In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, MEPs will take stock of the von der Leyen Commission’s achievements to date.
Ursula Von der Leyen is expected to outline the impact of the Commission’s work in mitigating the COVID-19 sanitary and economic crisis, and to outline her vision for economic recovery, fighting climate change, and the situation in Europe’s neighbourhood.
Political group leaders will assess the Commission’s work and set out their views, as this annual State of the Union debate is a chance for MEPs to scrutinise the work and the plans of the European Commission and help set the future direction for the EU.
The debate will start with an address by President von der Leyen, followed by several rounds of interventions by political group speakers between which Ms von der Leyen will reply. The Council Presidency also take the floor.
The State of the European Union debate is a key moment to demonstrate the European Commission’s accountability towards the EU’s democratically elected representatives. It focuses on important issues like the coming economic recovery, climate change, youth unemployment and migration flows. This annual event is significant to promote a more transparent and democratic Union. It is an opportunity to bring the European Union closer to the citizens, highlighting the year’s core action points and challenges. Citizens’ rights and the democratic process are at the heart of this unique plenary debate.
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The Christian mother spoke recently to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), highlighting the plight of underage Christian girls abducted and forced to convert to Islam before being married against their will.
“I know that these girls are being persecuted, and I appeal to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan; please help our young girls, because none of them should have to suffer like this,” said Bibi,
She was commenting on the kidnapping of Christian girls Huma Younus and Maira Shahbaz.
From Madina, Punjab, Maria Shahbaz was abducted at gunpoint in April and is now in hiding having escaped her captor.
Huma Younus was also 14 when she was taken from her home in Karachi last October. She remains with her captor.
FOUNDING FREEDOM PROCLOMATION
Bibi noted, “At the moment of Pakistan’s founding and its separation from India, our founder Ali Jinnah, in his opening proclamation, guaranteed freedom of religion and thought to all citizens.
“But today there are some groups who are using the existing laws, and so I appeal to the Prime Minister of Pakistan – especially for the victims of the blasphemy laws and the girls who have been forcibly converted – to safeguard and protect the minorities, who are also Pakistani citizens.”
Defiling the Quran and making derogatory remarks against Mohammed are crimes punishable with life imprisonment and the death penalty.
And in daily life, these laws are frequently used to persecute the religious minorities, says ACN.
Bibi herself, a mother of five children, was imprisoned on death row, falsely accused of this offense, for almost 10 years, from 2009 until October 2018, when Pakistan’s Supreme Court finally quashed her case on appeal.
She later fled to Canada before claiming asylum in France, Premier Christian News reported.
Between 1967 to 2014, more than 1,300 people were accused of the crime of blasphemy.
“As a victim myself, I am speaking from my own experience,” said Bibi. “I suffered terribly and lived through so many difficulties.”
Now, she said, was the time for urgent reform so that religious minorities might enjoy the same protections under the law.
“Pakistan is not just about minorities or majorities,” she explained. “Pakistan is for all Pakistani citizens, so therefore the religious minorities should also have the same rights of citizenship, and the law in Pakistan says that everyone should be able to live in freedom – and so this freedom must be guaranteed and respected.”
Nasir Saeed wrote in The Daily Times, a newspaper based in Lahore in March, “Religious intolerance and hatred against religious minorities in Pakistan have been rife for several decades, and yet, it is hardly ever recognized and addressed by the government.
“This obliviousness and negligent lack of action has caused severe damage to the fabric of Pakistani society and threatens to continue if it is not challenged,
“Though discrimination based on religion at a governmental level started in the early days of Pakistan, Pakistani society was far more tolerant compared to modern times. Pakistan’s political system and government policies continue to contribute to the promotion of religious intolerance and hatred against religious minorities.”
More than 96 percent of Pakistan’s population of some 233 million people are Muslims, most of them Sunnis, and the rest of the population are mainly Hindus and Christians.
Dreamer generation – “Why do you sound so British?” the immigration officer asked 15-year-old Ijeoma Moore as she followed orders to pack her and her 10-year-old brother’s clothes. Officers had entered their North London home as they were eating breakfast that morning in 2010, getting ready to leave for school. “Because I am British,” the teenager retorted.
What else could she be? She had lived in the UK since she was two years old. She loves tea and toast, the Royal family and “stupid telly.” But technically, Moore was an undocumented migrant. Her Mum had been sinking money into application after application to the Home Office, but they had all been rejected.
Moore was bundled into the back of the officers’ van with her brother and Dad. Still wearing her school uniform, she felt like she was watching someone else’s life on TV. They were taken to an immigration detention centre, where she narrowly avoided deportation three times until their father was sent to Nigeria and the children were released to foster care. “I had to grow up really quick and become like a Mum to my brother,” Moore says.
A decade later, Moore is still not a British citizen. Unless the rules change again, or she runs out of money to pay the soaring fees, or she loses a document from the required stack of evidence, or the Home Office does, she will officially become British when she turns 33 — 31 years after she arrived in the UK and picked up a cockney accent at an East London nursery.
