Opening a virtual session of UNHCR’s annual Dialogue on Protection challenges, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, warned that “measures restricting access to asylum must not be allowed to become entrenched under the guise of public health”,
Instead, she urged States to maintain access for asylum seekers and to safeguard the rights of refugees, together with displaced and Stateless people.
Ms. Triggs also spoke of the deep and hard-hitting impact on refugees of the coronavirus, including restrictions impeding access to asylum, spiraling gender-based violence, risks of unsafe returns, and the loss of livelihoods.
Participants – consisting of displaced people, non-governmental organizations and Government speakers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe – discussed how compassion and initiative could help ensure that asylum claims were considered during the pandemic, and protection services adapted to reach people in need during lockdowns.They also pointed to how the pandemic presented greater challenges for the protection of refugees, internally displaced and Stateless people, maintaining the need for solidarity and greater support.
“The pandemic has threatened the social and economic rights of the most vulnerable in society – among them refugees and those forcibly displaced who, all too often, depend on the informal economy”, said the UN official. “They are among the first to suffer the economic impacts of a lockdown”.
Moreover, UNHCR operations also report increasing incidents of discrimination, stigmatization and xenophobia against refugees and displaced people, “exacerbating tensions with local communities”, he added.
Stepping up
UNHCR has been advocating for the urgent inclusion of refugees, displaced and Stateless people in the full range of responses to the pandemic, from public health to national social safety nets.
“The virus does not distinguish between legal status or nationality”, Ms. Triggs reminded. “Access to health services should not depend on citizenship or restrictive visa conditions”.
She upheld that “a realistic and practical opportunity for protection” lies in social inclusion and in non-discriminatory access to education, health and employment.
To illustrate the difficulties that refugees and internally displaced people face in the context of the pandemic, UNHCR also launched an interactive report called Space, shelter and scarce resources – coping with COVID-19, which highlights how acutely vulnerable displaced populations must contend with the pandemic.
Backdrop
The High Commissioner’s Dialogue was established more than a decade ago for refugees, Governments, the private sector and international organizations to exchange views on global protection matters.
This year, discussions are being held through five virtual sessions spread over the last quarter of the year, with the closing session to take place on 9 December.
Americans — and the world — woke up on Wednesday to an election battle that was still being fiercely fought by both sides.
With millions of votes left to be counted in several key battleground states, President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in an early-morning address at the White House.
“This is a fraud on the American public,” Trump said, threatening to take the fight to the Supreme Court. “We will win this. As far as I’m concerned, we already have won.”
Trump has refused to confirm whether he will accept the results of the election, and claims the vast number of mail-in ballots — many still to be counted, and which some analysts have said could significantly boost the Democratic Party — could be used to rig the results against him.
The campaign of Democratic challenger Joe Biden has slammed Trump’s attempt to stop the count, calling it a “naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”
“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place,” Biden wrote on Twitter. But the former vice president remained confident of victory, saying he believed the Democrats were “on track to win this election.”
Across the Atlantic, EU leaders also spent the day following the vote tallies. Most of the major players have so far declined to comment on the developments, though Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa prematurely congratulated Trump on his possible reelection.
“This is a very explosive situation. This is a situation that can lead to a constitutional crisis in the US, as experts are rightly saying. And it is something that must cause us great concern,” she said.
Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, said the US was still “a long way from a constitutional crisis.” But, he told DW, no matter the outcome of the 2020 election, the EU was going to have to start relying less on US leadership on the world stage in the years to come.
“Europe is going to have to work out how to do more things for itself,” he said, pointing out that even if Biden does end up winning the presidency he will inherit a host of domestic issues that will demand his attention, among them the “rampaging coronavirus epidemic” and a probable Republican-controlled Senate that will block him at every turn. “The amount of bandwidth that he is going to have to devote to Europe is probably going to be quite limited,” he said.
That message seems to have hit home for some observers in the European Parliament, including liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt. “Whatever the outcome, the EU needs to take its destiny into its own hands,” he wrote on Twitter.
Franziska Brantner, the German Green party’s leading parliamentarian on European affairs and Verhofstadt’s former colleague in Brussels, told DW that the EU would find common ground with a Biden administration on issues such as climate protection and fair competition in the digital industry. But she also stressed that it was important for Europe to chart its own course.
“We as Europeans are better advised to take care of our own sovereignty and invest in this, [regardless of] who win[s],” she said. “We as Europeans have to watch for ourselves and also watch that we defend the basis of our democracy, which is social cohesion and equality.”
Bond agreed, saying the EU had to “start thinking in more geopolitical terms” when it came to investing and making policy. “Europe has profound interests at stake in the rise of China, in what happens in Africa, and what happens in the Middle East,” he said.
