15 NGOs+ send letter to Secretary Blinken to throw pro-Russian anticult organization out from United Nations

On June 2, 15 NGOs plus 33 scholars and well-known activists have written to the US Secretary of State, to ask him to start a procedure to have the UN ECOSOC’s consultative status of the organization FECRIS withdrawn. It’s a very rare request based on the fact that affiliate associations of the FECRIS, a French “anti-sectarian” umbrella organization, has engaged in the Russian anti-western propaganda for years, and continued to support the Kremlin in ominous ways at the beginning of the war against Ukraine. We reproduce here the content of the letter followed by the list of signatories, which includes 15 prominent Ukrainian scholars.

Dear Secretary Blinken,
We write as an informal group of organizations and individuals who are religious and secular leaders, human rights advocates, practitioners, and scholars to respectfully urge you, as a member of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) at the United Nations (UN), to request the withdrawal of consultative status that is currently held by FECRIS (the European Federation of Centres for Research and Information on Sects and Cults) with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

This letter is a multi-faith initiative of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable, a multi-faith, inclusive (of all faiths and beliefs), equal citizenship forum that has proven it is possible to engage cooperatively and constructively across deep differences and increase mutual understanding, respect, trust, and reliance through joint advocacy actions.

While we hold an extremely broad diversity of theological views and political positions, we all agree on the importance of international religious freedom. It strengthens cultures and provides the foundation for stable democracies and their components, including civil society, economic growth, and social harmony. As such, it is also an effective counter-terrorism weapon as it pre-emptively undermines religious extremism. History and modern scholarship make it clear that where people are allowed to practice their faith freely, they are less likely to be alienated from the government, and more likely to be good citizens.
In signing this letter, we have opted into a multi-faith coalition to urge you to strip FECRIS of its consultative status with ECOSOC.

Indeed, per ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31, the consultative status of NGOs with ECOSOC shall be suspended up to three years or withdrawn in the following case:

If an organization, either directly or through its affiliates or representatives acting on its behalf, clearly abuses its status by engaging in a pattern of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations including unsubstantiated or politically motivated acts against Member States of the United Nations incompatible with those purposes and principles.

FECRIS is a French-based umbrella organization that coordinates with member associations in more than 40 EU countries, and beyond. It was created in 1994 by a French anti-cult association named UNADFI and receives all of its funding from the French government (while its member associations may receive funding from their own governments). In 2009, FECRIS was granted “ECOSOC Special Consultative Status” by the UN.

During its history, FECRIS and its members have accumulated a great number of civil and criminal convictions for their actions that defame minority religions and spread hate-speech against them.

From 2009 to 2021, Alexander Dvorkin, head of the Saint Irenaeus of Lyons Center for Religious Studies in Russia, served as Vice-President of FECRIS. Since 2021, he has continued to serve as a member of its board of directors. Dvorkin, on behalf of FECRIS, has been a key architect of the crackdown on religious minorities in Russia and beyond, as he spread his anti-religious propaganda and misinformation to other countries, including as far as China.

Moreover, Alexander Dvorkin has been a driver of the Anti-West propaganda of the Kremlin for years, and directly and publicly attacked the democratic institutions of Ukraine after the Euromaidan protests, accusing them of being members of cults (Baptists, Evangelicals, Greek Catholics, pagans and Scientologists) being used by Western secret services to harm Russia.

Further, Dvorkin and other members and correspondents of the Russian FECRIS have been involved in the constant propaganda, which prepared the ground and justified the current war in Ukraine, as a war against Western decadence and a war to protect Russian spiritual values.

During the first four weeks of the war in Ukraine, Russian FECRIS associations have been actively supporting the war and openly working with Russian law enforcement agencies to gather information on anyone who would oppose it or even just share information on the casualties in Ukraine.

At the same time, Russia has enacted a law that established a jail sentence of up to 15 years for any person “discrediting the armed forces,” which includes speaking of “war” instead of the official Russian term, “special military operation.”

Until now, no discipline has ever been taken against Dvorkin and/or Russian FECRIS associations for their actions that spread propaganda and catalyze discrimination and persecution of religious communities.

It is known and understood that FECRIS has known about the ideology and actions of its Russian members for years, and has continued to support them, nonetheless.
FECRIS as an entity must be held accountable for the activities of its Russian member associations for the following reasons:

While FECRIS has been alerted about the outrageous ideology and actions of Alexander Dvorkin and Russian member associations for years, it has kept Dvorkin on its board of directors, which elected him twice as Vice President, and has supported the associations all along, having never taken any disciplinary actions against any of them.

In fact, FECRIS has been actively coordinating as an entity with Russian authorities to trigger the crackdown on religious minorities since as far back as 2009—the same year it was granted “ECOSOC Special Consultative Status” by the UN.

The mere ideology and methodology of FECRIS, as a constant, is to use authoritative governments to trigger crackdowns on religious communities it stigmatizes as sects or cults, with no regard to their human dignity, liberty of conscience, and other fundamentals human rights.

In conclusion, FECRIS should be stripped of its ECOSOC consultative status at the UN. Its aims and activities are in complete opposition to the aims and purposes of the UN. Further, Russian FECRIS associates are actively supporting the war in Ukraine.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Respectfully

ORGANIZATIONS
Bitter Winter, a daily magazine on religious liberty and human rights
Boat People SOS (BPSOS)
Campaign to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA)
CESNUR, Center for Studies on New Religions
Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam
European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB)
European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom (EIFRF)
Gerard Noodt Foundation
Human Rights Without Frontiers
Jubilee Campaign USA
The All Faiths Network UK
The Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC)
The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ)
INDIVIDUALS
Greg Mitchell , Chair, IRF Roundtable, Chair, IRF Secretariat
Prof. Alla Aristova, Ukrainian Encyclopedia
Eileen Barker OBE FBA, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics
Prof. Alla Boyko , Institute of Journalism, Shevchenko University of Kyiv – Ukraine
Keegan Burke, DC branch director Alliance of Religions
Prof. Yurii Chornomorets, Drahomanov University – Ukraine
Anuttama Dasa, Global Director of Communications, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
Soraya M Deen, Founder, Muslim Women Speakers
Nguyen Dinh Thang, PhD, Laureate of the 2011 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award
Prof. Vitalii Dokash, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Prof. Liudmyla Fylypovych, Vice-President Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
George Gigicos, Co-Founder and Chairman, The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
Nathan Haddad, Coordinator, OIAC (Organization of Iranian American Communities)
Lauren Homer, President, Law and Liberty Trust
PhD Oksana Horkusha, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Massimo Introvigne, Editor in Chief, Bitter Winter, a daily magazine on religious liberty and human rights
Ruslan Khalikov, PhD, Member of the Board, Ukrainian Association of Researchers of Religion
Prof. Anatolii Kolodnyi, President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
PhD. Hanna Kulagina-Stadnichenko, Secretary, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Larry Lerner, President of Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ)
PhD Svitlana Loznytsia, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Prof. Raffaella Di Marzio, Managing Director, Center for Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC)
Hans Noot, President, Gerard Noodt Foundation
Prof. Oleksandr Sagan, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Bachittar Singh Ughrha, Founder and President, Center for defence of human rights
Prof. Roman Sitarchuk, Vice-President, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies (UARR)
Rev. Dr. Scott Stearman, UN Representative, Baptist World Alliance
Prof. Vita Tytarenko, Grinchenko University – Ukraine
Andrew Veniopoulos, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC)
PhD Volodymyr Volkovsky, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Martin Weightman, Director, The All Faith Network
Prof. Leonid Vyhovsky, Khmelnytsky University of Law – Ukraine
Prof. Victor Yelenski, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Former member of the Ukrainian Parliament
Honorary Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

UN launches Business Integrity Portal to bolster anti-corruption efforts

New Business Integrity Portal launched to bolster anti-corruption efforts in the private sector

16 countries included in the portal thus far.