Europe’s Dreamers
In the UK and across the rest of Europe, millions of young people who grew up feeling British or French or Italian or just European, live in a state of limbo, the threat of deportation hanging over them.
In the US, they are known as the “dreamers.” Over two decades, a movement led by young undocumented youth has become associated with the American Dream, winning broad public and bipartisan political support. While the DREAM Act, which would give them legal status, has languished in Congress since 2001, many received temporary protection from deportation under the Obama Administration’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme. “They are American in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper,” Obama said at the time.
Europe has its own “dreamer” generation, but their stories are largely unknown. Across the continent, public fear of and draconian measures toward undocumented migrants are fueled by perceptions of a faceless mass of short-term opportunists. It is not well understood that the majority of Europe’s undocumented population are young people*, many of whom grew up in Europe, some of whom were even born here.
Over the coming weeks, we will profile these European dreamers and investigate the policies that trap them in an undocumented limbo. On their 18th birthday, they are barred from working or going to university, from traveling or voting, and face the real and present risk of detention or deportation. Some live from one temporary permit to the next, in fear of losing them. Others have scant prospect of ever being allowed to stay legally.
Tired of being invisible, some of Europe’s dreamers are risking everything to speak out about their immigration status and build a movement that echoes America’s dreamers incalling for a future for themselves in Europe.
Inspired by America
Ijeoma Moore’s first trip abroad after getting a temporary, renewable immigration status in 2015 called “Limited Leave to Remain” (LLR) was to Houston, Texas. Hundreds of undocumented young activists were gathering for ameeting of the largest network of dreamers in the US, United We Dream. Moore had come with British campaign Let Us Learn, supported by the charity Just for Kids Law, which was inspired by a visit from a founding American dreamer two years earlier.
“The idea behind the dreamers putting themselves at the forefront is that you can deny figures and statistics but you can’t deny that I experienced this in this way,” said co-founder Chrisann Jarrett. Head girl and school debating champion, Jarrett was headed to LSE to study law until she was informed she was a foreign student. She was confused — her family came from Jamaica when she was eight — but the Home Office appeared to have lost her paperwork.
Moore and Jarrett’s lives were changed by a tightening of immigration rules over the past decade, which not only saw them initially refused student loans and made to pay international fees, but also extended waiting periods to apply for citizenship to 10 or even 20 years; more than tripled the associated fees; and slashed legal aid to help families navigate the new rules. “I felt like every time I took a step forward I had to take 10 steps back,” says Dami Makinde. (Last year, she and Jarrett launched a new, independent organisation called We Belong).
And so Britain’s hostile environment – rebranded as the “compliant environment” – undermined its own stated goal: reducing the undocumented population. “They not only made it harder to live here if you’re illegal, they made it much harder to go from being illegal to legal,” says Anita Hurrell, head of the Coram Children’s Legal Centre’s migrant rights project. “Even if you’ve got a strong claim to stay, you can’t get to the next stage. It seems to increase illegality.”
After she returned from Texas, Moore told the story of her detention and struggles to get legal status in front of thousands of people attending hustings for the 2016 London Mayoral election. “Ijeoma, you are a Londoner,” Sadiq Khan, the eventual victor, told her. Moore was elated. But it meant even more to her that her Mum was there. They are close, but had not talked much about her detention. “Your parents are going through the same thing and you don’t want to feel like you’re more of a burden on them by sharing so many emotions, or that you’re ungrateful” Moore said. During the coronavirus pandemic, she’s been calling her Mum daily. “Have you touched anything?” Moore grills her Mum, a carer and security guard who is classified as a key worker. “Have you eaten?”
Born in Europe
Europe’s undocumented children are not all migrants, but also children born in Europe to migrant parents. Like Giannis Antetokounmpo, the nearly 7-foot-tall international basketball star affectionately known as the “Greek freak.” He was among tens of thousands of children born in Greece effectively excluded from citizenship because of their parents until reforms in 2015. It had taken nine years of advocacy by Generation 2.0, a movement led by second-generation immigrants. They’re still campaigning, as Greek-born children are still falling through gaps in the law, or face years waiting for papers in some localities.
In Italy, similar efforts have been repeatedly blocked amid a fierce backlash by right-wing nativists. “When we started speaking out, MPs and political leaders looked at us as if we were martians,” said Paula Baudet Vivanco, the impassioned spokesperson of Italiani Senza Cittadinanza (Italians Without Citizenship). Vivanco arrived in Italy aged seven in the early 1980s, after her Chilean dissident parents escaped the regime of Augusto Pinochet. When she became a journalist, she was classified as a foreign correspondent. Vivanco did not obtain Italian citizenship until she was 33. “They didn’t know we existed: that there were adults who had grown up in Italy, lived through all these situations, and were claiming their rights,” she said. “But Italy is our country.”
Finding Family
Europe’s dreamers also include children who arrived alone and began to feel at home for the first time in their lives, only to be cast out by immigration rules. Like Shiro [name changed], who was abused by every family she had known since being trafficked into domestic slavery from Ethiopia to the Gulf and then the UK. The UK passed internationally-lauded anti-slavery legislation in 2015, but it does not protect trafficking survivors from deportation.