That advice is even more important in a possible second Trump term. The current president has not hidden his disdain for the European Union, arguing that the EU had been set up to “take advantage of the US” and that the bloc was “worse than China, only smaller,” according to former national security adviser John Bolton.
‘Germany has to be willing to take on more responsibility’
Bond said a second Trump administration — especially if the president resorts to the Supreme Court to settle a disputed election by invalidating votes for his opponent — had the potential to further entrench existing divisions within the EU.
“It would send the message to autocrats and would-be autocrats in Europe and elsewhere that if you can get the court system in your favor, then you can pretty much do what you like and there will be no consequences,” he said. And, although Trump has never enjoyed much popularity in the European Union he has found admirers among populist leaders, including in Poland and Hungary.
Four more years of Trump would also further erode the NATO defense alliance, Bond said. “NATO’s deterrent value will diminish because America’s president is clearly unwilling to defend all treaty allies,” he pointed out in an analysis ahead of the election.
“At best, Trump would defend countries like Poland that he perceives as sharing his world view. Many European states will have no choice but to curry favour with him, as long as the EU itself remains an ineffective defence player,” he wrote.
To counter this threat, Bond called on Berlin to take on a greater role in world affairs. “Germany has to be willing to take on more responsibility for Europe in the world,” he told DW. “It’s no longer possible just to be the economic powerhouse of Europe and to leave the defense of the world to the Americans, because they may not be able or willing to take that on.”
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Spooky season is upon us and this year the scariest entity is not a ghost in the basement, but a virus preventing further in-person scares. While those Halloween party invites are flooding your DMs, it may be worth considering sitting out this season and staying inside with a scary book or two.
For all those trick-or-treat and fight or flight triggers you want in one package, the nostalgic series “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” by Alvin Schwartz is exactly what students need to relive their childhoods. These books always found their way into grade school scholastic book fairs and libraries, and into the hands of children likely far too young to read them.
For more existential scares H.P. Lovecraft’s work may be more well suited. Those who enjoy anthologies, consider picking up “The Thing on the Doorstep”byLovecraft. If the pages gilded in black are not enough, the short stories inside offer psychological, paranormal and existential terrors grand enough to darken anyone’s night. Lovecraft’s writing offers a glimpse into older horror story structures and origins of many classic horror tropes with hideous monsters and eldritch abominations. His work often dwells in the fantastical, unlike the writings of arguably the most prominent horror and thriller writer of present, Stephen King.
King has a plethora of horror stories to read and digest, but for halloween night, “The Shining” is an excellent choice. It brings readers through the horrors of reality by use of its depictions of addiction and abuse. The later parts of the novel leaks into the paranormal as the many deaths within the hotel where the story is set become uncovered by the central character, Jack Torrance, who descends into his own madness. The movie has an altered depiction of the story, so there are still many surprise spooks to be had while reading, even if you’ve already seen the film adaptation.
I have a massive soft spot for fantasy and sci-fi writing, having read through the collection “A Song of Ice and Fire”twice. I cannot recommend more strongly the short novel by George R.R. Martin, “Nightflyers.”The story follows a ship ostensibly with no captain that picks up several travelers and sets off into space. The occupants soon realize there is something haunting the ship and they must survive the evil entity. The illustrated edition is less than 200 pages and could be finished in a single sitting, perfect for a quiet night in.
Many have heard of “Fahrenheit 451,” but the author Ray Bradbury wrote several darker tales that differ largely from his famous dystopian novel. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “The October Country”offer a look into older settings of horror. “The Illustrated Man” is another collection of short stories that are not so horror based, but leave readers with a frightening dystopian feeling of what the world is becoming. The collection was published in 1951, yet it is able to convey concerns over technology becoming increasingly relevant to modern day life, with its portrayals of things like entire walls able to project images and scenes, or autonomic homes.
The temptation to escape the confines of an apartment or dorm room and not miss the scariest holiday of the year is high, but we must consider the health and safety of others as well as ourselves. Staying indoors and reading is not the most exciting option to many people, but it is a safe alternative that can also feel rewarding. There is a unique experience waiting in the pages of all of the aforementioned books, and each one which will leave readers questioning those inconspicuous sounds in the middle of the night.
Editor’s Note: The North Wind is committed to offering a free and open public forum of ideas, publishing a wide range of viewpoints to accurately represent the NMU student body. This is a staff column, written by an employee of the North Wind. As such, it expresses the personal opinions of the individual writer, and does not necessarily reflect the position of the North Wind Editorial Board.
European Union proposals for a digital tax may be delayed to allow for more time to reach a worldwide agreement on the issue, German finance minister Olaf Scholz has indicated.