Vienna (Austria), 30 June 2022 —Tackling corruption requires all parts of society to play their part. One sector, though, has a particularly critical role as the world’s key economic driver: the private sector.

The private sector has a vested interest in curbing corruption. Corruption impedes the economic and financial growth of businesses by distorting markets and increasing costs. The private sector can therefore be a powerful agent for change by contributing to a culture of integrity and transparency and by strengthening the rule of law. It is not only possible but also beneficial for the business community to create stronger economies and more prosperous societies.

For over a decade, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been fostering dialogue between businesses and governments to find common solutions to a common problem and enhance the capacity of both sectors to prevent and counter corruption. By improving accountability and transparency in industries and supply chains, and by educating and empowering employees to speak up and report corrupt practices, UNODC promotes a culture of integrity in business. Educating youth on fairness and ethics today is key to building generations of integrity business leaders tomorrow.

To ensure forward momentum on business integrity, UNODC has launched its brand-new Business Integrity Portal. Serving as an online one-stop shop, the Portal houses a wealth of resources, tools, and good practices, emerging from a range of anti-corruption projects for the private sector implemented by UNODC and funded by the Siemens Integrity Initiative. The projects, delivered in 16 countries across the globe, are designed to reduce corruption by strengthening legal frameworks, public-private dialogue and private sector capacity in line with the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. Collective action increases the impact and credibility of individual action.

“Addressing corruption in the private sector demands collective action, which can be effective only when we cooperate and coordinate with one another,” commented UNODC’s Brigitte Strobel-Shaw on the launch of the Portal. “The Business Integrity Portal is another crucial step in the right direction. It showcases preventive action in the private and public sectors, a key driver for change and for the establishment of a culture of integrity.”

The Portal provides users with an overview of how governments and other stakeholders such as civil society and academia have joined forces with the corporate world to develop practical solutions to prevent and counter corruption in specific countries and sectors.

In addition to providing users with an in-depth look at UNODC activities in the area of business integrity, the Portal also offers opportunities to connect with the Office and participate in events. More details can be found here.

Further information

Business Integrity Portal

To support States parties’ efforts to fully implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNODC delivers technical assistance in various corruption-related thematic areas, including prevention, education, asset recovery, and integrity in the criminal justice system, among others. Learn more here.

Video games for climate action: winning solutions for the planet

Video games for climate action with special features, pop-ups, and real-life tree-planting opportunities embedded within beloved classics like PAC-MAN or Angry Birds, the gaming industry is working with the United Nations to engage audiences like never before and inspire a new wave of climate action.

Sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cassie Flynn was heading to work on a rush-hour packed New York City subway train.

As the Strategic Advisor on Climate Change for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), she often used the monotony of the commute to think of innovative ways to get ordinary people involved in the climate fight, and on this day, she noticed everyone around her busy doing something on their phones.

“I was a bit cheeky, and I started looking at what people were doing and I kind of peeked over this woman’s shoulder and saw she was playing Angry Birds, and then I looked over and this other guy was playing Candy Crush. All of these people were playing games on their phones,” she recalled while speaking to UN News.

A lightbulb went off, and Ms. Flynn thought: “What if we could meet people there?”

“You know how in [some] games they have these 30-second ads that pop up? What if we could use that? Instead of it being an advertisement for another game or something else, what if this is where we could talk to people about climate change?”

And that’s exactly what she and her team at UNDP did.

UNDP – The mobile game Mission 1.5 by UNDP and partners allows users to vote on climate solutions and actions they wat to see happen

Influencing global policy by playing a mobile game

Ms. Flynn’s momentous subway ride gave birth to UNDP’s Mission 1.5 mobile game, which allows people to learn about the climate crisis and at the same time communicate to governments about solutions that could be put in place to tackle it – all while they’re exploring virtual universes.

“More people play videogames on their phones than they [listen to] music and [watch] videos combined, it’s just massive,” says the expert.

Thanks to an inter-agency effort and a partnership with a gaming company, UNDP’s game – which challenges users to make the right decisions to keep the world on the path to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees –went online at the beginning of 2020.

“Fast forward [to today], we have about 6 million people that have played the game so far in 58 countries, with a 50 per cent completion rate. So, when people start it, they really play it, which is something that we’re really excited about,” Ms. Flynn adds.

But it goes beyond educating the users on climate solutions in 17 languages; the game asks them to cast a vote about which strategies, in their opinion, would be more successful to tackle the crisis.

These answers have become the source for what is now known as the ‘People’s climate vote,’ the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted.

“We took data from about 50 countries, and we were able to use the samples to cover over half of the world’s population in terms of their thinking on how they should solve the climate crisis,” Ms. Flynn explains.

That information has now been shared and discussed by parliamentarians all over the world and during major international meetings, such as the recent G20 summit and the latest UN Climate Conference, COP26. The results were even included in the latest series of reports issued by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which are very influential for intergovernmental negotiations.

Unsplash/Onur Binay- A young man plays famous mobile game Crash Bandicoot on his smartphone.

Reaching new populations: The Playing for the Planet Alliance

Mission 1.5’s success is only the tip of the iceberg if we think about the reach of today’s video gaming industry, which stretches beyond our smartphones onto the screens of at least 3 billion people in the world – or 1 in every 3 people in the planet.

“The video gaming industry is probably the most powerful medium in the world in terms of attention, reach and engagement,” says Sam Barratt, UN Environment’s Chief of Education, Youth & Advocacy.

Mr. Barratt is the Co-Founder of the first-of-its-kind group of private video game sector organizations that have made commitments to help protect people and the planet, with the support of the United Nations.

Launched during the pivotal 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, the Playing for the Planet Alliance has made headlines in recent years for including commitments from some of the major names in the gaming industry, such as Microsoft, Sony and Ubisoft, as well as dozens of other well-known videogame studios.