For three years, Shiro could not convince the Home Office she was a child; the age on her passport had been forged to facilitate her trafficking. It was a dark period of her life. She lived with “scary” people, could not register for English classes and was terrified of being returned to Ethiopia. Now she has joined a group of trafficking survivors who campaign with the charity ECPACT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking) for a path to immigration status. “We all have no family, but we can share our stories with each other,” she said. “We have to stand up for each other, we don’t have any other option.”
The Regularization Taboo
Last November, United We Dream co-founder Cristina Jiménez met with young undocumented activists in Ireland who’d started the campaign Young, Paperless and Powerful in 2015. They had won overwhelming public sympathy and support from across the political spectrum. Earlier that month, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar compared them to American dreamers. “They have grown up here and speak with Dublin, Cork or Donegal accents,” he said. “They will not be deported.” But he was careful to stress that Ireland would not offer amnesty to the undocumented . “It has been agreed at EU level that there will not be amnesties,” he said. (Since then, inconclusive elections have put reforms on hold.)
Tired of being invisible, some of Europe’s dreamers are risking everything to speak out about their immigration status and build a movement that echoes America’s dreamers incalling for a future for themselves in Europe.
For over a decade, amnesty has been a dirty word in Brussels. In the 10 years leading up to 2008, as many as 6 million undocumented migrants were granted a legal right to remain in European countries through measures to “regularise” their status, before a backlash made regularization a political taboo. Some European countries have quietly proceeded regardless. In Spain — which launched Europe’s last large-scale regularisation in 2005 — grassroots groups have mounted a new campaign in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The crisis is teaching us “you can’t afford to neglect people who are vulnerable: if you don’t treat the whole population, then the whole population will suffer,” said Michele LeVoy, director of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants. “This pandemic has given more visibility to those who are really the most vulnerable in society.”
In Belgium, campaigners are hoping to reprise a campaign led by undocumented youth, who took to the streets in 2013 calling themselves the Kids Parlement. “It would have higher chances of success than a campaign for the regularisation of all sans-papiers,” said lawyer Selma Benkhelifa, who is considered the movement’s “godmother”.
European advocates insist undocumented children should have a route to legal status that is independent of their parents, without exorbitant fees, minimum income thresholds, or bureacratic hurdles. It should be based on the child’s “best interests” and time spent in the country during the formative years of their life. “Just three years is already a long time in the life of a child,” says LeVoy.
Deporting the Dreamers
In the summer of 2017, hundreds of young Afghans camped out in one of Stockholm’s main squares for almost two months to protest deportation of children to Afghanistan. They called themselves Ung I Sverige (Young in Sweden). “We want to build a life here and make this country stronger,” their mission statement reads.
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That summer, Nabi Eskanderi swam as often as he could. The 17-year-old grew up in an arid region of land-locked Afghanistan. Finding himself surrounded by water on the Swedish island of Öland, he took swimming lessons. Eskanderi came to Sweden by land and sea in 2015. He had fled Afghanistan for his life when he accidentally damaged a Quran. After his asylum application was rejected, swimming helped him sleep at night.
One day at the pool, he asked a girl if she wanted to join a game of water volleyball. They became friends, and things slowly grew serious. Eskanderi met Jennifer’s parents, then grandparents. He went to stay with them for Christmas and was thrilled to be included in family meals and gift-giving.
The Ung I Sverige protests didn’t stop deportations to Afghanistan. Eskanderi was at his girlfriend’s house when the police arrived. They reassured her he would be released soon. But after a few weeks in detention, he was put on a flight to Afghanistan. The Afghan mountains and desert made him for Sweden’s seas, trees and flat landscape. It was the first time he had ever been to Kabul. After four years in Sweden, he missed the bathrooms and the traffic laws, the stable internet and liberal attitudes to religion.
This was not a homecoming. He went into virtual hiding, in a shared house supported by Swedish activists. It is still too dangerous to return to his family; even in Kabul he fears suspicions and hostility towards people returning from Europe. He gets upset when Jennifer tells him how much she misses him. They talk about whether she could help him get a visa to return, but Eskanderi doubts Swedish immigration authorities would allow that. If nothing else works, he wonders how to make enough money to pay a smuggler.
“I changed a lot in Sweden, I felt I belonged to that society,” he said. “Even though many people wanted me to stay in Sweden — they even called me part of their family — there was nothing I could do, and no one could help me.”
Francesca Spinelli and Giacomo Zandonini contributed reporting.
World War II may have officially ended 75 years ago Sept. 2, but for centenarian Orrin “Boody” Brown of Opelika, Ala., the conflict plays on in memory.
The cast of characters, the few still living, friends killed in action and those who have passed on before him, remain ever young in Mr. Brown’s mind, just as he was when he entered active duty as a bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942.
Though he turned 100 this April 4, the lieutenant colonel recalls in vivid detail many of the 30 covert flight missions have earned him a variety of honors including the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2018.
Across the Atlantic, he recently was awarded the Defense Medal from Norway, which honors soldiers both Norwegian and foreign who helped liberate the country from Nazi Germany’s occupation between 1940-45.
