The National Migration Board (Migrationsverket) believes that the number of asylum seekers in Sweden will decline to 29,000 in 2010 and 27,000 next year.
This is a decline from the May estimate of 31,000 in Sweden this year and 28,000 next year. The primary reason behind the adjustment is that the number of applicants from Somalia is no longer increasing at the same pace as before, the agency wrote.
The change means that the agency will have better conditions to continue efforts to shorten the waiting times for applicants. The average processing time is currently four and a half months, the shortest in 20 years.
At the same time, the agency also lowered its forecast for unaccompanied children by 400 to 2,400. However, more are expected this year and the need for places remains high. At mid-year, over 450 children were still waiting to be received in a municipality.
The forecast for the number of cases relating to work permits has increased. The agency estimates that it needs a significant cash injection for next year, 312 million kronor ($42.68 million) more than the government's current proposals.
The Local Sweden
Friday, 30 July 2010
Skilled migrants urgently needed, says minister (Germany)
With Germany industry facing a looming skills shortage, Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle revealed on Friday he was planning a major recruitment drive to attract skilled migrants.
That included encouraging German firms to pay cash incentives to lure foreign workers, he told daily Handelsblatt.
“The question of how Germany becomes lastingly attractive to skilled migrants is right at the top of my agenda,” he said.
Part of the plan encourages payment of Begrüßungsgeld or “welcome money” for guest workers.
“It is conceivable that some businesses who can afford it and have an urgent need, pay skilled foreign workers an incentive,” he said.
He ruled out, however, using taxpayers’ money to subsidise skilled migrants to relocated to Germany.
Economists agree that Germany’s export-driven economy, which relies heavily on skilled workers such as engineers to develop its high-end manufactured goods to sell overseas, will be gradually eroded in years to come by a dearth of such qualified professionals.
“The skills shortage, and not unemployment, will in the coming years be the key problem for the German job market,” Brüderle said.
The Local Germany
That included encouraging German firms to pay cash incentives to lure foreign workers, he told daily Handelsblatt.
“The question of how Germany becomes lastingly attractive to skilled migrants is right at the top of my agenda,” he said.
Part of the plan encourages payment of Begrüßungsgeld or “welcome money” for guest workers.
“It is conceivable that some businesses who can afford it and have an urgent need, pay skilled foreign workers an incentive,” he said.
He ruled out, however, using taxpayers’ money to subsidise skilled migrants to relocated to Germany.
Economists agree that Germany’s export-driven economy, which relies heavily on skilled workers such as engineers to develop its high-end manufactured goods to sell overseas, will be gradually eroded in years to come by a dearth of such qualified professionals.
“The skills shortage, and not unemployment, will in the coming years be the key problem for the German job market,” Brüderle said.
The Local Germany
BNP faces fines for third accounts failure (UK)
The British National Party has failed to submit its 2009 accounts to the Electoral Commission, the third time the fascist party has been late.The Electoral Commission said today: “The British National Party and the party’s Regional Accounting Unit were both granted an extension to the deadline for submitting their statements of accounts. Both have failed to deliver their accounts within the extended deadline so the party will be fined a minimum of £500 and the accounting unit will be fined a minimum £100, this figure will increase if the accounts are more than three months late.”
The 2008 accounts, which were submitted nearly six months late, remain under investigation by the Electoral Commission because the auditors reported that they did not give a true and fair view and did not “comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as adequate records have not been made available”.
At the time, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, described the accounts as “inadequate”. In his introduction to the 2008 accounts Griffin claimed that “the task of maintaining central office accounts had become too big for any one individual”. However, he continued, the problem had now been solved because the job had been “outsourced” to “an independent Chartered Accountant and Accounts Technician with the aim of presenting acceptable accounts for the accounting year 2009”.
The independent chartered accountant was John Thompson, a close business associate of Jim Dowson, the man whose web of financial links with the BNP is such that he in effect “owns” the BNP.
The failure to submit accounts will add to Dowson’s unpopularity with many BNP members and plays into the hands of Eddy Butler, who is currently trying to collect enough nominations to challenge Griffin for the party leadership. Butler’s response was: “Nick Griffin has brought disgrace upon the BNP yet again. There is only one way that you can change this. Sign the nomination form and vote for change.”
That the accounts have not appeared was no surprise to Searchlight. Given the BNP’s huge liabilities as a result of Griffin’s long list of reckless legal actions, the party’s independent auditors are likely to have had difficulty certifying that the BNP is a “going concern”.
In recent years, although the party has been insolvent, the auditors have assumed it can meet its liabilities by raiding the funds of its groups and branches, something with which many local officers are unhappy. Now, the liabilities are so big that branch funds are not enough, and many branch treasurers have adopted measures to keep head office’s hands off their money.
An organisation that is not a “going concern” cannot operate unless it pays for all goods and services in advance, something the BNP does not have the money to do.
Many party members are beginning to realise that although Dowson has raised unprecedented sums in donations, Griffin has been spending far more on madnesses such as using an image of Marmite on a BNP election broadcast, which attracted an injunction from Unilever, defending indefensible unfair dismissal claims from former employees and dragging out his response to the Equality Commission’s action over the party’s racist constitution to the extent that the legal costs are believed to be running at £300,000 so far.
Another problem the auditors might have had is that the party apparently no longer owns any of its assets. One of the sections of the new BNP constitution that Griffin slipped in without telling anyone states that all the party’s assets belong to the so-called Founders’ Association. That body is not defined in the constitution but it is understood to be all BNP members who joined before the new constitution came into effect in February and are still members. If the party does not own its assets, they cannot correctly be included in its accounts, which would greatly increase the party’s insolvency.
The BNP, however, is hoping its members will keep their heads firmly in the sand. The day before it emerged that the party’s accounts were missing, Dave Hannam, the party treasurer, sent out an email listing all the party’s financial achievements but admitting that he had been forced to implement new stringent financial controls and submit to monthly inspection of his “treasury office” by “an outside accountant”.
According to Hannam the party lacked “financial stability”. One reason was: “the large number of court cases launched at this party in a deliberate attempt to derail us,” skating over the fact that almost all the legal costs were entirely the fault of the BNP. Another reason was “a general lack of accountability with regards to the National Treasurer and his office”. And it had been “discovered that some officials has incurred expenditure that was both unauthorised and previously unknown to the Treasury department”.
