Regions request support from the EU and demand to have a voice in Brussels, with "Sign it Europe"

“The initiative was started by the Seklers of Transylvania, though it concerns not only them but many other national regions of the EU”, says their website.

The minority regions of the European Union feel forgotten by the executive authorities. Aid from European funds overlooks these territories, whose linguistic, cultural, ethnic, and religious differences contribute to the diversity of the community. The Sign It Europe initiative aims to get the support needed for Brussels to support these regions financially.

The success and strength of the European Union is based on the union of its territories, including their different national, ethnic, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics. While in the case of the major countries these differences are taken into account, the surrounding regions, which do not have administrative powers, are forgotten by the institutions on a daily basis.

The EU must ensure the proper economic development of these regions, preventing their economic backwardness, maintaining their development, and preserving the conditions for economic, social, and territorial cohesion. To this end, it must provide all territories with the same opportunities to access its funds, as well as caring for and preserving the specific characteristics of each people, maintaining the development of the EU and its cultural diversity.

PROTECT THE THOUSAND-YEAR-OLD MINORITY NATIONS OF THE EU!

www.signiteurope.com

The Sign It Europe initiative was created with the aim of helping European minority regions to access EU funds, preserving Europe’s ethnic diversity, and to establish a specific funding system for territorial development policy that is direct, exclusive and accessible to regional territories. A campaign of signatures with which to demonstrate in Brussels, the EU’s headquarters, the importance of this issue.

“The initiative is not about protecting minorities. We Europeans are a group of communities of people and nations living in different countries. We represent the majorities that make up each country, which has been able to maintain themselves over time. Now is the time to join the regional territories to have influence in Europe, it is the time to act. Our voices have to be heard in Brussels,” said the organization’s sources.

This campaign, which has a deadline of 7 November 2020, will enable the EU to actively contribute to supporting cultural and linguistic diversity, providing the necessary financial support to the different territories, for the full development of their own language, culture, folklore, and identity within their own country.

“By signing our Citizens’ Initiative you will help European nations to build and preserve the different cultures that make them up. If we succeed in reaching the required signature from EU countries, the European Commission will take the appropriate steps to implement this support. Together, with everyone’s support, we will achieve the conservation and preservation of the essence of Europe and all its territories,” they have said.

Visit www.signiteurope.com to sign the petition.

France: The “Law Against Separatism” Targets “Cults” as well as Islam

Anti-cultism is back in France. Media around the world have covered President Macron’s announcement of a new law against “separatism,” explaining it as a measure against radical Islam. It is surely true that Islam is targeted but, not for the first time, a law introduced to fight Islamic radical groups is then used against other religious movements. The Russian law against extremism is an obvious example.

The “general concept” of the law has been unveiled by the French Minister of Internal Affairs, Gérald Darmanin, on Twitter, as it is now increasingly common on world politics. We publish the document tweeted by Darmanin, to make it more easily accessible.

The draft announces the “end of home schooling” in general, “except in cases justified by medical conditions.” Obviously, this provision will target a number of Christian communities and not the Muslims only.

The draft also explains that places of worship will be put under increasing surveillance and “preserved […] from the diffusion of ideas and statements hostile to the laws of the Republic.” Again, the law cannot target Muslims only for obvious constitutional reasons. What about a priest or pastor criticizing abortion or same-sex marriage, which are part of the laws of the French Republic, but also claiming that certain “laws of the Republic” penalize the poor and the immigrants?

Hidden in a law ostensibly aimed at Islamic radicalization is a provision that allows religious and other associations to be dissolved (the Russian word “liquidated” is not used, but the substance is very much the same) in case of  “attacks on personal dignity” and “use of psychological or physical pressures.”

When reading this, and considering the French anti-cult tradition, I immediately suspected that the provision will be used against groups labeled as “cults,” and “psychological pressures” is reminiscent of the old idea of “brainwashing.” In Darmanin’s tweet the Minister of Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, was copied.

On October 10, Schiappa gave an interview to Le Parisien confirming that “we will use the same measures against the cults and against radical Islam.” Last year, the official French anti-cult mission MIVILUDES was moved from being an independent structure under the Prime Minister to becoming a part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ anti-radicalization system. Anti-cultists protested that this may lead to the demise of the MIVILUDES, but Schiappa now explains that with the new law it will be reinforced and move from mere “analysis” to a more active role. The former politician and anti-cult activist Georges Fenech and the president of the largest French anti-cult organization, UNADFI, Joséphine Lindgren-Cesbron, will become members of the MIVILUDES. Anti-cult propaganda will be further promoted. Among the main aims indicated by Schiappa is identifying the “cults” that could be legally dissolved and banned because of “attacks on personal dignity” and “use of psychological or physical pressures.”