The Norwegian honor was bestowed on Mr. Brown in Atlanta last year on Syttende Mai, Norway’s national day, which on May 17 fell just before the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6.
Honorary Consul Tom Rosseland hosted a reception at the Norwegian consulate located at his law office in Buckhead, honoring Mr. Brown for a unique role that is only now becoming better understood thanks to the few remaining veterans like him.
While many scarred bombardiers return from war zones reluctant to talk about their exploits, Mr. Brown was simply forbidden to share. He was bound to secrecy for 50 years, given the covert nature of the activities. His missions were conducted under the authority of the Office of Strategic Services, which spawned the CIA and other defense-related agencies.
The Defense Medal is made of bronze and boasts the Kingdom of Norway’s coat of arms on one side with flags and an inscription — Delager I Kampen (Participant in the Battle) — on the reverse. Mr. Brown remarked that it’s the nicest honor in his collection.
Mr. Brown was assigned to a group headed to England as part of “Operation Carpetbagger.” The joint effort saw U.S. planes taking off from British Royal Air Force bases into various occupied territories, dropping in arms, leaflets and supplies to resistance fighters, as well as (less frequently) spies known to the airmen only as “Joes” or “Josephines.”
Mr. Brown, then, was a bombardier who never had to drop a bomb. He now feels grateful to have rained down help for friends rather than destruction on enemies.
“I never used a Norden bombsight,” he said, recalling the model he used in training exercises.
Instead, Mr. Brown specialized in submarine patrols and low-altitude drops just 400 feet or so off the ground (OSS agents at 600 feet), which presented their own myriad dangers.
On a normal drop, Mr. Brown would initiate what amounted to a timer that would release containers bolted into modified bomb racks on a B-24 that had been painted black to avoid detection on night flights. The pilot had to get close enough to be precise; the recipients couldn’t spend more than 15 minutes in the half-acre drop zone, as the Germans would have been alerted to their presence by the sound of the planes.
“We didn’t want (supplies) to drift away from the site because they needed to get those chutes off and bury them,” Mr. Brown said, noting that the containers were also very heavy. “They had to load them on a wagon and get them out of there.”
Many drops went off without a hitch, though some were more eventful.
On one mission to Denmark, Mr. Brown’s plane descended toward a drop zone after a “miserable flight over the North Sea,” with the pilot looking for a predetermined series of signals by flashlight. He saw the lights, but the code was wrong, so he decided not to let down. Good thing — the Germans had taken the site and began firing at the plane.
“We were still high enough they couldn’t reach us, so he headed back out over the North Sea and started cursing and I don’t think he let up in until we landed back at Tempsford (air base),” Mr. Brown told Global Atlanta with a laugh during an interview at Mr. Rosseland’s offices.
On another trip, this time over the Bay of Biscay between France and the United Kingdom, the U.S. bomber was approached by 13 German JU-88 fighters.
The leader of the group attacked, as if initiating a teaching exercise for the other 12. But he hadn’t bargained on the 50-caliber turret gun the U.S. forces had just installed in the B-24Ds they were now flying.
The confrontation ended with the German fighter headed down, trailed by a black plume of smoke. The others had somehow had disappeared, Mr. Brown said, still seemingly bewildered at his crew’s luck.
“He did get in a hit on us with a 20-millimeter shell at the meeting edge of the wing between the No. 3 and No. 4 engines,” Mr. Brown said. The American bomber was able to make it back to base even with the added drag.
Then there was the mission to Norway, attested in both an official log and a photocopy of the handwritten navigator’s journal that Mr. Brown and two of his daughters brought to the meeting with Mr. Rosseland.
Pushed north perhaps by a mapping error, a pair of American bombers flew over the mining outpost of Knaben. The first passed without incident a few minutes ahead, while Mr. Brown’s plane saw a “pretty good flak burst” from anti-aircraft guns.
Mr. Brown’s pilot evaded to make the drop successfully, but the sound of the shells exploding in mid-air left the first crew thinking their compatriots had been shot down.
“The tail gunner of the first plane reported that we must have been hit and crashed, there was such a large explosion,” reads the written log of Mr. Brown’s flight, which also noted that it was a clear, moonlit night, with snow still clinging to Norway’s mountains.
It was only when they landed back at base that Mr. Brown and the crew found out how close of a call it had actually been: The shield covering the No. 2 engine’s wires was missing, and the pilot’s glass “blister window” had been hit.
“That bubble was cracked on that, right beside his head,” Mr. Brown said, prompting a religious awakening. “He had sort of professed to be a non-believer at times prior to that, but when he saw that he changed his mind.”
Watching D-Day From Above
Perhaps one of the most notable missions, in retrospect, was one where Mr. Brown’s crew dipped into southern France in the wee hours of June 3, 1944.
He and his crew had been briefed on the Normandy landings and had diverted to avoid the area, so he wasn’t surprised to see the allied boats approaching the beach when flying back over the English Channel. What astounded him was the number.
