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
European Union leaders should impose “severe” economic sanctions on Turkey for a limited time if Ankara does not remove its military vessels and gas drilling ships from waters off Cyprus, Greece’s deputy foreign minister said on Thursday.
“The sanctions should put this pressure, to be severe, for a limited time, but severe, in order to send the message that Europe is here to negotiate but is also here to defend its values,” Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
EU leaders will hold a special summit on September 24-25 to discuss how to resolve the crisis between Cyprus and Turkey over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled conflict, poverty and human rights abuses at home, arriving on the shores of the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Despite the difficulties they face, many have built successful new lives.
Now in Italy, Olumide Bobola fled Nigeria over fears for his safety in 2016. He crossed the Sahara, surviving for three days on nothing but glucose drops, and after a perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing, arrived in Sicily. Today he is a singer in Rome, performing a repertoire of Italian songs. He was “adopted” by established traditional Italian musician, Stefano Saletti, and the two now share musical influences and the same creative musical journey.
“I call Italy my house,” says Bobola, “but Nigeria is my home.”
Nosakhare Ekhator, also from Nigeria, fell into the hands of people traffickers in Libya where he was held in a room with 120 others. One in five of those detainees perished. Now also in Rome, the young clothing designer has learned Italian and staged his first fashion show in the shadow of the famous Colosseum.
In the Netherlands, singer Samira Dainan was born in Amsterdam to a Moroccan father and a Dutch mother. After her father’s sudden death, she chose to take his remains back to Morocco for a large family funeral. She now believes that sharing grief in her home country gave her the support she needed to carry on living in the Netherlands.
Journalist Linda Bilal grew up in Aleppo, Syria where she reported extensively on the Syrian conflict. She arrived in the Netherlands in 2015 and now writes for news outlets and is a regular Amnesty International magazine columnist.
The challenge for each of them has been how to integrate into a new home, while at the same time staying in touch with their roots, culture and religion.
EU judges should strike down a Belgian law requiring all animals to be stunned prior to their death, which has effectively outlawed slaughter according to Jewish and Muslim rites, an EU court adviser said on Thursday.
Gerard Hogan, an advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union, said an EU law of 2009 set out that animals should normally be stunned before they are slaughtered, but made a clear exception for slaughter prescribed by religious rites.
EU judges typically follow the opinions of advocate generals although are not bound to do so. They would normally deliver their ruling in two to four months.
The case came to the EU court in Luxembourg after a 2017 decree in the Belgian region of Flanders to amend its law on protection and welfare of animals by requiring that all animals be first stunned.
Jewish and Muslim association challenged the decree and Belgium’s Constitutional Court referred the case to the EU Court of Justice.
Hogan said the religious exception reflected the European Union’s desire to respect freedom of religion and the right to manifest religious belief in practice and observance despite avoidable suffering caused to animals.
Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughter involve the animals’ throats being cut with a sharp knife, which advocates say results in death almost immediately. Traditionally, prior stunning is not permitted.
Belgian campaign group Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA), whose representatives were present at the court on Thursday, said it was disappointed and perplexed by the opinion, but noted the judges might rule differently.
“How will the court deal with [EU] members that have for years had general bans on slaughter without stunning: Denmark, parts of Finland, Slovenia and Sweden?” asked GAIA lawyer Anthony Godfroid.
The European Union is reportedly considering taking legal action against the UK after the announced plans of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, The Telegraph reports.
The UK government is seeking to rewrite sections of the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU and designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, at the cost of creating a customs border in the Irish Sea.
Brussels is said to be under the impression that it may mount a successful challenge before the UK Government passes legislation that will revisit some areas of the deal reached with the bloc last year relating to Northern Ireland.
Brussels is said to have drafted a document circulated to member states that warns the UK Internal Market Bill represents a “clear breach” of the original 2019 agreement, and might “open the way to legal remedies”, according to Bloomberg.
After the end of the current transition period on 31 December 2020, which went into force after the UK exited the bloc on 31 January, the EU could also trigger the dispute settlement mechanism envisioned in the deal.
This might ultimately lay open the UK to financial sanctions.
After Boris Johnson’s government published legislation on Wednesday allowing it to re-write parts of the Brexit divorce deal penned with the European Union in 2019, the move triggered consternation in Brussels. The EU called for emergency talks on Thursday in London, seeking to salvage the negotiations aimed at securing a key trade agreement between the two sides.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during question period at the House of Commons in London, Britain September 2, 2020
Eric Mamer, chief spokesman of the EU Commission, tweeted that Brussels was seeking “clarifications” from London.
???? Following today’s announcement by the UK, @MarosSefcovic will travel to London tomorrow to meet @michaelgove for an extraordinary meeting of the Joint Committee. The EU seeks clarifications from the UK on the full and timely implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.
Michael Gove’s counterpart on the UK-EU joint Brexit committee, Maros Sefcovic, intimated that the extraordinary meeting would address the bloc’s “strong concerns”.
“The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation and we expect the letter and the spirit of the Withdrawal Agreement will be fully respected. I think on that we have to be very, very clear.”