<p class="no_name">It comes after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_organisation=United+Nations" rel="nofollow">United Nations</a> outlined plans for a global pact on digital taxation, a high-stakes issue for <a href="/news">Ireland</a> because of the large tech multinationals such as Apple and <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_company=Facebook" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a> that are based in the State. </p>
<p class="no_name">Speaking after a video conference of finance ministers, Mr Scholz said it was clear there would not be a global agreement on digital taxation by the end of the year, but that it was important to give the process enough time.</p>
<p class="no_name">“By mid-2021, we want to reach an international consensus . . . this is clearly the path we are following, we’ve never achieved this much before,” Mr Scholz said. “The European Union supports this process and will continue to advocate a global solution.”</p>
<p class="no_name">But he added: “It’s clear that we won’t be able to get consensus by the end of the year.” </p>
<aside class="related-articles--instream has-3">
</aside>
<p class="no_name">EU countries had previously agreed to lay out their own plan for digital taxation at the start of 2021, a timetable that now looks to be delayed if more time is to be given for the international negotiations.</p>
<p class="no_name">The bloc believes an international agreement is preferable, as if only part of the world implements a digital tax, companies could simply relocate to avoid it. But the European Commission has said it will push ahead with plans for an EU-only tax if global talks do not make progress.</p>
<p class="no_name">Progress in the OECD negotiations on a digital tax stalled in June when the <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=United+States" rel="nofollow">United States</a> pulled out, a move that prompted <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=France" rel="nofollow">France</a> to push ahead with a national digital tax, angering the US.</p>
<p class="no_name">The outcome of the US presidential election is seen as crucial for prospects of an international agreement on digital taxation. The Democratic Party’s <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Joe+Biden" rel="nofollow">Joe Biden</a> is seen as more friendly towards international co-operation.</p>
<p class="no_name">The finance ministers also agreed to support proposals to reform the legal framework and surveillance structure in Europe to combat <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_event=money+laundering" rel="nofollow">money laundering</a>. </p>
<p class="no_name">This could involve bringing rules into line across the bloc, while setting up an EU supervisory body with surveillance powers over parts of the financial sector.</p>
<h4 class="crosshead">Non-performing loans </h4><p class="no_name">Ministers will also speed up implementing measures to reduce <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_event=non-performing+loans" rel="nofollow">non-performing loans</a> in the banking sector. This relates to loans on which repayments are 90 days or more late or that are unlikely to be repaid in full without foreclosure. These are expected to rise due to the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p class="no_name">There have been proposals to set up an EU-wide “bad bank” to take on bad loans but, due to different national law enforcement practices on loans, this “requires more discussion”, Mr Scholz said.</p>
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Bangladesh has reaffirmed its commitment to show respect for everyone’s religious and cultural sensitivity, conveying to the France government that no religion supports killings.
“It’s our long-standing policy to have respect for each other,” said Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday, adding that he wrote a letter to his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“Everyone has sensitivity. We’re very aware of it,” said the minister.
He said they do not interrupt anyone’s freedom of opinion and expression as Bangladesh believes in freedom.
Momen, however, said there is an obligation with freedom and Bangladesh does not instigate anything negative.
The minister also said religion and business should not be mixed up.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh urged all sides to exercise the freedom of expression responsibly and not to hurt anybody’s religious sentiment in the name of freedom of expression.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen encouraged all to have patience instead of mixing up religious issues with economic issues.
He said Bangladesh does not support violence in the name of religion.
Three people died in a knife attack recently at a church in Nice, in what French President Emmanuel Macron said was an “Islamist terrorist attack”.
He said France would not surrender its core values after visiting the Notre-Dame basilica in the southern city.
In Nice, one elderly victim was “virtually beheaded”, officials said.
Another woman and a man also died.
Bangladesh also condemned the attack on innocent people and expressed heartfelt condolence and deep sympathy to the members of the bereaved families.
No matter who wins the US presidential election, the United States officially pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement today, 4 November 2020.
The landmark deal, struck in 2016 and adopted by 197 countries, aims to limit global warming to below 2° Celsius and strive to hold it at 1.5 degrees, by garnering increasingly ambitious voluntary commitments from governments.
But in June 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the agreement and has since put in motion a process to remove his country, the world’s No. 2 emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, from the agreement saying it was too costly.
Climate change has been one of the battlefields of the just-ended presidential campaign with Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, promising not only to recommit to the Paris Agreement but to make the US a global leader on climate action.
Pope Francis has repeatedly urged nations to care for creation and fight global warming. He has expressed support to the Paris Agreement and said that modern society has “pushed the planet beyond its limits and the time to fix a climate emergency is running out.”
His encyclical Laudato sì calls on humanity to take action for climate justice and on this year’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in September, he said “forests are leached, topsoil erodes, fields fail, deserts advance, seas acidify and storms intensify. Creation is groaning!”
Global Catholic Climate Movement
We spoke to Tomás Insua, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, an independent movement that aims to help the Catholic Church turn the Laudato sì’ call into action, about the impact of the US’s withdrawal from the Climate Accord.