In other words, Hannam had been as incompetent as most people, other than Griffin, Dowson and their sycophants, always knew he was from the time he first became the party’s deputy treasurer.
The email said nothing about the 2009 accounts being late, appealed for new regional treasurers – in other words new people Hannam can blame the next time it all goes wrong – and ended with a “donate” button, in the hope that the party’s stupid supporters will throw more money into Griffin’s bottomless pit.
STEEP FALL IN BIRTH RATE FOR MINORITIES (Denmark)
The latest figures from Statistics Denmark have revealed that women from non-Western immigrant groups are now having fewer children than their white Danish counterparts. Twenty years ago women from ethnic minorities had twice as many children as their Danish sisters, but by 2009 their birth rate had fallen to just 1.6 children per woman, below the 1.9 rate for Danes. Garbi Schmidt, a senior researcher in Islamic studies at the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) pointed out a number of explanations for this trend. Speaking to Kristeligt Dagbladet newspaper, she said: ‘One explanation is that women from ethnic minorities are waiting to have children because they are getting an education. At the moment there is a great focus on education and many are extremely ambitious about what they want to achieve in the educational system.’ Another explanation is that minorities are beginning to behave in the same way as the general population with regard to marriage, starting families and getting an education, she added. ‘This means that women from ethnic minorities are waiting longer before starting a family.’ The stricter rules now in force regarding residence permits for foreign-born spouses also make it more difficult for immigrants to marry people from their home country, Schmidt said. Last year SFI carried out a study among immigrant groups and discovered that minorities were delaying marriage as a direct result of the ‘24-year rule’. The rule, which has been part of immigration legislation since May 2002, stipulates that ‘naturalised citizens’ must have lived in Denmark for at least 24 years before being allowed to bring their spouse here.
cphpost
cphpost
ROMANIA TO COOPERATE WITH FRANCE ON ROMA ROW
Bucharest will not abandon its citizens abroad and will better cooperate with France on its plans to tackle illegal immigration, Romanian authorities have said, following an announcement from Paris that the government would dismantle some 300 illegal Roma/Gypsy camps across the country. "Our main interest is to help integrate Romanian citizens abroad, whatever their ethnicity is. But the social inclusion of Roma people is not only a Romanian issue," Prime Minister Emil Boc said on Thursday. France on Wednesday announced it would step up measures agains illegal immigration, including the deportation of Roma people from illegal camps in a move the government said is aimed at cracking down on increasing crime and urban violence. The move has prompted a significant reaction in France, where human rights groups and the main opposition Socialist party have denounced the measures, calling them racist and xenophobic. A press release from the French Presidency calls the illegal camps "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime". It added that new legislation would be introduced soon to make the expulsion from France of illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe easier, "for reasons of public order".
Paris made the move after riots erupted in two French towns over the weekend, one of which involved an attack on a police station by a group of Roma people angered after police shot a fellow traveller. In his press release, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said that he would ask the French National Assembly to vote on an agreement between France and Romania that would facilitate the return of unaccompanied Roma minors back to Romania. He also said that France would undertake a cooperation effort with Romania to fight against trafficking and allow for the return of Roma people from France to Bulgaria and Romania. The project would involve cooperation between French and Bulgarian and Romanian police, Sarkozy explained. An estimated 15,000 Roma people, also known as "gypsies" and "travellers", live in France, many in squalid shantytowns on the fringes of cities. Many of them come from Romania, but also from Bulgaria, both EU countries. Although these Roma people are European Union citizens, critics say they are often treated like a sub-class of immigrants and targeted by police.
Balkan Insight
Paris made the move after riots erupted in two French towns over the weekend, one of which involved an attack on a police station by a group of Roma people angered after police shot a fellow traveller. In his press release, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said that he would ask the French National Assembly to vote on an agreement between France and Romania that would facilitate the return of unaccompanied Roma minors back to Romania. He also said that France would undertake a cooperation effort with Romania to fight against trafficking and allow for the return of Roma people from France to Bulgaria and Romania. The project would involve cooperation between French and Bulgarian and Romanian police, Sarkozy explained. An estimated 15,000 Roma people, also known as "gypsies" and "travellers", live in France, many in squalid shantytowns on the fringes of cities. Many of them come from Romania, but also from Bulgaria, both EU countries. Although these Roma people are European Union citizens, critics say they are often treated like a sub-class of immigrants and targeted by police.
Balkan Insight
FAR-RIGHT NPD UPS ANTE WITH MEDIA OFFENSIVE IN EASTERN GERMAN STATE
Racist messages
Stefan Kausch, a political scientist who works with the Forum for Critical Research of Right-wing Extremism, said "the topics of the articles are connected with the party's objectives - racist ideologies are repeatedly conveyed." An example of this is given in an NPD article on municipal finances: "Instead of prescribing to the protection of identity, sovereignty and solidarity of Germans," the article reads, "The anti-German political cartel instigates a well-planned policy [serving the] interests of foreigners, foreign countries and high finance." Heerdegen says the far-right party is trying to use the new publications to position itself as the lone voice of political opposition in Germany. "And so these are NPD newspapers, not true newspapers in the sense of journalistic seriousness," he said.
New take, old idea
Publishing regional newspapers is not new for the far-right. Since 2001, publications such as the Inselboten, a regional paper in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, have been in print. The state's largest city, Rostock, is home to the right-wing Rostocker Boten, while a far-right newspaper can also be found in the city of Trier, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Pre-election periods usually see an increase in the number of these far-right publications. "We have also noticed this [in the eastern city of] Leipzig," said Kausch. "However, these publications don't last." Two exceptions to the short-lived nature of many right-wing newspapers are the Wartburgkreisbote and Der Rennsteigbote in Thuringia. In its 14th edition the former printed 22,000 copies, according to the NPD District Council Chairman and the paper's publisher, Patrick Wieschke. "The new regional papers are financed in mixed ways," said Wieschke. The lion's share comes from the NPD's associations at the state level, but local groups must also pay up, he says.
Parliamentary push
The NPD in Thuringia wants to use its five new publications to strengthen its grass-roots movement and create the conditions for entry to state parliament in 2014, says Wieschke. In 2009, the party only marginally failed to garner the 5 percent of votes needed for representation. The right-wing party says it wants to appeal to common voters by focusing on local issues in the hope this will demonstrate some kind of capacity to serve communities. The front and back sheets of the four-page publications attempt to deal with local issues and differ from paper to paper. The inner two pages, however, are identical in each of the five publications. Most Germans still view the NPD as embodying the neo-Nazi movement, and the new publications are unlikely to sway voters from these firmly held positions.