Norway Honorary Consul Tom Rosseland pins the Defense Medal to Mr. Brown’s lapel during the May 2019 ceremony. Photo: Trevor Williams
“Just as we hit the French coast coming back, there was the fleet out in the channel. It looked like you could walk across the ships,” Mr. Brown told Global Atlanta, not regretting at that moment that he enjoyed the relative safety of the sky. “I felt glad that I was in that airplane. I’ll be honest with you.”
Mr. Brown’s most recent honor from Norway is not his first from a grateful European nation. Many of his drops landed in occupied Belgium, which awarded him with a Belgian military cross during a ceremony in the city of Ghent in the 2000s.
He was able to spend time with Belgian resistance fighters and their relatives, including some who had been on the receiving end of a few of his drops. He even visited the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, which houses the remains of more than 5,300 Americans, some two-thirds of them airmen.
For his part, Mr. Brown is the last remaining survivor of the original Carpetbagger squadron, though the Norwegian government in 2019 honored 12 Americans who had served altogether.
“You have participated in the liberation of Norway. Norway thanks you for your invaluable contribution to the struggle for Freedom,” read a letter Mr. Rosseland presented during the 2019 ceremony. It also describes the bronze medal, which includes the Kingdom of Norway’s coat of arms on the front and an inscription — Delager I Kampen (Participant in the Battle) — with flags on the back.
True to his historical role, Mr. Brown and his daughters made the “drop” of another Defense Medal in LaGrange, Ga., to fellow Carpetbagger John K. Lancaster, who was unable to travel to Atlanta for the ceremony due to health reasons.
“The occupation of Norway is a personal story for me,” he said.
Mr. Rosseland’s father had emigrated at 10 years old to the United States just before the outbreak of the war and the invasion of Norway. He returned as a teenager in 1947, capturing color video of the spartan existence in the post-war Norwegian countryside. During the conflict, Mr. Rosseland had a relative who was a local leader in the resistance movement and was betrayed by a collaborator and subsequently tortured to death at the Gestapo headquarters in Kristiansand. He did not give up the identities of anyone in his network, thus saving many lives. A Norwegian book titled “Utan Svik” (“Without Betrayal”) recounts this history.
Ever modest, Mr. Brown said he was just happy that the U.S. — and he personally — could be of help, remarking that the Norwegian medal was the nicest of the decorations he’d received.
“I felt like we made a contribution — who can say just how much — but still, I felt like we did our part in the war effort.”
After the war, Mr. Brown stayed in the National Guard, gaining 20 years toward his service — enough to draw a pension from the Army. He first worked to help veterans reintegrate into the workforce, then as an office manager before finishing out the bulk of his career at an insurance brokerage.
An only child born in Opelika, Mr. Brown was married to the late Brenda Saunders Brown and has three daughters, including firstborn twins. At 100, he still lives at home with a clear mind and walks a half-block to his mailbox every day.
His 100th birthday celebration this April was a bit more subdued than it otherwise would have been due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he did receive more than 200 birthday cards, according to his daughter, Barbara Jones.
An avid golfer for many years, Mr. Brown enjoys watching golf on TV, along with other sports including SEC football. A 1941 graduate of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, the precursor of Auburn University, he roots for the Tigers on fall Saturdays. He loves jazz, reading and working crossword puzzles.
His message ahead of the UN Day for South-South Cooperation, refers to the practical collaboration efforts among developing countries in the Global South.
This year, the commemoration was held two days prior to the official 12 September observance, and ahead of the 75th anniversary celebration of the UN.
At a Virtual High-level Commemoration and Panel Discussion on the theme “Pathways toward the Sustainable Development Goals through South-South solidarity beyond COVID-19”, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message that developing countries are “delivering medical supplies, providing financial resources…and sharing best practices on how to fight the pandemic”.
In marking the day, “we are highlighting the power of the Global South to support and advance sustainable development, even during these challenging times”, he explained.
The UN chief maintained that the Organization is playing its part in supporting South-South and triangular cooperation throughout the pandemic, including by fast-tracking financial allocations to support developing countries’ COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.
As a successful example of the practical benefits of the UN Fund for South-South Cooperation, he recalled the rehabilitation of Barbuda’s only hospital, which was damaged after Hurricane Irma devastated the Caribbean island in 2017, saying that it is now “equipped to support the community’s needs during the pandemic”.
Cooperation ‘more important than ever’
Looking beyond the immediate response, towards recovering better, the Secretary-General upheld that “South-South and triangular cooperation will be more important than ever”.
He urged everyone to coordinate efforts “to scale up Southern development successes, build a strong recovery and achieve the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] by 2030”.
Meeting Global Goals
General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande spoke about the importance of the South-South Cooperation in the context of the Decade of Action and Delivery to implement the SDGs.
“This approach has the potential to contribute to achieving our targets on poverty eradication, zero hunger, climate change and inclusion”, he spelled out.
Coronavirus fallout
South-South cooperation is critical as countries contend with social and economic consequences of the pandemic.
Against the backdrop that the virus has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities; an estimated 71 million people will fall into extreme poverty by year’s end; and up to 120 million are expected to become undernourished this year alone.
Mr. Muhammad-Bande stressed the need to “focus on specific actions that will alleviate the impact on the well-being and livelihoods of people in developing countries”.
