabilities with regard to involuntary measures ordered in a medical context, she considers that the draft Additional Protocol [the new legal instrument], rather than satisfying that ambition, unfortunately risks provoking the opposite result.”

Civil society is against the draft

The International NGO Human Rights Watch in a statement on the Committee on Bioethics’ document noted “In what may seem like a contradiction, the Council of Europe—the continent’s leading human rights body—continues to pursue a new legal instrument that would undermine the rights of people with disabilities. Today’s meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics— the body responsible for this treaty known as the draft Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention on Bioethics, signals that states are prepared to adopt new rules regarding forced treatment and detention of people with psychosocial disabilities, despite existing human rights obligations.”

The European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) earlier called upon the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics to withdraw the document. They followed up with a new statement, that “The draft Additional Protocol creates the risk of a conflict between international norms at the global and European levels” as the document “lacks clear, strong procedural safeguards to ensure respect for the rights of persons with disabilities.”

The European Disability Forum, an umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities defending the interests of over 100 million persons with disabilities in the European Union, together with their members, in particular the European Network of (Ex)-Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, Mental Health Europe, Autism-Europe, Inclusion Europe and the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities, have been in strong opposition to the drafted new legal instrument and expressed deep concerns over the human rights violations potentially about to be undertaken by the Council of Europe.

These comments of the European disability representative organizations were also endorsed by the International Disability Alliance, an umbrella organisation bringing together over 1,100 organisations of persons with disabilities and their families from across eight global and six regional networks.

Committee on Bioethics is aware of the critics

Ms. Laurence Lwoff, the Head of Council of Europe’s Bioethics Unit told The European Times, that “The delegations to the Committee on Bioethics are aware of the statement released by UN Rights experts which will also be referred to at the meeting by the Chair of the Committee on Bioethics.” She refused that the Committee does have the intention to disregard the views expressed by the UN Rights experts.

The meeting at which the possible new legal instrument will be reviewed starts today. The European Times was informed that “it is not possible to attend the meetings of the Committee on Bioethics (as this is the general rule for any other intergovernmental committees’ meeting) which are not opened to the press.”

The meeting at which the possible new Legal instrument will be reviewed starts today. When the meeting is done, the Committee either have tied down the Council of Europe or as the UN Experts put it, used the “unique opportunity to shift away from old-fashioned coercive approaches to mental health, towards concrete steps to promote supportive mental health services in the community, and the realization of human rights for all without discrimination on the grounds of disability.”

This article has been referenced by the EDF

UNGASS 2021 – World leaders gather at first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session against corruption

© UNIS Vienna

Corruption thrives in times of crisis and the ongoing global COVID-19 health crisis has not been an exception . The urgent responses required during the pandemic create significant opportunities for corruption.

It is against this backdrop that for the first time in its history, the UN General Assembly is devoting a special session to corruption. From 2 to 4 June 2021, the world will come together at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss challenges and measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation.

The programme of UNGASS 2021 is available here.

SIDE EVENTS

Starting on 1 June, around 40 events on the sidelines of UNGASS 2021 will be held online, covering such topics as  corruption in the health sector, gender equality and anti-corruption efforts, stolen-asset recovery, whistleblower protection, and the  launch of the GlobE Network an initiative that promotes  quick and efficient global cross-border cooperation to end corruption.

For the list of side events and the agenda go to: ungass2021.unodc.org

UNGASS YOUTH FORUM

From 24 to 26 May, 850 young people from 122 countries gathered online for the UNGASS Youth Forum against Corruption to discuss the effect of corruption on young people, and how the international community can better empower youth to actively engage in and help lead the design of future anti-corruption efforts.

Discussions at the UNGASS Youth Forum are being summarized in a Statement. This call to action from young people will be presented by a Youth Forum representative to world leaders at UNGASS 2021.

More information about the UNGASS Youth Forum is available at: https://ungass2021.unodc.org/ungass2021/en/youth-forum.html