DW-World
SWITZERLAND FINED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
For years, the two women were not allowed to live with their husbands. On Thursday, the court announced that both women would be awarded €5,000 (SFr6,800) in compensation. Both the women and their husbands – all Ethiopian – came to Switzerland independently and sought asylum between 1994 and 1998. While awaiting the decision, the women were sent to cantons Saint Gallen and Bern, the men to canton Vaud. After their asylum applications were turned down, the Ethiopian authorities blocked them from returning home. During their continued stay in Switzerland, the women met and married their countrymen in Lausanne in 2002 and 2003. However, the Federal Migration Office refused to re-assign the women to canton Vaud so that they could live with their new husbands. The authorities said that a change of canton was against policy for rejected asylum candidates. The woman living in Saint Gallen decided to move to Lausanne anyway, but was eventually arrested and sent back in handcuffs in 2003. The canton also withdrew her welfare payments. Both women were finally permitted to join their husbands in canton Vaud in 2008. In response to their complaints, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by preventing the spouses from living together.
SwissInfo
SwissInfo
Hate crime accusations fly as white man beaten 'for listening to rap music' (America)
A BLACK Palm Bay teenager could be charged with a hate crime after being accused of attacking a white man because he was listening to rap music.
Joshuah Lamb, 14, allegedly punched 22-year-old David McKnight because he did not think white people should listen to that type of music, Florida police were quoted as saying on WFTV.com.
Mr McKnight had been on the sidewalk listening to Wasted by Gucci Mane on a stereo before the incident.
“The argument involved the black male suspect saying, ‘You shouldn't be listening to rap music because you're white.’" Palm Bay police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said.
"The victim said he can listen to whatever type of music he wanted to and then the fist fight was on.”
Mr McKnight said he did not fight back.
“I couldn't get away fast enough, let’s just put it that way. Then one of them spit on me, punched me, knocked me down, got a couple of kicks in from a couple of them,” he said.
Mr Lamb was reportedly with seven friends at the time.
“I told him to drop it. I was like, ‘Just drop it, let's go, there is eight of you and one of me. Just drop it.’ And he says, ‘I'm not dropping anything.’ Bam! Punched me,” Mr McKnight said.
“I feel it's a racial thing really,” he added.
Mr McKnight suffered a broken toe, concussion, a swollen eye and strangulation marks around his neck.
Officers later arrested Mr Lamb on battery charges and he was now being held in a juvenile detention centre.
State prosecutors were now deciding if he would be charged with a hate crime.
Herald Sun
Joshuah Lamb, 14, allegedly punched 22-year-old David McKnight because he did not think white people should listen to that type of music, Florida police were quoted as saying on WFTV.com.
Mr McKnight had been on the sidewalk listening to Wasted by Gucci Mane on a stereo before the incident.
“The argument involved the black male suspect saying, ‘You shouldn't be listening to rap music because you're white.’" Palm Bay police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said.
"The victim said he can listen to whatever type of music he wanted to and then the fist fight was on.”
Mr McKnight said he did not fight back.
“I couldn't get away fast enough, let’s just put it that way. Then one of them spit on me, punched me, knocked me down, got a couple of kicks in from a couple of them,” he said.
Mr Lamb was reportedly with seven friends at the time.
“I told him to drop it. I was like, ‘Just drop it, let's go, there is eight of you and one of me. Just drop it.’ And he says, ‘I'm not dropping anything.’ Bam! Punched me,” Mr McKnight said.
“I feel it's a racial thing really,” he added.
Mr McKnight suffered a broken toe, concussion, a swollen eye and strangulation marks around his neck.
Officers later arrested Mr Lamb on battery charges and he was now being held in a juvenile detention centre.
State prosecutors were now deciding if he would be charged with a hate crime.
Herald Sun
3 men in racist YouTube assault found guilty (Canada)
Provincial Court Judge Peter Doherty said Thursday that one of the men who pummelled Jay Phillips, 39, yelled a racial slur when he was confronted in Courtenay, B.C., last July.
"The three young white men, fuelled by alcohol and testosterone and their own immaturity, crossed paths with a black man and lives changed forever," Doherty told a packed courtroom.
Doherty concluded that David White, 19, called Phillips "nigger" as he sat in the back of a truck leaving a restaurant while his co-accused, Robert William Roger and Adam David Huber, both 25, sat in a cab as they saw Phillips standing in a nearby parking lot.
The trial heard Huber believed Phillips was a drug dealer in the Vancouver Island town.
"In the end it does not matter one way or the other to the issue at hand except to note that Mr. Huber, when confronting Mr. Phillips, thought he was high on something," Doherty said. "I think he was just in a rage."
After White yelled the racial slur, Phillips threw a water bottle at the truck, prompting Huber to ask Phillips if he'd tossed something at the vehicle.
"Mr. Huber, unable to walk a mile in the shoes of Mr. Phillips, let alone stand in them for one moment, repeated the question several times," Doherty said.
White also threatened to kill Phillips and his entire family.
"What Mr. White said was ugly, racist and provoking," Doherty said. "It is not surprising then, that Mr. Phillips reacted by throwing a water bottle at the receding truck."
Court heard the three men spent the day tubing and drinking before the attack on Phillips, which was videoed by a man from his balcony.
"As I have observed in other cases, it has been my experience that the collective IQ of young men, filled with testosterone and alcohol, declines with the numbers involved," Doherty said. "In relation to the three accused, that certainly proved to be the case."
White and Rogers kicked Phillips at least five times, Doherty said.
"The kicks applied to Mr. Phillips while he was on the ground were beyond the consensual nature of the fight," he said. "They were applied with force and I infer they were intended to cause, and did in fact cause, bodily harm."
Phillips was not in court to hear the verdict after having testified in the trial for two days.
"Jay chose to stay away from this," his mother, Kirsten Phillips, said outside court. "He did not want to be a part of it."
"Racism is here as it is everywhere," she said. "People should be allowed to walk around parking lots and not be assaulted. A lot of people are angry about this," she said of the town where residents staged a rally against the attack last summer.