Mr. Barrat was inspired by watching his son spend time exploring, playing, and socializing on these platforms, and seeing how the games created incentives to keep the players engaged.

“[It was] an industry that hadn’t really thought about what difference it could make”, he explains to UN News.

Courtesy: SIE – Snapshot of the game “Dreams” by Media Molecule and Sony which is participating in the Green Jam 2021

Less carbon footprint, more action

The alliance aims to work with these companies on two fronts: First, reducing the carbon footprint of their industries; and second, harnessing the power of their platforms to include messages or steps they might take related to climate action.

“We’ve built a really strong community of practice on this agenda. We’ve doubled in size – for now, at least over 40 studios – with more coming on board. The way I see our role [as United Nations] is that we’re facilitating leadership, we’re here to help the industry… but in the end, it’s a voluntary initiative where the kind of leadership that they show is determined by them,” Mr. Barrat explains.

Playing for the Planet also does a yearly ‘Green Game Jam’, which is an opportunity for videogame studios to get extra creative and integrate green activations within their popular games or create new ones.

This means including environmentally themed features and messages, educating users and inviting them to donate or to participate in UN conservation and restoration campaigns.

Courtesy: Ustwo Games – Cover of the game Alba, which teaches users about sustainability.

It’s not all fun and games

Over the past two years there has already been an array of cool initiatives and games that have made a difference outside of the screens.

For instance, different activations in games during the Jams have contributed to the planting of over 266,000 trees, with this number likely to increase.

Another remarkable example is the popular video game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure by the English studio Ustwo, which is a member of the Alliance.

The game features a girl protagonist who tries to prevent the construction of a resort on a beautiful Mediterranean Island. It teaches the importance of conservation and restoration to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC and iOS users, while devoting some of the proceeds from every download to support tree-planting as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Alba has so far led to a remarkable 1 million trees planted and 3 habitats restored, with this number set to grow.

During the last Green Game Jam in 2021, UN Environment invited participant studios to support campaigns such as Play4Forests, a petition to demand action from world leaders in protecting forests; and Glowing Glowing Gone, to accelerate ocean protection and climate action.

Studios with a combined reach of 1 billion players participated in the 2021 Jam, and they were able to engage 130 million players around the world with some 60,000 pledges signed for the UN campaigns, and $800,000 in donations to different charities working with environmental causes.

And of course, it was also fun. Just to give you a few examples:

PAC-MAN players were able to play a forest-themed ‘Adventure Mode’ with six stages, an album filled with collectibles and a skin [a download which changes the appearance of characters in the game] as the reward for the event completion.

Minecraft, a 3-D computer game where players can build anything, added an additional lesson plan on ‘Radical Recycling’ to player maps, and therefore was able to make a $100,000 donation to The Nature Conservancy.

Pokémon Go created the first-of-its-kind avatar item to give players a new way to voice their support for sustainability efforts.

Angry Birds fans were able to collect a special Mariner Hat Set for participating in a Sea Adventure, and the campaign reached over 280,000 people.

Meanwhile, for Anno 1800, a city-building real-time strategy video game, PC players usually grow settlements and create massive production chains in a world with infinite resources. This time, they learned how, in the real world, their decisions affect the environment and could end up destroying it.

Players start out on an untouched island with a small population and are required to create a sustainable city. If they don’t keep in mind the downsides of population growth and find measures to counter them, the island’s ecosystem and the city will ultimately collapse.

For example, building monocultures depletes island fertility, over-fishing destroys food supplies for future generations, and deforestation leads to deserted islands.

This last game initiative won the Jam’s UNEP’s choice award for 2021.

Courtesy: Ubisoft – Settlement in the PC game Anno 1800 supporting the Play4Forest UN campaign.

Decarbonizing the industry

Speaking about change in the real world, according to the latest report of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, 60 per cent of its members are now committed to becoming net zero or carbon negative by 2030 at the latest.

“So, we do know that for many gaming companies, most of the carbon is produced through games that play on devices. Mainly through mobile and all through other parts of that scope. But we still don’t have a full picture. We are working this year to get the whole industry to come up with a methodology so they can understand how they can recall that carbon impact,” Alliance co-founder Sam Barrat, explains.

He adds that while gaming seems to have a lesser carbon footprint when compared with other leisure activities, it all depends on how long users play and what media they use for it.

“When you’re playing on a CD ROM and playing that game a lot, the carbon consequence of its life cycle approach is less than streaming lots of small games,” Mr. Barrat says, highlighting that the Alliance is working together to figure out ways to measure their emissions better.  

Unsplash/Mika Baumeister – A young person holds a cell phone with the game Minecraft Earth.

Big companies are already starting to take the lead

Last year, Microsoft conducted a report that details the amount of energy in Watt-hours that mobile devices use while playing mobile video games in a 30-minute period of gameplay.

The previous study that was being used for calculation was from 2012, so this new dataset will allow companies to make more accurate calculations of gamers’ energy use through mobile gaming.

Meanwhile, Sony created a carbon footprint tool on the carbon impacts of the gaming sector and made substantial improvements in the energy efficiency of their Play Station 4 and 5 consoles. 

“We also recognize the impact we have on climate change as an industry – and we are taking steps to address it… We’ve achieved an estimated avoided energy use for PS4 and PS5 consoles of 57.4 TWh [Terawatt-hour] and 0.8 TWh respectively from energy efficiency improvements we’ve made to date, such as efficient chipsets, power supplies, and low power rest mode,” Ross Townsend, Sony PlayStation Corporate Communication Manager, tells UN News.

He adds that for this year’s Earth Day, Sony Interactive Entertainment invested in high-quality projects and was able to offset carbon emissions equivalent to 100 million hours of average console electricity during gameplay.

Gameloft, a giant mobile game developer, has also made moves to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We have the ambitious project to become Net Zero Carbon with a long-term work consisting in focusing on Scopes 1 [direct greenhouse emissions associated with fuel combustion] & 2 [Indirect emissions associated with electricity, steam, cooling etc.] and by reducing our energy and electricity footprint by 80 per cent and onboarding our providers in our decarbonization’s journey,” emphasizes Stephanie Cazaux-Moutou, Gameloft Communications Manager.

Videogames being the biggest entertainment industry, the impact is real: there is a room to lead rather than follow

Since 2019, the company is also reducing its business travel and compensating the remaining emissions.

Other Alliance members are also working on a new protocol to reduce the use of plastics within the industry to be launched sometime in 2022.

“Three quarters of the consumers around the world expect brands to be actively involved in solving social and environmental changes. Videogames being the biggest entertainment industry, the impact is real: there is a room to lead rather than follow,” adds Ms. Cazaux-Moutou.

Gameloft/Lotus – The racing electric car Lotus Evija as it appears in the green activation of videogame Asphalt 9.

Into the Future

The 2022 Green Game Jam has included the participation of over 50 studios that have been launching their activations since April, and has a focus on ‘Food, Forests and Our Future’.