As many developing countries are confronting severe economic repercussions of the pandemic, left with little capacity for fiscal stimulus packages and rising debt levels that limit the ability to provide public healthcare and social protection, he underscored: “We must move swiftly on debt and concessional finance to support the most vulnerable people we serve”.
“We must apply a gender lens to our response planning as women have been disproportionately affected by the crisis…[and] account for the specific needs of children”, he added.
South-South financial support ‘critical’
The Assembly chief said that as the world economy reboots, the Global South must “forge a more ambitious path to ensure that we build back better”.
“To safeguard the future, we must work in a sustainable manner: addressing structural problems in global and national economies and investing in human capital” he advocated, urging Member States to continue to support the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and its initiatives.
Meanwhile, Achim Steiner, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said that that South-South and triangular cooperation are part of his agency’s DNA.
The director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSCC), Jorge Chediek, also addressed the virtual meeting, and encouraged “continued global commitment” to South-South Cooperation.
Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a defining event that changed how we think about the relationship between religion and modernity. Ayatollah Khomeini’s mass mobilization of Islam showed that modernisation by no means implies a linear process of religious decline.
Reliable large-scale data on Iranians’ post-revolutionary religious beliefs, however, has always been lacking. Over the years, research and waves of protests and crackdowns indicated massive disappointment among Iranians with their political system. This steadily turned into a deeply felt disillusionment with institutional religion.
In June 2020, our research institute, the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in IRAN (GAMAAN), conducted an online survey with the collaboration of Ladan Boroumand, co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Iranians live with an ever-present fear of retribution for speaking against the state. In Iran, one cannot simply call people or knock on doors seeking answers to politically sensitive questions. That’s why the anonymity of digital surveys offers an opportunity to capture what Iranians really think about religion.
GAMAAN Religion in Iran 2020 – beliefs.
Since the revolution, literacy rates have risen sharply and the urban population has grown substantially. Levels of internet penetration in Iran are comparable to those in Italy, with around 60 million users and the number grows relentlessly: 70% of adults are members of at least one social media platform.
For our survey on religious belief in Iran, we targeted diverse digital channels after analyzing which groups showed lower participation rates in our previous large-scale surveys. The link to the survey was shared by Kurdish, Arab, Sufi and other networks. And our research assistant successfully convinced Shia pro-regime channels to spread it among their followers, too. We reached mass audiences by sharing the survey on Instagram pages and Telegram channels, some of which had a few million followers.
After cleaning our data, we were left with a sample of almost 40,000 Iranians living in Iran. The sample was weighted and balanced to the target population of literate Iranians aged above 19, using five demographic variables and voting behavior in the 2017 presidential elections.
A secular and diverse Iran
Our results reveal dramatic changes in Iranian religiosity, with an increase in secularization and a diversity of faiths and beliefs. Compared with Iran’s 99.5% census figure, we found that only 40% identified as Muslim.
In contrast with state propaganda that portrays Iran as a Shi’ite nation, only 32% explicitly identified as such, while 5% said they were Sunni Muslim and 3% Sufi Muslim. Another 9% said they were atheists, along with 7% who prefer the label of spirituality. Among the other selected religions, 8% said they were Zoroastrians—which we interpret as a reflection of Persian nationalism and a desire for an alternative to Islam, rather than strict adherence to the Zoroastrian faith—while 1.5% said they were Christian.
GAMAAN religion in Iran 2020 – changing orientations.
Most Iranians, 78%, believe in God, but only 37% believe in life after death and only 30% believe in heaven and hell. In line with other anthropological research, a quarter of our respondents said they believed in jinns or genies. Around 20% said they did not believe in any of the options, including God.
These numbers demonstrate that a general process of secularization, known to encourage religious diversity, is taking place in Iran. An overwhelming majority, 90%, described themselves as hailing from believing or practicing religious families. Yet 47% reported losing their religion in their lifetime, and 6% said they changed from one religious orientation to another. Younger people reported higher levels of irreligiosity and conversion to Christianity than older respondents.
A third said they occasionally drank alcohol in a country that legally enforces temperance. Over 60% said they did not perform the obligatory Muslim daily prayers, synchronous with a 2020 state-backed poll in which 60% reported not observing the fast during Ramadan (the majority due to being “sick”). In comparison, in a comprehensive survey conducted in 1975 before the Islamic Revolution, over 80% said they always prayed and observed the fast.
Religion and legislation
We found that societal secularization was also linked to a critical view of the religious governance system: 68% agreed that religious prescriptions should be excluded from legislation, even if believers hold a parliamentary majority, and 72% opposed the law mandating all women wear the hijab, the Islamic veil.
Iranians also harbor illiberal secularist opinions regarding religious diversity: 43% said that no religions should have the right to proselytize in public. However, 41% believed that every religion should be able to manifest in public.
GAMAAN Religion in Iran 2020 – hijab.
Four decades ago, the Islamic Revolution taught sociologists that European-style secularization is not followed universally around the world. The subsequent secularization of Iran confirmed by our survey demonstrates that Europe is not exceptional either, but rather part of complex, global interactions between religious and secular forces.