A date for sentencing the three men will be set on Aug. 12.
ctvbc
SWASTIKA IS DEEMED ‘UNIVERSAL’ HATE SYMBOL (usa)
The swastika now shows up so often as a generic symbol of hatred that the Anti-Defamation League, in its annual tally of hate crimes against Jews, will no longer automatically count its appearance as an act of anti-Semitism. “The swastika has morphed into a universal symbol of hate,” said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization. “Today it’s used as an epithet against African-Americans, Hispanics and gays, as well as Jews, because it is a symbol which frightens.” Observing the trend, he said that his group had decided it would examine reports of scrawled swastikas for contextual clues. If it appears Jews were not the target, the incident will not be included in the league’s annual audit of anti-Semitic hate crimes. “A year ago, there was a swastika put on Plymouth Rock,” Mr. Foxman said in an interview. “We saw it as a symbol of hatred against America, maybe against immigrants, I don’t know. But to count that swastika as an anti-Semitic incident would not be accurate.” Using the new measure, the Anti-Defamation League logged 1,211 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2009. It included 422 cases of anti-Semitic vandalism like swastika graffiti, as well as violent episodes like the murder of a security guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
The tally was down from 2008, which found 1,352 incidents — in part because of the new approach to swastikas. (The group is considering whether to issue a separate report on swastika incidents that were excluded from its audit). The change was first reported by The Jewish Week, a New York news weekly. The swastika symbol, a symmetrical, hooked cross sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, was appropriated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and became the defining motif of anti-Jewish hatred. It is still the contemporary calling card of many neo-Nazi groups. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish educational and human rights group based in Los Angeles, said he understood the reasoning behind the Anti-Defamation League’s move. “The swastika is shorthand for every racist and bigot on the planet,” Rabbi Cooper said. “It is amazing that 60 or 70 years later that symbol has not lost any of its potency.”
NY Times
The tally was down from 2008, which found 1,352 incidents — in part because of the new approach to swastikas. (The group is considering whether to issue a separate report on swastika incidents that were excluded from its audit). The change was first reported by The Jewish Week, a New York news weekly. The swastika symbol, a symmetrical, hooked cross sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, was appropriated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and became the defining motif of anti-Jewish hatred. It is still the contemporary calling card of many neo-Nazi groups. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish educational and human rights group based in Los Angeles, said he understood the reasoning behind the Anti-Defamation League’s move. “The swastika is shorthand for every racist and bigot on the planet,” Rabbi Cooper said. “It is amazing that 60 or 70 years later that symbol has not lost any of its potency.”
NY Times
Thursday, 29 July 2010
German prosecutors charge alleged Nazi death camp guard with murder
Samuel Kunz lay low for 65 years after World War II. Now the 90-year-old former death camp guard is on trial for participating in the murder 430,000 Jews in Poland. Nazi-hunters say it's about time.
German prosecutors announced Wednesday that they had begun proceedings against 90-year-old former Nazi guard Samuel Kunz.
Kunz, who admitted to working as a guard at the Belzec extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1943, stands accused of participation in the murder of 430,000 Jews. He is also charged with the shooting of 10 Jews in two separate incidents, prosecutor Christoph Goeke told the Associated Press news agency.
Kunz, who worked as a craftsman after World War II in the western German city of Bonn, was third on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's top-ten list of most-wanted Nazi suspects published in April. The Wiesenthal Center's Ephraim Zuroff said Wednesday that the Kunz case proves it is not too late to bring Nazi criminals to justice.
According to Zuroff, Kunz was uncovered by the US Justice Department through testimony given at the trial of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk in Munich. Demjanjuk was first brought to court last November for his alleged involvement in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Poland.
Policy change from Berlin
Following World War II, several top Nazi criminals were tried and hanged in Nuremberg. Although German authorities have since examined over 25,000 cases, very few of these cases were ever brought to court.
Nazi-hunters have welcomed a recent flurry of Nazi murder trials - including the Kunz and Demjanjuk cases - as a sign of changing times in the German legal system.
"It reflects recent changes in the German prosecution policy, which have significantly enlarged the number of suspects who will be brought to justice," said Zuroff.
DW-World
German prosecutors announced Wednesday that they had begun proceedings against 90-year-old former Nazi guard Samuel Kunz.
Kunz, who worked as a craftsman after World War II in the western German city of Bonn, was third on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's top-ten list of most-wanted Nazi suspects published in April. The Wiesenthal Center's Ephraim Zuroff said Wednesday that the Kunz case proves it is not too late to bring Nazi criminals to justice.
According to Zuroff, Kunz was uncovered by the US Justice Department through testimony given at the trial of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk in Munich. Demjanjuk was first brought to court last November for his alleged involvement in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Poland.
Policy change from Berlin
Following World War II, several top Nazi criminals were tried and hanged in Nuremberg. Although German authorities have since examined over 25,000 cases, very few of these cases were ever brought to court.
Nazi-hunters have welcomed a recent flurry of Nazi murder trials - including the Kunz and Demjanjuk cases - as a sign of changing times in the German legal system.
"It reflects recent changes in the German prosecution policy, which have significantly enlarged the number of suspects who will be brought to justice," said Zuroff.
DW-World
Police defend £400,000 operation at a Dudley protest by the EDL
Police have defended their £400,000 operation to keep law and order in Dudley during the latest protest by the English Defence League (EDL).
Around 900 officers from the West Midlands force were posted to the town while just over a third of the expected 1,500 EDL supporters turned up.
Dudley Council spent around £200,000 on security measures for the day, that also saw a rival protest by anti-far right group Unite Against Fascism (UAF). There were 21 arrests after EDL protesters tried to break through Stafford Street. They have since been bailed.
Chief Superintendent Keith Baldwin, commander of Dudley Local Policing Unit, said: “Any demonstration of the size and nature requires significant resources.
“Some of those involved were intent on disorder and people living or working nearby were subjected to scenes of violence, and others suffered damage to their property.
“A great deal of time, effort and cost went into policing this demonstration, and when added to the costs of the previous EDL protests across Dudley and the wider area, this amounts to a significant figure.”
The force had already spent £300,000 policing the groups’ rallies in the town over the Easter Bank Holiday, when the council again forked out around £200,000. On both demo days the market stayed closed along with many shops over fears of violent clashes between rival protestors.
“Regardless of what we as an organisation, the local authority or local residents want, we have no power to ban such protests,” added Chief Supt Baldwin.