Gameloft, for example, integrated into Asphalt 9, a key racing game, the opportunity for players to drive stunning electric cars, including the luxurious Lotus Evija, and race for the planet.

“Gaming is no longer solely for younger generations. Considering the adverse impact climate change will have on communities across the globe, it is important to educate, inspire and engage as many people as possible,” highlights Mr. Townsend from Sony, which is also participating in the latest Jam with their game “Dreams”, inviting users to create Sustainable Farming community games, and planting up to 130,000 real world trees.

Competing videogame companies working and learning together, and collaborating with each other, might have been hard to imagine a few years ago, but today, it is a reality.

Because the truth is, if we don’t come together to end the climate crisis, no one is going to be a winner.

“There’s a real opportunity here to use this for good and to help ignite conversations around some of the world’s challenges that people may want to be engaged with and talk about, but haven’t had the opportunity… I think through video games and through the gaming industry, we can reach entirely new populations and help to engage people in new ways that we haven’t been able to before,” highlights UNDP’s Cassie Flynn.

In 2022, Mission 1.5 will launch a new series of questions to include in the game, while the Alliance will be holding several events, including a virtual climate march and a Green Game Jam student edition.

“I think this medium has got unprecedented agency and influence in the world, and it’s very young and to some extent maybe misunderstood… we’ve got no choice but to work with this industry because their kind of ability to influence behaviour is potentially exponential,” concludes Mr. Barret.

Council of Europe: The battle for human rights in mental health continues

The decision-making body of the Council has started its review process of a controversial drafted text that aim at protecting human rights and dignity of persons who are subjected to coercive measures in psychiatry. The text however has been the subject of widespread and consistent criticism since the work on it started several years ago. The United Nations human rights mechanism has pointed to the legal incompatibility with an existing UN human rights convention, that outlaw the use of these discriminatory and potentially abusive and humiliating practices in psychiatry. UN human rights experts has expressed a shock that the Council of Europe with the work on this new legal instrument that allows the use of these practices under certain conditions might “reverse all positive developments in Europe”. This criticism has been strengthened by voices within the Council of Europe itself, international disability and mental health groups and many others.

Mr Mårten Ehnberg, the Swedish member of the decision-making body of the Council of Europe, called the Committee of Ministers, told the European Times: “The views regarding the compatibility of the draft with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are of course of great importance.”

“CRPD is the most comprehensive instrument protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. It is also the starting point for the Swedish disability policy,” he added.

He stressed that Sweden is a strong supporter and advocate for the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities, including the right to effectively and fully participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others.

Discrimination on the grounds of disability should not occur

Mr Mårten Ehnberg noted that “Discrimination on the grounds of disability should not occur anywhere in society. Health care must be offered to everyone based on need and on equal terms. Care must be provided with respect of the individual patient’s needs. This is of course also applicable regarding psychiatric care.”

With this he puts his finger on the sore spot. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the UN Committee that monitors the implementation of the CRPD – during the first part of the drafting process of this possible new legal text of the Council of Europe issued a written statement to the Council of Europe. The Committee stated that: “The Committee would like to highlight that involuntary placement or institutionalization of all persons with disabilities, and particularly of persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, including persons with ‘‘mental disorders’’, is outlawed in international law by virtue of article 14 of the Convention, and constitutes arbitrary and discriminatory deprivation of liberty of persons with disabilities as it is carried out on the basis of actual or perceived impairment.”

To make any doubts on the question whether this concern all coercive psychiatric treatment, the UN Committee added, “The Committee would like to recall that involuntary institutionalization and involuntary treatment, which are grounded on therapeutic or medical necessity, do not constitute measures for protecting the human rights of persons with disabilities, but they are an infringement of persons with disabilities’ rights to liberty and security and their right to physical and mental integrity.”

Parliamentary assembly opposed

The UN does not stand alone. Mr Mårten Ehnberg told the European Times that “The Council of Europe’s work with the current drafted text (additional protocol) has previously been opposed by, inter alia, the Parliament of the Council of Europe (PACE), which on two occasions has recommended the Committee of Ministers to withdraw the proposal to draw up this protocol, on the basis that such an instrument, according to PACE, would be incompatible with the member states’ human rights obligations.”

Mr Mårten Ehnberg to this noted, that the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in turn had stated that “the utmost should be done to promote alternatives to involuntary measures but that such measures nevertheless, subject to strict protective conditions, may be justified in exceptional situations where there is a risk of serious damage to the health of the person concerned or to others.”

With this he quoted a statement that had been formulated in 2011, and has been used since by those who speak in favour of the drafted legal text.

It was originally formulated as part of the initial consideration whether a Council of Europe text regulating the use of coercive measures in psychiatry would be necessary or not.

During this early phase of the deliberation a Statement on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was drafted by the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics. While seemingly concerning the CRPD the statement however factually only considers the Committee’s own Convention, and its reference work – the European Convention on Human Rights, referring to them as “international texts”.

The statement has been noted as rather deceptive. It lays out that the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics considered the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly whether articles 14, 15 and 17 were compatible with “the possibility to subject under certain conditions a person who has a mental disorder of a serious nature to involuntary placement or involuntary treatment, as foreseen in other national and international texts.” The statement then confirms this.

Comparative text on the key point in the statement of the Committee on Bioethics however show it in reality does not consider the CRPD’s text or spirit, but only text straight out of the Committee’s own convention:

• The Council of Europe Committee’s Statement on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: “Involuntary treatment or placement may only be justified, in connection with a mental disorder of a serious nature, if from the absence of treatment or placement serious harm is likely to result to the person’s health or to a third party.”

• Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, Article 7: “Subject to protective conditions prescribed by law, including supervisory, control and appeal procedures, a person who has a mental disorder of a serious nature may be subjected, without his or her consent, to an intervention aimed at treating his or her mental disorder only where, without such treatment, serious harm is likely to result to his or her health.”

Further preparation of the drafted text

Mr Mårten Ehnberg, said that during the continued preparations, Sweden will continue to monitor that the necessary protective principles are upheld.

He stressed that, “It is not acceptable if compulsory care is used in a way that means that persons with disabilities, including psychosocial disabilities, are discriminated against and treated in an unacceptable way.”

He added that the Swedish Government is highly committed, both nationally and internationally, to further improve the enjoyment of human rights by persons with mental ill-health and disabilities, including psychosocial disabilities, as well as to promote the development of voluntary, community-based support and services.

He finished off noting, that the Swedish Government’s work regarding the rights of persons with disabilities will continue unabated.

In Finland the government also follow the process closely. Ms Krista Oinonen, Director of the Unit for Human Rights Courts and Conventions, Ministry for Foreign Affairs told the European Times, that: “Throughout the drafting process, Finland has also sought a constructive dialogue with civil society actors, and the Government is keeping Parliament duly informed. The Government has lately organised an extensive round of consultations among a large group of relevant authorities, CSOs and human rights actors.”