Listen to Tomas Insua
Insua explained that today’s deadline is really a formality “that is pretty irrelevant because the United States already exited the Agreement four years ago, on the first day of the Trump Administration.”
“Trump has consistently dismantled all environmental regulations, boosting pollution in the United States, which means that de facto they already left a long time ago,” he said.
Insua said that huge damage has been done in the past four years, but it remains to be seen as a result of this election, expressing his belief that: “The result of the elections will determine the severity of the climate crisis for centuries to come.”
“So if Trump wins, it is ‘Game-Over’ for the climate crisis. The climate cannot deal with four more years of this destruction. If Biden wins instead, we will see what happens, but he has to quickly bring the United States back into the Paris Agreement,“ he said.
In either case, Insua continued, the emergency couldn’t be greater. He said the Paris Agreement requires urgent implementation at all levels, in all countries, “especially in the US given that is the greatest carbon emitter in historical terms,” and therefore has the biggest responsibility to tackle this crisis.
But of course, he concluded, it is not up to the United States alone: it’s the whole of humanity that needs to act together and “respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor which are as intense as ever.”
Leaders of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) are appealing to faith communities, international donors and people in the private sector to extend a helping hand in support of a scaled-up response to rescue people in areas hard-hit by floods that continue to cause destruction across the country.
“We, the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) leaders working within these communities appeal for assistance to be expedited to communities currently without humanitarian assistance,” read a jointly signed letter by several religious leaders, including Archbishop Stephen Mulla of Juba.
In recent months, several counties located along the Nile River have been flooded after the river banks overflowed due to heavy rainfall in catchment areas. An estimated 700,000 people have been displaced due to the resulting floods which have also destroyed livestock, farms, homes and other property.
South Sudan’s many challenges
The Church leaders estimate that about five hundred thousand dollars (USD $500,000) is required to respond to the immediate needs of about 100,000 people in Jonglei, Lakes, Upper Nile, Equatoria and Unity – areas which are most affected by the crises.
This money, SSCC says, will go towards providing basic humanitarian needs including water, sanitation, health, shelter, food security, livelihoods and psychosocial support.
South Sudan, – the world’s youngest nation – is currently trying to end years of ongoing conflict and inter-communal violence which began in 2013, barely two years after its independence.
In the wake of the long-running conflict, 1.6 million of the nation’s estimated 11.1 million people are internally displaced, with 7.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance. About half of the population is food insecure with famine threatening some areas and nearly 300,000 children facing severe to acute malnutrition.
The country’s already existing challenges have been further exacerbated by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which “has decimated supply chains leading to escalating prices for staple foods and basic commodities,” the church leaders said. The conflicts and the pandemic have also adversely affected aid delivery efforts while poor roads have made it hard for humanitarian organizations to reach flooded areas.
In partnership with Caritas and other humanitarian organizations, the SSCC is collaborating in the hope they can “jointly deliver support to affected populations currently without assistance if adequate funds are available.”
Currently, the UN says that an estimated US $80 million is required for overall flood response, including US $46 million in immediate assistance to 360,000 people until the end of this year.
Turkey provides universal access to health services to all refugees and migrants, including irregular migrants. Hosted in dedicated centres for short periods of time before repatriating to their respective countries, irregular migrants are in need of equipment to protect themselves against COVID-19.
Thanks to contingency funding from European Union (EU) financial support, the WHO Country Office in Turkey was able to distribute 100 000 surgical masks, 8000 FFP2 masks, 3000 pairs of goggles, 4500 coveralls and 250 thermometers to the 28 centres in the country. Collaboration with the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) was instrumental in procuring these supplies.
The Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, commented: “The EU has been mobilizing its resources to fight the pandemic and this is one of many actions that we have taken in this regard. These centres are high-risk settings, and the EU is pleased to work with WHO to make protective equipment available here, through the DGMM”.
These centres have a very high need for COVID-19 protective supplies, as they can harbour the COVID-19 virus if proper measures for infection prevention and control are not taken. The centres’ normal capacity is 20 000 people, but 2019 figures show that 450 000 irregular migrants arrived in Turkey in 1 year alone.
Gokhan Alma, DGMM Focal Point for the centres said: “DGMM and the centres are at the forefront of migrant health and the COVID-19 response. Those we are serving in these facilities can be at higher risk of COVID-19 infection, unless protection is provided. We sincerely appreciate the generous support from the WHO Turkey office, and will make sure these protective materials reach the centres and the people who need them”.
This initiative is aligned with WHO/Europe’s European Programme of Work (EPW), “United Action for Better Health”. It also supports WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW 13), by setting out a vision for how WHO/Europe can better support countries in meeting expectations on health for the future.