The EDL claims to be opposed to “Islamic extremism,” and said it was protesting against a new mosque in Dudley. However, the council said plans for the mosque, in Hall Street, have been jettisoned in favour of renovations at an existing mosque in Castle Hill.
Birmingham Mail
Around 900 officers from the West Midlands force were posted to the town while just over a third of the expected 1,500 EDL supporters turned up.
Dudley Council spent around £200,000 on security measures for the day, that also saw a rival protest by anti-far right group Unite Against Fascism (UAF). There were 21 arrests after EDL protesters tried to break through Stafford Street. They have since been bailed.
Chief Superintendent Keith Baldwin, commander of Dudley Local Policing Unit, said: “Any demonstration of the size and nature requires significant resources.
“Some of those involved were intent on disorder and people living or working nearby were subjected to scenes of violence, and others suffered damage to their property.
“A great deal of time, effort and cost went into policing this demonstration, and when added to the costs of the previous EDL protests across Dudley and the wider area, this amounts to a significant figure.”
The force had already spent £300,000 policing the groups’ rallies in the town over the Easter Bank Holiday, when the council again forked out around £200,000. On both demo days the market stayed closed along with many shops over fears of violent clashes between rival protestors.
“Regardless of what we as an organisation, the local authority or local residents want, we have no power to ban such protests,” added Chief Supt Baldwin.
The EDL claims to be opposed to “Islamic extremism,” and said it was protesting against a new mosque in Dudley. However, the council said plans for the mosque, in Hall Street, have been jettisoned in favour of renovations at an existing mosque in Castle Hill.
Birmingham Mail
France to shut illegal Roma camps and deport migrants
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered 300 illegal camps of travellers and Roma to be dismantled.
People in the camps found to be living illegally in France would be expelled, he said.
The order is a response to riots last week in which travellers attacked police in a Loire Valley town after a youth was shot dead.
The government said the camps are sources of crime but critics say an ethnic minority is being singled out.
"Within the next three months, half of the illegal camps will be dismantled - camps and squats - that is to say some 300," said Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux after a special government meeting.
A statement issued by the president's office after the meeting described the illegal camps as "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime".
'Severely punished'
The meeting was called to discuss the riot in the small Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan, where dozens of travellers armed with hatchets and iron bars attacked the police station, hacked down trees and burned cars.
The riot erupted after a gendarme shot and killed a traveller who had driven through a checkpoint, officials said.
Mr Sarkozy has promised that those responsible for the violence would be "severely punished".
His office also announced that new legislation would be drafted before the end of the year that would make it easier to expel illegal Roma travellers "for reasons of public order".
There are hundreds of thousands of Roma or travelling people living in France who are part of long-established communities.
The other main Roma population is recent immigrants, many from Romania and Bulgaria, who have the right to enter France without a visa but must have work or residency permits to settle in the long-term.
Mr Hortefeux said the new measures "are not meant to stigmatise any community, regardless of who they are, but to punish illegal behaviour".
BBC News
People in the camps found to be living illegally in France would be expelled, he said.
The order is a response to riots last week in which travellers attacked police in a Loire Valley town after a youth was shot dead.
The government said the camps are sources of crime but critics say an ethnic minority is being singled out.
"Within the next three months, half of the illegal camps will be dismantled - camps and squats - that is to say some 300," said Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux after a special government meeting.
A statement issued by the president's office after the meeting described the illegal camps as "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime".
'Severely punished'
The meeting was called to discuss the riot in the small Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan, where dozens of travellers armed with hatchets and iron bars attacked the police station, hacked down trees and burned cars.
The riot erupted after a gendarme shot and killed a traveller who had driven through a checkpoint, officials said.
Mr Sarkozy has promised that those responsible for the violence would be "severely punished".
His office also announced that new legislation would be drafted before the end of the year that would make it easier to expel illegal Roma travellers "for reasons of public order".
There are hundreds of thousands of Roma or travelling people living in France who are part of long-established communities.
The other main Roma population is recent immigrants, many from Romania and Bulgaria, who have the right to enter France without a visa but must have work or residency permits to settle in the long-term.
Mr Hortefeux said the new measures "are not meant to stigmatise any community, regardless of who they are, but to punish illegal behaviour".
BBC News
US court blocks Arizona migrant law
Key parts of a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have been blocked by the federal court.
The law will still take effect as scheduled on Thursday, but parts of the legislation have been suspended, including a provision that requires police officers to determine the immigration status of people they detain.
US district judge Susan Bolton also blocked a provision that requires immigrants to carry identification papers at all times.
"There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new [law]," Bolton ruled on Wednesday.
"By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens."
Federal responsibility
The decision was a ruling on a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the US justice department. Bolton has said that the law was "awkward" in its wording, and that she doubted it could be properly enforced.
Her ruling held that only the federal government, not state governments, can set US immigration policy.
Jan Brewer, the Arizona governor, said that this was "a temporary bump in the road" and an appeal against the judge's decision would be filed.
"The bottom line is that we've known all along that it is the responsibility of the feds, and they haven't done their job, so we were going to help them do that."
"We will take a close look at every single element Judge (Susan) Bolton removed from the law, and we will soon file an expedited appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit," Brewer said.
The Mexican government praised the judge's decision and said it would carefully follow the process to suspend the law.
"It's a first step in the right direction," Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's foreign minister said.
She said Mexico was still concerned about the rights of its citizens in Arizona and was stepping up consular protections in the border state.
Arizona is believed to be home to up to half a million illegal immigrants, many of whom are from Mexico.
The Obama administration has pushed the US congress to pursue an immigration reform bill, but that legislation has stalled, largely because of Republican opposition.
"We would love for the congressional delegation from Arizona, and the senators there, to support comprehensive immigration reform," Jennifer Kottler, a policy director at Sojourners, a Christian advocacy group, said.
"That would address so many of the issues there."
Popular support
The law was passed in April by Arizona's Republican-controlled legislature, which called it a necessary step to stop illegal immigration.
Opinion polls have showed that nearly 60 per cent of the US population supports the law.
It has been criticised by human rights groups, the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, and by Barack Obama, the US president, who called it "misguided".
Thousands of activists have planned a demonstration against the law in Arizona on Thursday. That rally is still expected to take place, despite the court's verdict.
"Even if it issues a temporary injunction ... we're still going ahead with our protests, because 21 other states want to follow Arizona's footsteps with racist laws" of their own, Paulina Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the group organising the protest, said.