Ms Krista Oinonen could not give a conclusive viewpoint on the drafted possible legal text, as in Finland, the discussion about the draft text is still ongoing.

Justice and reparations still critical, 30 years on from Sarajevo siege

Thirty years after the siege of Sarajevo, the UN team in Bosnia and Herzegovina reiterated the importance on Wednesday of pursuing justice and reparation for victims, survivors and their family members.

The siege began after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in the wake of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. 

Bosnian Serbs largely opposed independence, while the other two large ethnic groups, Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, favoured the split from Belgrade. 

Bosnian Serb troops started bombarding the capital city in April 1992, a sustained assault which lasted for nearly four years. 

This was the longest blockade since the Second World War, with more than 12,000 people killed, and marked a key moment in the Bosnian War. 

Fighting denial of atrocities 

The UN Resident Coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ingrid Macdonald, has met with survivors’ associations across the country. 

Ms. Macdonald continues to spotlight the importance of countering the denial of atrocity crimes and glorification of war criminals, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, speaking during his daily briefing from New York. 

“She said that such rhetoric perpetuates the suffering of survivors and families of victims and has no place in a democratic society,” Mr. Dujarric told journalists. 

© UNICEF/LeMoyne

Women near the town of Kladanj, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995).

End hatred and discrimination  

Ms. Macdonald has also appealed for political leaders to take measures to prevent and act upon all manifestations of hatred and discrimination. 

They are also urged to ensure all people there live in an environment of mutual understanding, respect and dignity.   

The UN has repeatedly spoken out against rising hate speech in the country, and in neighbouring Serbia, decades after the Bosnian War. 

The conflict ended in December 1995 and was among the bloodiest fighting to occur in Europe during the last century. 

Horrific crimes were committed, including ethnic cleansing campaigns such as the July 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrnica. 

Last June, a UN court upheld the 2017 life sentence imposed on Bosnia Serb military chief Ratko Mladić who commanded the killings. 

UN Ocean Conference 2022: The launch of a ‘fleet’ of solutions

Billions of humans, animals and plants rely on a healthy ocean, but rising carbon emissions are making it more acidic, weakening its ability to sustain life underwater and on land.

Plastic waste is also choking our waters, and more than half of the world’s marine species may stand on the brink of extinction by 2100. 

But it is not all bad news. According to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson, momentum for positive change is building around the world, with people, especially youth, mobilizing to do their part to reverse the decline in ocean health.

The UN Ocean Conference which will take place from 25 June to 1 July, in Lisbon, Portugal will provide a critical opportunity to mobilize partnerships and increase investment in science-driven approaches.

It will also be the time for governments, industries, and civil society to join forces and take action.

With 100 days to go until the event, UN News spoke with Mr. Thomson about the event, and the current situation of our oceans.

Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean. © UNDP/Freya Morales

UN News:  What are UN Ocean Conferences for? What exactly happens in there?

Special Envoy Peter Thomson: When SDG 14 (to conserve and sustainably manage the resources of the ocean) was created back in 2015, along with the other 17 Sustainable Development Goals, it didn’t really have a home. It wasn’t like the health SDG, which had the World Health Organization or the agriculture one, which had The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and so on.

So, the advocates for SDG 14, particularly the Small Island Developing States and some of the coastal States and other allies, said that we needed some kind of discipline to ensure that the implementation of SDG 14 was on track and, if it wasn’t, a way how to bring it on track.

So that’s how the first UN Ocean Conference came into existence in 2017, mandated by the UN General Assembly. Now we have the second UN Ocean Conference, which is, as you said, happening in Lisbon this year. So, this is the process that keeps SDG 14 honest. And that honesty, of course, is extremely important because, as the mantra goes, there is no healthy planet without a healthy ocean.

UN News: How much have we advanced in ocean conservation since the last Ocean Conference? 

Peter Thomson: Definitely not enough. There was a target for 2020 to have 10 per cent of the ocean covered in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and we have only reached eight per cent in 2022. This highlights the fact that we need to do a lot more work on this, because Marine Protected Areas are an essential part of saving the health of the ocean.

For the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, this year, there is a proposal, which some 84 countries are supporting, for a “30 by 30” target.  In other words, 30 per cent of the planet protected by 2030, which of course includes parts of the ocean. So that’s a lot more ambitious than what we currently have in our SDG 14.5 Target, which is the one that sets out that 10 per cent. I believe this is achievable and we are moving in that direction.

A view of Viti Levu, the largest of the islands comprising the South Pacific nation of Fiji and home of the capital city of Suva. © Unsplash/Alec Douglas

 

UN News: Climate change is a matter of survival for all of us, but especially for Small Island Developing States. As a Fijian yourself, what would you say to make people relate to the devastating situation that millions of pacific islanders are facing?

Peter Thomson: The news is not good; you’ve seen the latest IPCC report. I’m a grandfather, and what I care about, and what my friends in Fiji care about, is the security of our grandchildren.

We understand that it’s not just Small Island Developing States, it’s people living in river deltas – think of Bangladesh or the Mekong – and it’s people living in cities that are built on low alluvial foundations. Security does not look good for them, in a world that is two to three degrees warmer, which is where we’re currently heading.

So that’s why you’ll find that Small Island Developing States, Fiji amongst them, are at the forefront of the battle to transform our consumption and production patterns so that we don’t go to that much warmer world. “1.5 to stay alive”, as the saying goes. That’s still our ambition. It’s diminishing every day, but we’re calling for that ambition to be high.

It’s a matter of survival, not just for our grandchildren, but also for our cultures, that have existed for thousands of years in those locations.

UN News: What’s the way forward? What concrete actions can be taken?

Peter Thomson: Well, look at the COP26 UN climate conference. See what came out of that, and where we’re heading for the next conference, COP 27 in Sharma Sheikh this November.

It’s about cutting down the use of fossil fuels and coal burning activities. Every belch that comes out of every one of those chimneys is another nail in the coffin of those countries, of those environments I’ve just spoke about. So that’s the big call to transform.

And let’s be honest with ourselves: it’s on every one of us. As we come out of this COVID-19 pandemic, are we going to just go back to what we were doing before? or are we going to try and eat more sustainably, travel more sustainably, shop more sustainably. Has the pandemic taught us a lesson? Hopefully it has. And we’ll be building back not just better, but we’ll be building back greener and bluer.

One of the largest coral reefs in the world off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia. © Alexis Rosenfeld

UN News: What do you think is hindering the progress towards ocean conservation right now?

Peter Thomson: Well, progress for me in terms of ocean protection is all about implementing SDG 14. This has quite a few targets: It’s about pollution; It’s about overfishing; It’s about the effects of greenhouse and gas emissions; It’s about getting marine tech in place, and so on.

I think it’s very doable. I don’t lose sleep on whether we’re going to achieve this or not. We are going to achieve this by 2030.