Other research on population growth, whose decline has been linked to higher levels of secularization, also suggests a decline in religiosity in Iran. In 2020, Iran recorded its lowest population growth, below 1%.
Greater access to the world via the internet, but also through interactions with the global Iranian diaspora in the past 50 years, has generated new communities and forms of religious experience inside the country. A future disentangling of state power and religious authority would likely exacerbate these societal transformations. Iran as we think we know it is changing, in fundamental ways.
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According to ILO, six trade unionists were detained by the authorities after participating in peaceful protests and industrial action.
I wrote to the President of Belarus today to urge Mr. Lukashenko to prevent human rights violations and ensure full respect for workers’ rights and freedoms.
I raised concern over the charges against six trade unionists detained during peaceful protests. https://t.co/0gZ7RKWKGQ
In a letter to President Lukashenko, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder urged the President to release and drop charges against those detained and called on him to “ensure full respect” for workers’ rights during the wave of protests that have swept the country in recent weeks.
Mr. Ryder reminded the President that it is the responsibility of the Government to ensure a climate free from violence, threats or pressure against peacefully protesting workers, and that any such allegations should be rapidly and independently investigated.
‘Do all in your power’ to prevent rights violations
“I must urge you to do all in your power to prevent the occurrence of human rights violations and ensure full respect for workers’ rights and freedoms,” said the ILO Director-General.
“No one should be deprived of their freedom or be subject to penal sanctions for the mere fact of organizing or participating in a peaceful strike or protest,” he wrote.
In the letter, the head of ILO also raised deep concern at reports coming out of Belarus on the arrest, detention, imprisonment and mistreatment of workers’ leaders.
Mr. Ryder also recalled that ILO has been working with the Government of Belarus, and the national workers’ and employers’ organizations, for 16 years, helping to address issues raised by an ILO Commission of Inquiry in 2004, which was set up following serious infringements of trade union rights and freedoms in the country.
Mr. Ryder noted that while there has been some progress on these issues, “the Commission’s recommendations are far from being fully implemented.”
The intervention by the ILO Director-General followed a request made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which works to ensure that the fundamental workers’ rights – the right to organize in a trade union, the right to collective bargaining, protection from discrimination, and the elimination of child labour and forced labour – are universally respected and enforced.
CNA Staff, Sep 10, 2020 / 05:10 am MT (CNA).- refugee camp fire – A cardinal said Wednesday that Europe should be “ashamed” after fire devastated the continent’s largest refugee camp, leaving 13,000 people without shelter.
In a Sept. 9 interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), lamented the destruction of the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
He said: “I think it’s a shame for Europe because it’s not only the camp Moria that’s on fire, but it’s the identity of Europe which is on fire. People came to Europe for help in their distress and we left them on a small Greek island. Many words, but no deeds. Europe should be ashamed because this is the result of the despair in the heart of people.”
Fire broke out at the camp, which was built to house 3,000 people, on the evening of Sept. 8. The blaze spread quickly due to high winds and by the following morning most of the camp was a smoking ruin.
Hollerich recalled a visit he made to the camp in May 2019, with the papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.
“We could speak with people. We felt this deep, deep despair in the heart of the people. Darkness has come into the heart of this people. And I think the fire is a consequence of this attitude. But that attitude is due to our inaction,” he said.
The cause of the fire is currently unclear. Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said that the blaze “began with the asylum seekers” after quarantine was imposed following an outbreak of COVID-19. But he did not say that the fires were the result of arson.
The camp was opened in 2015 when hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Greece from Turkey, which is separated from Lesbos by a narrow strait. The camp’s population rose to more than 20,000 after European Union countries took measures to stop the influx of refugees.
Hollerich urged the EU to draw up a new common policy on migrants, noting that Germany, which began a six-month presidency of the Council of the EU in July, had begun work on it.
“We need it because people get caught in their distress and in their despair and we cannot claim the Christian roots of Europe if we let people down in their despair,” he said.
The archbishop of Luxembourg noted that Italy had received many residents of the Moria camp, thanks to a humanitarian corridor established with the help of the Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio.
Pope Francis inaugurated the humanitarian corridor in April 2016 when he returned to Italy from Lesbos with 12 Syrian refugees.
Hollerich said: “If Italy can accept so many people, why can’t the rich countries of Europe not do more for helping the refugees? So it’s a call to the northern countries, to the rich countries, to accept more refugees.”
He added that, despite a drop in income due to the coronavirus crisis, churches in Europe also needed to do more to assist migrants.
In a statement Sept. 9, the Community of Sant’Egidio urged EU nations to take in refugees who had lost everything in the fire at the Moria camp.
“These are asylum seekers who have been living for months, some for years, in extremely precarious conditions, after having made long and very risky trips to escape from wars or unsustainable situations, mostly coming from Afghanistan,” the community, which welcomed more refugees from Lesbos in July, said.
“Europe, if it still lives up to its tradition of civilization and humanity, must take responsibility for it with an act of collective responsibility.”