One group, the National Day Laborer Organising Network, plans to fill nearly a dozen buses with activists in Los Angeles. The buses will drive from there to Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.
Organisers say none of the people on the buses will carry identification papers.
"Thursday will be our national civil disobedience day, when we'll stand up to a racist, discriminatory and hypocritical measure," Pablo Alvarado, the director of the network, said.
Another group plans to block access to federal government offices in Phoenix.
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
aljazeera
The law will still take effect as scheduled on Thursday, but parts of the legislation have been suspended, including a provision that requires police officers to determine the immigration status of people they detain.
US district judge Susan Bolton also blocked a provision that requires immigrants to carry identification papers at all times.
"There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new [law]," Bolton ruled on Wednesday.
"By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens."
Federal responsibility
The decision was a ruling on a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the US justice department. Bolton has said that the law was "awkward" in its wording, and that she doubted it could be properly enforced.
Her ruling held that only the federal government, not state governments, can set US immigration policy.
Jan Brewer, the Arizona governor, said that this was "a temporary bump in the road" and an appeal against the judge's decision would be filed.
"The bottom line is that we've known all along that it is the responsibility of the feds, and they haven't done their job, so we were going to help them do that."
"We will take a close look at every single element Judge (Susan) Bolton removed from the law, and we will soon file an expedited appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit," Brewer said.
The Mexican government praised the judge's decision and said it would carefully follow the process to suspend the law.
"It's a first step in the right direction," Patricia Espinosa, Mexico's foreign minister said.
She said Mexico was still concerned about the rights of its citizens in Arizona and was stepping up consular protections in the border state.
Arizona is believed to be home to up to half a million illegal immigrants, many of whom are from Mexico.
The Obama administration has pushed the US congress to pursue an immigration reform bill, but that legislation has stalled, largely because of Republican opposition.
"We would love for the congressional delegation from Arizona, and the senators there, to support comprehensive immigration reform," Jennifer Kottler, a policy director at Sojourners, a Christian advocacy group, said.
"That would address so many of the issues there."
Popular support
The law was passed in April by Arizona's Republican-controlled legislature, which called it a necessary step to stop illegal immigration.
Opinion polls have showed that nearly 60 per cent of the US population supports the law.
It has been criticised by human rights groups, the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, and by Barack Obama, the US president, who called it "misguided".
Thousands of activists have planned a demonstration against the law in Arizona on Thursday. That rally is still expected to take place, despite the court's verdict.
"Even if it issues a temporary injunction ... we're still going ahead with our protests, because 21 other states want to follow Arizona's footsteps with racist laws" of their own, Paulina Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the group organising the protest, said.
One group, the National Day Laborer Organising Network, plans to fill nearly a dozen buses with activists in Los Angeles. The buses will drive from there to Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.
Organisers say none of the people on the buses will carry identification papers.
"Thursday will be our national civil disobedience day, when we'll stand up to a racist, discriminatory and hypocritical measure," Pablo Alvarado, the director of the network, said.
Another group plans to block access to federal government offices in Phoenix.
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
aljazeera
Hackers replace Buchenwald Book of the Dead with neo-Nazi slogans
One slogan read: "Brown is beautiful", referring to the colour of the shirts worn by Hitler's SA stormtroopers. Another threatened in German: "We'll be back."
The hackers also completely erased the Mittelbau-Dora camp's website. Volkhard Knigge, head of Buchenwald, said: "By damaging the documentation we offer, such as the Book of the Dead, the perpetrators were trying to efface the memory of victims of the Nazis' crimes."
The Guardian
White S.Africans face fine for racist abuse video
Four white South Africans Wednesday faced a fine in court after pleading guilty to humiliating five black housekeepers in a video depicting racial abuse at their former university.
They made the video in 2007 as students at the University of Free State in protest at plans to integrate student housing.
One clip showed a young man apparently urinating into a bowl of stew and then serving it to the housekeepers. It ended with the words: "That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration."
The video sparked an international scandal when it landed on the Internet in February 2008.
In a sentencing hearing Wednesday, both the defence and the prosecution said the four should face only a fine as punishment, after they pleaded guilty to the charge of crimen injuria, or seriously impairing the dignity of the five housekeepers.
Defence lawyer Kemp J Kemp requested a 5,000-rand (680-dollar, 525-euro fine) fine, while prosecutor Johan Kruger sought three times that amount.
"They deliberately manipulated the five cleaners because they are illiterate," Kruger told the court.
Magistrate Mziwonke Hinxa said he would decide on the sentence on Friday.
In the statement the boys denied urinating on the food, saying: "It was an act meant to look like urine."
Mediation efforts had failed to resolve the case, with the housekeepers saying they wanted to pursue a trial against the students. The guilty plea avoided what could have been an emotive trial.
Kemp told the court that the students had not intended to humiliate the housekeepers, but later realised they had done just that.
"The accused did not realise the effect of the video and what it would have on the university and the plaintiffs. They now, in retrospect, accept that the use of the workers for the video was insensitive, ill considered and wrong," he said.
The video was shot at a time when the University of Free State was introducing racial integration at student hostels, following decades of race-based hostel allocation.
Throughout the video, the workers were voluntary contributors, who could have withdrawn at any time and understood they were acting, Kemp said.
Kemp said the students had good relations with the workers until the video hit the Internet.
None of the young men -- Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe, RC Malherbe and Danie Grobler -- are still studying at the university.
The whites-only male hostel where the video was shot was later shut down and eventually re-opened as a diversity centre to address issues of racism, sexism, xenophobia and reconciliation.
In October last year, university rector Jonathan Jansen came under fire when he announced the school was withdrawing disciplinary charges against the students, in an attempt to promote reconciliation.
Jansen was heavily criticised for choosing reconciliation over retribution, igniting further debate about the limits of forgiveness in a nation that has already forgiven much of its racist past.
He invited the students to return to campus to finish their studies -- an offer none accepted.
The five workers have also launched a civil case at the Bloemfontein Equality Court, where each of the students face are being sued for one million rand (136,00 dollars, 105,000 euros).
Google Hosted News
They made the video in 2007 as students at the University of Free State in protest at plans to integrate student housing.
One clip showed a young man apparently urinating into a bowl of stew and then serving it to the housekeepers. It ended with the words: "That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration."
The video sparked an international scandal when it landed on the Internet in February 2008.