I also think of targets like SDG 14.6: ridding the world of harmful fisheries subsidies that lead to overfishing, and lead to illegal fishing and so on. That is a very doable act, and the time to do it is at the World Trade Organization Ministerial conference in June this year.

And who’s going to do it? The member States of this world. And if they fail, they fail all of us. Now, are they going to do it? I’m sure they will, because they’ve looked at Nairobi and saw that member States there grasped that nettle of consensus and said, ‘Let’s do the right thing by people on planet. Let’s get this treaty to ban and control plastic pollution. Let’s bring it into reality’.

As a result, they’ve an intergovernmental negotiating committee to get that treaty up and running, and they will finish their work on that by the end of 2024.

I’m so excited about it, because when you talk about marine pollution, which is SDG Target 14.1, 80 per cent of that pollution is plastics. So, by getting this treaty in place, an internationally binding treaty to combat plastic pollution, we’re going to hit that target, no problem.

Fisheries provide a vital source of food and employment for people throughout the world. © UN Photo/Martine Perret

UN News: Can you give us some examples of ‘ocean solutions’?

Peter Thomson: Look, there are 1000 solutions, and a fleet of them will be launched at the UN Ocean conference in Lisbon. Rather than going into individual ones, I would say be prepared for that fleet.

But one that I particularly like talking about is nutrition. We all know that the sea provides very healthy nutrition compared with some of the other things that are produced on land.

We don’t eat what our grandparents ate. We have a totally different diet, which is, in fact, why obesity is such a problem around the world. But our grandchildren will be eating very differently from the way we eat.

They won’t be eating big fish, for example. They will still be eating fish, but there’ll be small fish which are grown in sustainable aquaculture conditions. They’ll be eating a lot more algae. And that may not sound appetizing to you, but you’re already eating it in your sushi with the nori that’s around your sushi. That’s seaweed, right? That’s algae.

The biggest source of food in the world really is unexploited by anybody other than whales, phytoplankton. We will be eating some kind of marine tofu which is made from phytoplankton. We’ll be farmers of the sea rather than hunter-gatherers, which is what we still are. It’s the only place we still are, which is out on the ocean. So those sorts of transformations are underway, but we have to invest in the transformations, and we have to start doing that now.

Marine debris, including plastics, paper, wood, metal and other manufactured material is found on beaches worldwide and at all depths of the ocean. © UN News/Laura Quiñones

UN News: And as individuals what can we do?

Peter Thomson: I think you have to think first about source to sea, which is very important. You see people throwing cigarette butts into the gutter. They don’t think about the fact that the filter of that cigarette is microplastic and it’s heading in one direction, which is down the drain into the sea eventually, and that’s more microplastics going into the ocean.

Microplastics, of course, are coming back to them when they’re eating their fish and chips because they are being absorbed into life in the ocean. That cycle is going on, whether people realize it or not.

So, I think ‘source to sea’ really important, but that relates to our industries, to agriculture, to the chemicals that are coming down the same drains and rivers out into the sea and poisoning the lagoons that we rely on for healthy marine ecosystems.

So, what can we do? We can just adopt better behaviour as human beings in terms of pollution. Look at your plastic use and say, Do I really need all this plastic in my life? I’m old enough to remember a life with no plastic, it was very nice.

You can make your own decisions about your nutrition. I remember my wife and I, when we were living here in New York, we looked at the latest report about what beef was doing to the Amazon, and we looked at a photo of our grandchildren and said, what do we love more? our hamburgers or our grandchildren? And we decided then and there – it was about five years ago – to give up beef.

Do you need to own a car? A lot of people do need to own cars, but my wife and I, we’ve been living in cities now for quite a while and we haven’t had a car for decades. You rely on public transport and walking, which, of course, is the best way to get around.

Individuals have to make the right choices that make this world a sustainable place.

UN News: What do you hope to accomplish in the upcoming Ocean Conference? 

Peter Thomson: In Lisbon, we want to generate, outside of the formal process, the excitement of new ideas, of innovation, and that will take place in the side events.

I’m very confident that there’s going to be this innovation, which is going to be visible in that carnival type atmosphere that you develop around the central core of the conference.

Of course, science-based innovative partnerships is the other big thing, public and private and north and south and east and west. This is a universal moment. A UN conference is always a universal moment.

The first ocean conference in 2017 was a game changer in terms of waking the world up to the Ocean’s problems. I think this conference in Lisbon in June is going to be about providing the solutions to the problems that we’ve alerted the world to. And I’m very confident that those solutions emerge when we get there.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Related content: EU contribution to the One Ocean Summit

Special "Voices for Humanity" on International Education Day

Each year, the United Nations sets aside January 24 as International Day of Education. Among this year’s goals: “unlocking the potential in every person.” 

The episode “Help for Miami,” of Voices for Humanity on the Scientology Network takes viewers inside an innovative program that is shattering the glass ceiling for those labeled with learning disabilities.

“Our country is in crisis today,” says Tamara Batalha, cofounder and administrator of HELP Miami.

“Kids are being labeled and drugged. They’re not learning,” adds HELP Miami’s principal Barbie Rivera. “This is a tragedy.”

Together, they are introducing kids to a new way of learning.

“Families thought the only solution was to drug their child and now they don’t have to anymore,” says Batalha. “The beauty of our program is we treat every child as an individual, so no matter where they are on their educational level, we’re able to work with them.”

HELP Miami is a dynamic program using Study Technology developed by author, humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It provides a fully workable approach to teaching students how to learn.

One mother relates that her son was getting “F” in subject after subject at the school where he attended 5th grade. They were advised to place him on medication, but that caused side effects. “He told me he hated school. He wanted to drop out.” When they enrolled him at HELP Miami, everything changed. “They brought him up to grade level,” the mother said. “Now he’s in 8th grade and every single year, he’s gotten honor roll. Being able to learn how to learn—this is an incredible gift that HELP Miami is giving these kids.”

Go behind the scenes of this innovative school that is providing a bright future for kids who were told they would never have one. 

Scientology Network’s Voices for Humanity, is a weekly series presenting heroic changemakers from a variety of faiths, cultures and nations, working to uplift their communities.

Since launching with a special episode featuring Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige, Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories worldwide in 17 languages. Broadcast from Scientology Media Productions, the Church’s global media center in Los Angeles, the Scientology Network is available on DIRECTV Channel 320 and can be streamed at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.

Source HERE.

EGYPT: Jehovah’s Witnesses banned since 1960 call upon the UN Human Rights Committee

On the occasion of the upcoming 134^th session of the UN Human Rights Committee (28 February – 25 March 2022), the African Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses (AAJW) and the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses (EAJW) have filed a joint submission about the situation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Egypt banned since 1960.

