Tag: Europe News

Dubbed the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, is the “first and most comprehensive” international treaty specifically addressing these issues, UN agencies said in a statement.  “We are concerned that Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention would undermine the significant efforts invested so far to prevent and combat violence… Read More

Special Rapporteurs Agnès Callamard and Irene Khan believe the politician was poisoned to send a “clear, sinister warning” to anyone wanting to criticize the Government.  Mr. Navalny fell violently ill on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow last August. He was later flown to Germany where toxicology reports determined he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. On returning to Moscow last month, he was imprisoned for violating a sentence for alleged embezzlement.  “It is our… Read More

In comments to the Geneva forum on Thursday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights insisted that curbs on demonstrators had got worse since last August’s poll returned President Alexander Lukashenko to office. Those protests had led to “mass arbitrary arrests and detentions” of largely peaceful demonstrators, along with “hundreds of allegations of torture and ill-treatment”, Ms. Bachelet said, before noting that “not… Read More

Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo briefed ambassadors who met virtually to mark the fifth anniversary of a deal to end fighting between Ukraine Government forces and mostly pro-Russian separatists, known as the Minsk II agreement.  ‘No reason for complacency’  The ceasefire that came into force last July resulted from a summit held in December 2019 between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, and… Read More

“We are deeply dismayed by the sentencing of Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny by a court in Moscow yesterday to imprisonment for allegedly violating the conditions of a 2014 suspended sentence in an embezzlement case that the European Court of Human Rights had in 2017, already unanimously found to be arbitrary, unfair and manifestly unreasonable”, Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in… Read More

Speaking at the end of an official visit to assess how EU institutions are operating, Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned the States that make up the 27-member bloc “should not fall into complacency”.  “Since the EU has experienced steady economic and employment growth until very recently, the only explanation for this failure is… Read More

Amid “continuous” reports that some European States are restricting access to asylum, UNHCR urged governments to investigate and end the illegal practice. Unnamed States had returned people “after they have reached territory or territorial waters (and used) violence against them at borders”, said UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs. More and more refugees and asylum seekers are being pushed… Read More

Born in Berlin in 1930, she was only three years old when Hitler came to power and the persecution of the Jews in Germany began.  Speaking at a virtual ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, Dr. Butter said the events that unfolded with the storming of the Capitol, showed that “democracy… Read More

During the first Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, organized jointly by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the UN and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Angela Merkel added that antisemitism must be thwarted, “be it open or veiled, and against denial or diminishing of the Holocaust”.  “We honour the victims of the Holocaust by… Read More

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s Representative for EU Affairs, also called for reform to be central during negotiations over a new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, and highlighted the importance of “an EU that saves lives, protects refugees in Europe and globally, and finds solutions to end forced displacement and build resilient societies is needed more than ever”.   To this… Read More