In a sentencing hearing Wednesday, both the defence and the prosecution said the four should face only a fine as punishment, after they pleaded guilty to the charge of crimen injuria, or seriously impairing the dignity of the five housekeepers.
Defence lawyer Kemp J Kemp requested a 5,000-rand (680-dollar, 525-euro fine) fine, while prosecutor Johan Kruger sought three times that amount.
"They deliberately manipulated the five cleaners because they are illiterate," Kruger told the court.
Magistrate Mziwonke Hinxa said he would decide on the sentence on Friday.
In the statement the boys denied urinating on the food, saying: "It was an act meant to look like urine."
Mediation efforts had failed to resolve the case, with the housekeepers saying they wanted to pursue a trial against the students. The guilty plea avoided what could have been an emotive trial.
Kemp told the court that the students had not intended to humiliate the housekeepers, but later realised they had done just that.
"The accused did not realise the effect of the video and what it would have on the university and the plaintiffs. They now, in retrospect, accept that the use of the workers for the video was insensitive, ill considered and wrong," he said.
The video was shot at a time when the University of Free State was introducing racial integration at student hostels, following decades of race-based hostel allocation.
Throughout the video, the workers were voluntary contributors, who could have withdrawn at any time and understood they were acting, Kemp said.
Kemp said the students had good relations with the workers until the video hit the Internet.
None of the young men -- Johnny Roberts, Schalk van der Merwe, RC Malherbe and Danie Grobler -- are still studying at the university.
The whites-only male hostel where the video was shot was later shut down and eventually re-opened as a diversity centre to address issues of racism, sexism, xenophobia and reconciliation.
In October last year, university rector Jonathan Jansen came under fire when he announced the school was withdrawing disciplinary charges against the students, in an attempt to promote reconciliation.
Jansen was heavily criticised for choosing reconciliation over retribution, igniting further debate about the limits of forgiveness in a nation that has already forgiven much of its racist past.
He invited the students to return to campus to finish their studies -- an offer none accepted.
The five workers have also launched a civil case at the Bloemfontein Equality Court, where each of the students face are being sued for one million rand (136,00 dollars, 105,000 euros).
Google Hosted News
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Greece's locked up migrant children attempt suicide
Greece is imprisoning unaccompanied migrant children in violation of EU laws and often in appalling conditions, human rights campaigners have revealed.In a report detailing how asylum seekers and irregular migrants are being detained "as a matter of course, rather than a last resort," Amnesty International has excoriated Athens for its policy of imprisoning children for long periods.
Conditions are so appalling, the report says, that children resort to hunger strikes in protest at their imprisonment, and some even attempt suicide.
"It is never acceptable that children are detained. Children should not be subjected to poor conditions and long periods of confinement," said says Nicolas Beger, head of the group's Brussels office.
"Although Greece is experiencing economic hardship and is receiving a large number of migrants, these issues cannot serve as an excuse for treating children in such a way."
The group documents how conditions in a "vast number" of the country's immigrant detention centres are poor, with overcrowding and sanitation a problem.
Unaccompanied children who are captured by authorities when arriving in Greece are usually detained following their arrest for irregular entry. Where a deportation order is issued, detention continues until a legal guardian is appointed and a place found in a special reception centre for unaccompanied children.
Overcrowding is problem particularly in the summer when a large number of migrants attempt to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to what they believe to be the promised land of the European Union.
At the Pagani immigration detention centre in the summer of 2009, some 150 children went on hunger strike to protest the length and poor conditions of detention. More than 850 people, including 200 unaccompanied children, 150 women and 50 small children, were kept in overcrowded and insanitary conditions.
It was only after a visit from the UN High Commission for Refugees, and the ombudsman for the rights of the child, that the authorities released 570 people, mainly families with kids and unaccompanied children.
In a letter to the European Commission, the group has demanded the EU executive take action to ensure that Greece adheres to its legal obligations to migrants and refugees - and particularly their children.
Amnesty International believes that there should be a prohibition on the detention of unaccompanied children provided by law, but even in the absence of such a step forward, Greece is beholden to a number of international and EU obligations that should prevent such situations from occurring.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Greece is a party, states that in their best interests, ‘‘unaccompanied or separated children should not, as a general rule, be detained, and that a government provide "special protection and assistance" to children who are not in their family environment.
Furthermore, the EU's Reception Conditions Directive sets out special provisions for unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors.
"The reality for migrants in Greece is dire," said Mr Beger. "The EU must put pressure on Greece to improve the situation. Each and every person has the right to basic legal assistance and to humane treatment upon arriving in an EU country."
EUOBserver
Racist thug jailed after ripping off Muslim woman's hijab as she catches train (UK)
A racist thug who ripped off a Muslim woman's religious veil and threw it on the ground was jailed for two years yesterday.
Brute William Baikie grabbed the veil - known as a hijab - from 26-year-old Anwar Alqahtani as she was on her way to catch a train from Glasgow's Central Station.
Miss Alqahtani, who wears the hijab to protect her modesty as part of her religion, had to use another piece of clothing to cover her face after the veil was ripped as Baikie pulled it from her.
Baikie, 26, ran off but was later arrested by police after being identified on CCTV.
Miss Alqahtani, who had come to Scotland from Saudi Arabia to study for a masters degree, has quit her studies and is afraid to leave the house as a result of the attack.
Sentencing Baikie at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Lindsay Wood told the racist what he did was an "absolute disgrace".
Sheriff Wood added: "The offence you committed was a shameful one.
"You are a man who has a number of racist convictions and you knew full well how offensive the act would have been to the lady."
The dad-of-two, whose address was given as HMP Barlinnie, admitted racially assaulting Miss Alqahtani by forcibly removing her veil at Hope Street, Glasgow, on April 27.
Prosecutor Iain Bradley told the court: "The incident was totally without warning.
"Miss Alqahtani had never seen this man before."
He added: "This thoughtless, disrespectful act has had a very serious and profound effect on Miss Alqahtani.
"She now feels that she has lost her independence as she is afraid to go out on her own in case it happens again.
"She is effectively house bound as a result of what the accused did."
Def ence lawyer Ken Sinclair told the court that his client was drunk at the time of the attack and can offer no explanation for what he did.
Mr Sinclair sa id: "He appreciates that such behaviour is totally unacceptable and he is deeply ashamed of what he did."