They request the Government of Egypt to take the necessary steps to:

1. Ensure that Jehovah’s Witnesses are able to register their local religious organizations

2. End the continuous and intrusive surveillance and interrogations of Jehovah’s Witnesses

3. Allow Egyptian and foreign Jehovah’s Witnesses to worship peacefully and to associate with one another;

4. Cancel the directives of the Administration of Land Registration and Documentation of the Ministry of Justice in Egypt that prohibit its agencies from registering title to property belonging to legal entities of Jehovah’s Witnesses;

5. Abide by its commitment to uphold the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Covenant for all citizens, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Religious freedom violations

A decree of the Ministry of Social Affairs dated 20 June 1960 deregistered the local branch of the Watch Tower Society and effectively banned the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The pretext for the ban was an alleged failure to re-register according to Law 384 of 1956. Efforts to re-register were rejected for “security reasons.” All the property owned by Witness entities were confiscated.

For over 60 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have not been allowed to build or own places of worship. Consequently, they are obliged to hold their religious meetings discreetly, in private homes. Many Witnesses report continued surveillance of their telephone conversations, their homes and their meeting locations. Additionally, the Witnesses are not permitted to import their religious literature or to manifest their religious beliefs by peacefully sharing a Bible message with persons who wish to receive it.

In February 2020, an Egyptian Witness who owns an apartment arranged for it to be completely renovated so as to be suitable for religious meetings and rented it to fellow worshippers. Since Witnesses cannot obtain a zoning permit to use property for their religious meetings, the NSA repeatedly attempted to obtain a copy of the rental contract in order to file charges against the Witnesses involved. Despite repeated telephone calls and threats, the Witnesses refused to give the NSA a copy of the contract. Their agents then interrogated and harassed the Witness landlord and ordered that the apartment be emptied and closed immediately. Subsequently, Jehovah’s Witnesses have not been able to use the property.

On 28 March 2020, a National Security (NSA) agent visited a Witness family in central Cairo to interrogate them about meetings held in their home.

The NSA searches for and threatens Jehovah’s Witnesses who are foreign nationals, especially those believed to be “leading ministers” and those associating with Egyptian Witnesses. During interrogations, agents try to intimidate them and often threaten them with arrest in order to obtain information both about fellow believers in Egypt and about how they are organized. A few examples:

March 2020: NS agents forcefully entered the homes of at least two Egyptian Witnesses, without a warrant or consent, in order to interrogate them about a married Witness couple who were foreign nationals lawfully resident in Egypt. Because of the threat of arrest and deportation, the couple fled Egypt and returned to the United States.

April/May 2020: NS agents interrogated two Sudanese Witnesses about their religious activities

The above incidents have occurred since the European Parliament’s adoption of the 24 October 2019 Resolution on Egypt, which “stresses the importance of guaranteeing the equality of all Egyptians, regardless of their faith or belief; calls for Egypt to review its blasphemy laws in order to ensure the protection of religious minorities … calls on the Egyptian authorities, including the military and security forces, to respect the rights of Christians, protect them against violence and discrimination and ensure that those responsible for such acts are prosecuted.”

During 2021, owing to Covid-19 precautions, all of Jehovah’s Witnesses religious meetings have been held via videoconference. The NSA has strenuously investigated who holds licences for a proprietary videoconferencing system, how meeting details are distributed, who the hosts are, the names of the attendees, etc. Such details constituted part of the information sought during interrogations of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Background

Jehovah’s Witnesses have been present in Egypt since 1912. In the 1930s, they established congregations in Alexandria and in Cairo. By the post-war years of 1945–1950, there were already a significant number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Egypt.

Well into the 1950s, Egyptian Jehovah’s Witnesses enjoyed relative freedom of worship. On 3 November 1951, the Cairo Governorate granted recognition to a branch of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (Watch Tower Society), a legal corporation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1956, the Governorate of Alexandria granted similar recognition to the local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In 1959, a campaign of false accusations labelling Jehovah’s Witnesses as “Zionists” caused the police to order the Witnesses to cease holding their religious services.

On 20 June 1960, a decree of the Ministry of Social Affairs deregistered the local branch of the Watch Tower Society and effectively banned the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in all Egypt.

Later on, the Administration of Land Registration and Documentation of the Ministry of Justice in Egypt issued three directives (in 1985, 1993 and 1999) that prohibit its agencies from registering any property as well as marriages.

As a result, property cannot be bought or owned in the name of any organized group of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They cannot even obtain land to bury their dead but must use privately owned cemeteries.

Although more than 60 years have passed, officials continue to deny them the opportunity to meet with key authorities in order to resolve the situation.

Liberia's Commerce Minister Diggs Outlines country's Post WTO Accession Progress.

Commerce Minister Diggs Addresses 62nd Series of Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Outlines Liberia’s Post WTO Accession Progress.

Geneva, October 5, 2021: The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Hon Mawine G. Diggs has addressed the World Trade Organization high-level panel chaired by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Director-General) and the 62nd assemblies of Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva respectively. The Minister gave the State of Play and reflection on the five years of Liberia’s WTO membership including recent economic Developments and performance since our accession as a member of the World Trade Organization and recommitted Liberia’s to the global effort for the protection and promotion of Intellectual Property.

Addressing the Launch Study of Liberia’s Five years of WTO membership, Minister Diggs disclosed that Liberia’s path to the WTO membership was not an easy road before becoming a model for others. She, however, pointed out that bearing in mind the potential benefits of WTO membership, including increased investment inflows, the Government saw a huge potential to integrate the multilateral trade system, and to return Liberia to the position it once had as a country.

The Hon. Minister of commerce further gave some practical actions being taken by the Republic of Liberia under the leadership of H.E George Manneh Weah. According to the Honorable Minister, the practical actions include the single window endeavor at the Freeport of Monrovia undertaking large-scale accession commitments and implementing the WTO Post-Accession Implementation Plan aimed at continuing with the reforms and transformation in critical areas such as tariff regulation, trade facilitation, taxation, Technical Barriers to Trade and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, economic diversification and many others.  Madam Minister reaffirmed Liberia’s commitment to the World Trade Organization and the multilateral trade system.

For her Part, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Liberia for the milestone achievement and extended greetings to H.E President George M. Weah and the government of Liberia for the ratification of the trade facilitation agreement (TFA).  Madam Okonjo-Iweale asserted that the Liberian model is which was the first of its kind, is history and sets a ‘’new standard for LDC accession.  She, however, re-affirmed WTO’s support to Liberia through all necessary assistance as much as possible.

Speaking at the WIPO Assembly, Madam Diggs said Liberia has made significant strides through the development of a balanced and effective structure that enables innovation and creativity for patents, copyrights, and trademarks where people earn recognition for what they invent or create. She told the body that Liberia is a member and signatory of several international IP conventions which speaks to the country’s commitment to the protection of Intellectual property worldwide through a collective global effort.

On the margin of the multilateral engagements, The Minister held bilateral talks with Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Sziijarto where the discussion centered around enhancing corporation through trade between the two countries in the areas of Information Technology, energy, and water.