The EU has expressed “serious concerns” over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to override part of the Brexit divorce deal, ahead of emergency talks with the UK.
European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said he will listen to what Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has to say during an “extraordinary meeting” on Thursday, before deciding whether Britain can still be trusted.
The hastily arranged meeting of the UK-EU joint committee in London was arranged after the Government tabled legislation to alter key elements of the Withdrawal Agreement that Mr Johnson signed with Brussels.
The Government infuriated Brussels just as trade deal negotiations reached a crunch week, when ministers admitted they could break international law over the deal.
Mr Sefcovic, arriving at St Pancras, told reporters: “I came here to express the serious concerns that the European Union has over the proposed Bill. So that will be the nature of our discussions today.”
Asked if he has lost trust in the UK Government, Mr Sefcovic replied: “Let’s hear what Michael Gove will tell me this afternoon.”
Meanwhile, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his counterpart from Downing Street, Lord Frost, will meet for the final day in the eighth round of trade deal negotiations.
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Mr Johnson has argued that the UK Internal Markets Bill tabled this week is necessary to preserve unfettered trade within the UK and prevent a border between Britain and Northern Ireland.
But he has dismayed Brussels by threatening to breach international law.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin called the Prime Minister to express his concerns, including “the breach of an international treaty, the absence of bilateral engagement and the serious implications for Northern Ireland”.
The Good Friday Agreement is the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland. If the U.K. violates its international agreements & Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a U.S.-U.K. trade agreement passing the Congress. https://t.co/n7E4GHTJcI
The move has also angered some in the US, where Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said there is “absolutely no chance” of Congress passing a trade deal with the UK if it threatens the Northern Ireland peace process.
“Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the stability brought by the invisible and frictionless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,” Ms Pelosi said.
“If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”
Ministers argue the new proposed legislation is necessary to protect the Northern Ireland peace process if London and Brussels are unable to agree a free trade deal before the current Brexit transition period runs out at the end of the year.
Tory former prime minister Sir John Major reacted angrily to Mr Johnson’s stance on international law.
“For generations, Britain’s word, solemnly given, has been accepted by friend and foe. Our signature on any treaty or agreement has been sacrosanct,” he said.
“Over the last century, as our military strength has dwindled, our word has retained its power. If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer insisted Mr Johnson needed to secure a deal with the EU.
He said: “If you fail to get a deal, Prime Minister, you own that failure.”
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, with Brussels exploring possible legal action against London.
EU’s Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier leaves a hotel in London, Britain, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
As Britain pushes ahead with its plan to act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London.
European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic expressed concern about the plan before a meeting with British counterpart Michael Gove in London, taking place alongside trade talks between chief negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost.
EU diplomats and officials said the bloc could use the Withdrawal Agreement to take legal action against Britain, though there would be no resolution before the end-of-year deadline for Britain’s full exit.
One EU source said Britain would fail if it wants to try to use the planned breach of the Withdrawal Agreement to extract concessions from the bloc in trade talks.
“If they try to do that, it will fail,” the EU source said on condition of anonymity.
A note distributed by the EU executive to the 27 EU member states said the bloc could start so-called infringement procedures against Britain.
The British government says its planned law, put forward on Wednesday, merely clarifies ambiguities in the Withdrawal Agreement, but also says its main priority is the 1998 Northern Irish peace deal that ended decades of violence. It said the bill would be debated on Monday.
Europe’s leaders have been handed an ultimatum: accept the treaty breach or prepare for a messy divorce when Britain disentangles itself from the EU at the end of the year.
Britain signed the treaty and formally left the EU in January, but remains a member in all but name until the end of 2020 under a status quo agreement.
Sterling was flat at $1.2999 though overnight sterling implied volatility rose to 13%, its highest since March 26, and the FTSE 100 share index slipped.
IRELAND
Talks on a trade deal have snagged on state aid rules and fishing. Without an agreement, nearly $1 trillion in trade between the EU and Britain could be thrown into confusion at the beginning of 2021 as they also deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest dispute centres on rules for Northern Ireland, which shares a land border with EU member Ireland. Under the 1998 agreement, there must be no hard border in Ireland.
To ensure that, Britain’s EU divorce agreement calls for some EU rules to continue to apply in Northern Ireland. But Britain wants power to override many of them, acknowledging this would violate international law.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said any potential U.S.-UK trade deal would not pass the U.S. Congress if Britain undermined the 1998 agreement.
Former British leaders Theresa May and John Major scolded Johnson for considering an explicit, intentional breach of international law.
“If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained,” Major said.
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European diplomats said Britain was playing a game of Brexit “chicken”, threatening to wreck the process and challenging Brussels to change course. Some fear Johnson may view a no-deal exit as a useful distraction from the pandemic.
“I’m not optimistic at this stage,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin told national broadcaster RTE when asked how confident he was in a trade deal being reached. He said trust in negotiations had been undermined, making it harder to secure a free trade agreement without tariffs and quotas.
Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Additional reporting by William James and Elizbath Piper in London, Padraic Halpin in Dublin and John Chalmers in Brussels; Editing by Kim Coghill, Peter Graff and Timothy Heritage
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