The Daily Record
Brute William Baikie grabbed the veil - known as a hijab - from 26-year-old Anwar Alqahtani as she was on her way to catch a train from Glasgow's Central Station.
Miss Alqahtani, who wears the hijab to protect her modesty as part of her religion, had to use another piece of clothing to cover her face after the veil was ripped as Baikie pulled it from her.
Baikie, 26, ran off but was later arrested by police after being identified on CCTV.
Miss Alqahtani, who had come to Scotland from Saudi Arabia to study for a masters degree, has quit her studies and is afraid to leave the house as a result of the attack.
Sentencing Baikie at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Lindsay Wood told the racist what he did was an "absolute disgrace".
Sheriff Wood added: "The offence you committed was a shameful one.
"You are a man who has a number of racist convictions and you knew full well how offensive the act would have been to the lady."
The dad-of-two, whose address was given as HMP Barlinnie, admitted racially assaulting Miss Alqahtani by forcibly removing her veil at Hope Street, Glasgow, on April 27.
Prosecutor Iain Bradley told the court: "The incident was totally without warning.
"Miss Alqahtani had never seen this man before."
He added: "This thoughtless, disrespectful act has had a very serious and profound effect on Miss Alqahtani.
"She now feels that she has lost her independence as she is afraid to go out on her own in case it happens again.
"She is effectively house bound as a result of what the accused did."
Def ence lawyer Ken Sinclair told the court that his client was drunk at the time of the attack and can offer no explanation for what he did.
Mr Sinclair sa id: "He appreciates that such behaviour is totally unacceptable and he is deeply ashamed of what he did."
The Daily Record
Former Nazi officer dies unprosecuted
A former Nazi SS officer died in Germany two months after the reopening of an investigation into his connection to massacres of Jews.
Erich Steidtmann, who as commander was accused of leading several Nazi police battalions who participated in the mass murder of Jews in Eastern Europe, died this week in Hanover, where he lived. He was 95.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a statement Tuesday expressing frustration that Steidtmann was never prosecuted for his crimes, saying it reflected decades of German judicial failure in the case.
“Had the prosecutors done their job properly in the sixties, he would not have escaped justice,” said Efraim Zuroff, the center's Israel director.
The case was reopened in April based on a letter that Steidtmann wrote in October 1943 that would have placed him in the area of the massacres at the time they occurred rather than at home on leave, as he told prosecutors during investigations in the 1960s, according to The Associated Press.
The case closed quickly for lack of evidence.
“It was only thanks to research by the Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Stefan Klemp and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine that the case against Steidtmann was reopened," Zuroff said, "but unfortunately it will never come to court, nor will Steidtmann ever be punished.”
JTA
Erich Steidtmann, who as commander was accused of leading several Nazi police battalions who participated in the mass murder of Jews in Eastern Europe, died this week in Hanover, where he lived. He was 95.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a statement Tuesday expressing frustration that Steidtmann was never prosecuted for his crimes, saying it reflected decades of German judicial failure in the case.
“Had the prosecutors done their job properly in the sixties, he would not have escaped justice,” said Efraim Zuroff, the center's Israel director.
The case was reopened in April based on a letter that Steidtmann wrote in October 1943 that would have placed him in the area of the massacres at the time they occurred rather than at home on leave, as he told prosecutors during investigations in the 1960s, according to The Associated Press.
The case closed quickly for lack of evidence.
“It was only thanks to research by the Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Stefan Klemp and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine that the case against Steidtmann was reopened," Zuroff said, "but unfortunately it will never come to court, nor will Steidtmann ever be punished.”
JTA
RAISING THE VISIBILITY AT THE OSCE OF HATE CRIME AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LGBT
As civil society organisations were invited to send their recommendations in advance, and to discuss them at a roundtable on 28 June, ILGA-Europe was particularly active. The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) had invited us to speak at one of the roundtable’s panels dedicated to hate crime, and to join the working group in charge of editing the final recommendations.
NGOs had other ways to have their say, and ILGA-Europe, together with other LGBT organisations, made a number of interventions during the conference’s relevant sessions: combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination; the role of legislation, law enforcement, data collection and civil society in combating and preventing intolerance and discrimination; the role of education to promote mutual understanding and respect for diversity; and addressing public manifestations of intolerance. As this high-level conference was organised in Kazakhstan by the 2010 Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE, it was also a unique opportunity to help the local LGBT partners of the PRECIS project, Amulet (Kazakhstan) and Labrys, (Kyrgyzstan) to gain visibility. To that end ILGA-Europe organized a side event on the situation of LGBT people in Central Asia, which was attended by other NGOs and members of diplomatic delegations. ILGA-Europe, Amulet, COC Netherlands and Labrys also had a number of meetings with various national delegations: Belgium, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The final declaration of the conference, delivered by the Kazakh Chairperson-in-Office, makes no reference to LGBT fundamental rights, which was unsurprising, given that the OSCE decision-making is by the unanimous consensus of the 56 participating states. On a positive note, ILGA-Europe notes that the United States, as well as a growing number of European States, including the European Union’s Spanish Presidency, now ensure they mention LGBT fundamental rights in relevant interventions.
ILGA-Europe
NGOs had other ways to have their say, and ILGA-Europe, together with other LGBT organisations, made a number of interventions during the conference’s relevant sessions: combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination; the role of legislation, law enforcement, data collection and civil society in combating and preventing intolerance and discrimination; the role of education to promote mutual understanding and respect for diversity; and addressing public manifestations of intolerance. As this high-level conference was organised in Kazakhstan by the 2010 Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE, it was also a unique opportunity to help the local LGBT partners of the PRECIS project, Amulet (Kazakhstan) and Labrys, (Kyrgyzstan) to gain visibility. To that end ILGA-Europe organized a side event on the situation of LGBT people in Central Asia, which was attended by other NGOs and members of diplomatic delegations. ILGA-Europe, Amulet, COC Netherlands and Labrys also had a number of meetings with various national delegations: Belgium, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The final declaration of the conference, delivered by the Kazakh Chairperson-in-Office, makes no reference to LGBT fundamental rights, which was unsurprising, given that the OSCE decision-making is by the unanimous consensus of the 56 participating states. On a positive note, ILGA-Europe notes that the United States, as well as a growing number of European States, including the European Union’s Spanish Presidency, now ensure they mention LGBT fundamental rights in relevant interventions.
ILGA-Europe
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