As head of the delegation, Minister Diggs is accompanied by Charge’ d’ Affaires (en pied), Liberia Permanent Mission to the United Nation Office and Multiple International Organizations, Mr. Paul W. Tate, Aderline Cooper, Director- General Liberia Intellectual Property, Minister Counselor/Public Affairs to the European Union, Senve D. Tehmeh, Abraham Kamara, Second Secretary, Liberia Permanent Mission to Geneva and Madam Esther Tolbert Chief of Staff (Office of the Minister of the Commerce).

Artificial intelligence risks to privacy demand urgent action – Bachelet

GENEVA (15 September 2021) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday stressed the urgent need  for a moratorium on the sale and use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that pose a serious risk to human rights until adequate safeguards are put in place. She also called for AI applications that cannot be used in compliance with international human rights law to be banned.

“Artificial intelligence can be a force for good, helping societies overcome some of the great challenges of our times. But AI technologies can have negative, even catastrophic, effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect people’s human rights,” Bachelet said.

As part of its work* on technology and human rights, the UN Human Rights Office has today published a report that analyses how AI – including profiling, automated decision-making and other machine-learning technologies – affects people’s right to privacy and other rights, including the rights to health, education, freedom of movement, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of expression.

“Artificial intelligence now reaches into almost every corner of our physical and mental lives and even emotional states. AI systems are used to determine who gets public services, decide who has a chance to be recruited for a job, and of course they affect what information people see and can share online,” the High Commissioner said.

The report looks at how States and businesses alike have often rushed to incorporate AI applications, failing to carry out due diligence. There have already been numerous cases of people being treated unjustly because of AI, such as being denied social security benefits because of faulty AI tools or arrested because of flawed facial recognition.

The report details how AI systems rely on large data sets, with information about individuals collected, shared, merged and analysed in multiple and often opaque ways. The data used to inform and guide AI systems can be faulty, discriminatory, out of date or irrelevant. Long-term storage of data also poses particular risks, as data could in the future be exploited in as yet unknown ways. 

“Given the rapid and continuous growth of AI, filling the immense accountability gap in how data is collected, stored, shared and used is one of the most urgent human rights questions we face” .

Michelle Bachelet, un high commissioner on human rights

The inferences, predictions and monitoring performed by AI tools, including seeking insights into patterns of human behaviour, also raise serious questions. The biased datasets relied on by AI systems can lead to discriminatory decisions, and these risks are most acute for already marginalized groups. 

“The risk of discrimination linked to AI-driven decisions – decisions that can change, define or damage human lives – is all too real. This is why there needs to be systematic assessment and monitoring of the effects of AI systems to identify and mitigate human rights risks,” Bachelet said.

There also needs to be much greater transparency by companies and States in how they are developing and using AI.

“The complexity of the data environment, algorithms and models underlying the development and operation of AI systems, as well as intentional secrecy of government and private actors are factors undermining meaningful ways for the public to understand the effects of AI systems on human rights and society,” the report says.

“We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI – allowing its use with limited or no boundaries or oversight, and dealing with the almost inevitable human rights consequences after the fact. The power of AI to serve people is undeniable, but so is AI’s ability to feed human rights violations at an enormous scale with virtually no visibility. Action is needed now to put human rights guardrails on the use of AI, for the good of all of us,” Bachelet stressed.

Source: UN

Photo credit: UN News/Daniel JohnsonUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. (file)

States have the primary responsibility to ... protect the human rights of religious minorities

Today we honour and remember the victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief.

Across the world, we continue to witness a rise in hate speech, intolerance, and even physical violence and attacks on individuals, groups, and sites, purely because of their religious beliefs or significance.

This violence often goes hand-in-hand with the infringement of other fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of thought or conscience. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has fueled racism, stigma, and disinformation, often targeting ethnic and religious minorities, has further exacerbated this dangerous convergence.

Despite the risks, victims continue to speak out with great courage to defend their rights. I stand in full solidarity with them — and with the determined efforts of civil society actors, community and faith leaders, to mobilize against any act of violence or discrimination.

“States have the primary responsibility to prohibit and deter discrimination and violence and to protect the human rights of religious minorities”

António Guterres, UN Secretary General -August 22nd, 2021

States have the primary responsibility to prohibit and deter discrimination and violence and to protect the human rights of religious minorities and ensure that perpetrators of these crimes are held accountable. At the same time, the international community must do more to support the victims of these heinous acts, as well as those who are working to address the root causes of intolerance and hate. I have made tackling this issue a priority, including through initiatives like the Call to Action for Human Rights, the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, and the UN Plan to Safeguard Religious Sites.

Freedom of religion or belief is a human right, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, this right is being tested.

Let us commit to turning the tide on this appalling trend, to building more inclusive and peaceful societies, where diversity is celebrated as a richness that strengthens us all.

Message for the commemoration of the 2021 International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief

International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief | 22 August

Human Rights Related to Freedom of Religion or Belief

Freedom of religion or belief, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of association are interdependent, interrelated and mutually reinforcing. They are enshrined in articles 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Upholding these rights plays an important role in the fight against all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief.

The open, constructive and respectful debate of ideas, as well as interreligious, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, at the local, national, regional and international levels, can play a positive role in combating religious hatred, incitement and violence.

Furthermore, the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and full respect for the freedom to seek, receive and impart information can play a positive role in strengthening democracy and combating religious intolerance.

Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief

There are continuing acts of intolerance and violence based on religion or belief against individuals, including against persons belonging to religious communities and religious minorities around the world, and the number and intensity of such incidents, which are often of a criminal nature and may have international characteristics, are increasing.

That is why the General Assembly adopted the resolution A/RES/73/296, titled “International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief” strongly condemning continuing violence and acts of terrorism targeting individuals, including persons belonging to religious minorities, on the basis of or in the name of religion or belief.

The Member States reaffirmed their unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomsoever committed, regardless of their motivation, and reiterated that terrorism and violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group.

The General Assembly decided to designate 22 August as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.

The Day comes right after the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, 21 August.

Background

The General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/73/296, designated 22 August as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief recognizing the importance of providing victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief and members of their families with appropriate support and assistance in accordance with applicable law.

It strongly deplored all acts of violence against persons on the basis of their religion or belief, as well as any such acts directed against their homes, businesses, properties, schools, cultural centres or places of worship, as well as all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines that are in violation of international law.

A previous resolution establishing the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism (A/RES/72/165) also recognized that working together to enhance the implementation of existing legal regimes that protect individuals against discrimination and hate crimes, increasing interreligious, interfaith and intercultural efforts and expanding human rights education are important first steps in combating incidents of intolerance, discrimination and violence against individuals on the basis of religion or belief.

By proclaiming an International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, the General Assembly recalled that States have the primary responsibility to promote and protect human rights, including the human rights of persons belonging to religious minorities, including their right to exercise their religion or belief freely.

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.