Much in the new draft law is constitutionally problematic, not to mention possible interventions of the European Court of Human Rights. These developments confirm, however, that anti-cultism is alive and well in France and that, as in happened in other countries, what is introduced as “a law against radical Islam” may end up targeting a wide variety of religious organizations.

Source: https://www.cesnur.org/2020/law-against-separatism-in-france.htm

World Community must take steps to ensure repealing of laws mandating death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy

This World Day Against Death Penalty The International Community must take immediate steps to ensure states repeal laws which mandate the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy

As the World Day Against Death Penalty approaches over 10 countries still have the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy.

Sixteen organisations, from different faiths and none, have submitted a letter to all UN member states urging them to take immediate steps to address this and to protect fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom, freedom of expression, and the right to adopt, leave or change their religion or belief.

In the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia,  the Republic of Maldives, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, several states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Federal Republic of Somalia, United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of Yemen^[1] the courts can sentence an individual to death if they leave the state religion or express a dissenting opinion about the religion.

The death penalty, even when not applied, is used to pressure individuals to recant and to not practice publicly. One ex-Muslim described the laws as being a constant, “sword over our throats.” The UN Secretary General has noted this concern saying that even where a moratorium is in place the laws have, “a chilling effect on the legitimate exercise of human rights.”^[2]

The death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy has also been shown to incite violence by non-state actors against those who leave or question the religion. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has said, “where domestic laws provide for the death penalty for religious offence, it is more likely that the existence of such laws will encourage vigilante mobs or zealots to murder those alleged to have violated those laws.” The most recent example was in July 2020, when a man shot dead Tahir Ahmed Naseem, who was on trial for blasphemy in Pakistan.

The hope is that this effort will increase the pressure on countries to repeal their laws on the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy following Sudan’s repeal this year, and further expedite countries’ full compliance with international human rights standards including the freedom of expression, and the right to adopt, leave or change religion or belief.

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^[1] Global Legal Research Directorate Staff; Goitom, Hanibal. Laws Criminalizing Apostasy, 1 June 2014, www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/index.php. Some regions in Northern Nigeria also have the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy.

^[2] UN Human Rights Council, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, Capital punishment and the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, A/HRC/42/28 (28 August 2019), available from undocs.org/en/A/HRC/42/28.

10.08.2020.-World-Day-Against-Death-PenaltyDownload

Jaswant Singh Khalra was remembered at the Human Rights Council

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of Jaswant Singh Kharla CAP Freedom of Conscience, United Sikhs, Khalra Mission Organization and the author of the book The Valiant – Jaswant Singh Khalra  Gurmeet Kaur made a statement to the UN during the 45th session of the Human Rights Council.

According to the president of CAP LC,

“it is time for the truth to be revealed and for the families of the victims to know the truth about the fate of their loved one” and continued saying that “it is the duty of the Indian authorities to shed light on this crime against humanity”. (Their full statement can be seen here)

Jaswant Singh Kharla’s crime is to have uncovered, according to his book

“thousands of state-enforced disappearances, illegal detentions, custodial killings, and mass cremations of the Sikhs under government’s orders, which constitute the Sikh genocide”.

After its discovery Jaswant Singh Kharla  took as his mission to stop the “government’s tyranny” by exposing and “holding it accountable through legal means”. 

On January 16, 1995, he made public evidence of 3,100 illegal cremations of disappeared persons in just three crematoria from one out of the then thirteen districts in Punjab. He estimated there were a total of 25,000 cremations of disappeared persons throughout the state.

On September 6, 1995, Jaswant Singh Khalra  himself was abducted in broad daylight, tortured in illegal custody for 52 days before being shot dead; his body dismembered and dumped into the very canal that was used to dispose other bodies that he had set out to find.

Author Gurmeet Kaur who wrote The Valiant – Jaswant Singh Khalra said:

“Twenty-five years later, we hope the government will not obstruct efforts to document the gravity of the state-sponsored genocide before nature takes its course and the aging witnesses and parents of the disappeared die”.