We expect the letter and spirit of the #WithdrawalAgreement to be fully respected. I have called for an extraordinary EU-UK Joint Committee to be held as soon as possible – so that our UK partners elaborate and respond to our strong concerns regarding their announcement. pic.twitter.com/MhhWj9MUnC
Concerns were earlier voiced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who warned that the UK-published Internal Market Bill “breaks international law and undermines trust”.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, arrived in London earlier for a crunch round of talks on the bloc’s relations with the UK post-Brexit.
As the outlet cites sources indicating Barnier plans to confront his counterpart Lord Frost over the current turn of events, an EU diplomat was quoted as saying:
“A quick reading of the relevant articles of the Internal Market Bill suggest the UK Government is launching a frontal assault on the Protocol and its obligations. Notwithstanding the consequences for the negotiations, this must be the absolute nadir of four years of negotiations by a country known as the cradle of democracy.”
British officials are expected to allay the concerns of EU officials, underscoring their adherence to commitments and explicit promises made in the joint committee, writes The Telegraph.
After the announcement, Boris Johnson faced further criticism on the home front from John Major, the second former prime minister after Theresa May to warn against undermining trust in the UK by revisiting the original withdrawal agreement.
Washington chimed in with its own dire warnings, as senior Democrats suggested the US-UK trade deal might be jeopardised by the United Kingdom’s failure to uphold the terms of the withdrawal agreement.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted by the Irish Times as saying:
“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.”
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
Downing Street sought to fend off criticism over the announced changes to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on 9 September, saying the accord had been signed “at pace”, under the assumption that its “grey areas” could be clarified later.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman insisted that protecting the Northern Ireland peace process was “exactly” why the UK was making the changes.
“We are absolutely committed to no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,” he added.
Speaking earlier at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said:
“We need a legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations of the protocol which could lead to a border down the Irish Sea, which I believe…would be prejudicial to the interests of the Good Friday Agreement and prejudicial to the interests of peace in our country.”
The European Union, EU, has said China must make big improvements if it is to finalise an investment deal with European companies.
“The European side has made it very clear that it cannot meet China in the middle,” Joerg Wuttke, President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce said on Thursday.
According to Wuttke, fair competitive conditions already apply in Europe – both for domestic and Chinese companies.
In China, however, this is still not the case and therefore it is up to Beijing to “close the gap,” he said.
Wuttke’s comments come ahead of summit talks between the EU and Beijing planned for next week.
The chamber president said he was not very confident that a comprehensive deal satisfying EU companies could be made.
According to Wuttke, the window of opportunity for an agreement with China is also closing and the deal must come this year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Council President Charles Michel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen intend to join forces with China’s President Xi Jinping for the talks next Monday via video conference.
One of the topics will be the planned investment deal, which has been under negotiation for six years.
The Holy Bible is the word of God speaking to us. It is not one book but a whole library of books. There are two main parts the Old Testament and the New Testament. For Christians, the Old Testament was the preparation for the coming of the Redeemer. It predicted the coming of the Messiah who would redeem the world from its sins. We also learn a lot from its stories. The books of the Bible are of different genre. They must be read according to their genre; otherwise they would be possibly misunderstood. The Old Testament was put down in writing about 500 years before Christ. Before that it was all recited from memory. The New Testament was written about fifty to a hundred years after the Ascension of Our Lord to heaven. Our oldest Bible now dates to about the year 400 AD until the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. These were probably hidden about a hundred years before Christ.
Before the coming of Martin Luther in the 15th century, there was no problem about the books that were accepted as canonical or inspired books. Luther rejected some of the books in the Old Testament books that did not agree with his doctrines. But with the Dead Sea scrolls this controversy has been corrected. Martin Luther was a young man who was caught in frightening storm where he vowed to become a priest. He was an excellent theologian and wrote convincingly about abuses in the Church in a time when many leaders of their countries in northern Europe wanted to revolt against the Catholic Church. In the ensuing polemics and wars the solution was to consider that in every country the citizens of a country would have the religion of its leader. Many northern European states followed Luther out of the Catholic Church. The followers of Luther and other theologians against the Catholic Church were called Protestants. They did away with the Sacrifice of the Mass and concentrated on the pulpit. So we have the Protestants having no altars but only a podium in their churches. Another problem that they encountered since rejecting the teachings of the Church was they had no one to define for them what the meaning of the passages of the Bible was. Each one therefor interpreted the Bible as he saw it. This has resulted in having thirty thousand Protestant churches.
At Mass the first part is the reading of the Bible. On Sunday Masses the first reading is from the Old Testament and the second reading from the New Testament. On other days there is only one reading from the Gospels. Then there is the offering that represents the people. This is followed by the Consecration and Communion. After the Mass and the rosary the reading of the Bible is important. After these three are confession and fasting. These are the five important duties of the Christian. The problem with the reading the Bible is the possibility of misreading it. It is therefore important to read the Bible with the Church. People who made it a habit to read the Bible daily find it very consoling and enlightening. The reading of the Bible allows God to speak to us. The four Gospels are especially important since they tell us of the teachings and life of Our Lord. They also tell us of the miracles Jesus performed to show the people that He was from the Father who loves all of us. And all He is asking of us is to love Him with all our heart and all our strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/expressandstar.mna/TEP7QNPYBJF4JKJ3WXIOD7YEPU.jpg?w=696&resize=696,0&ssl=1 "EU’s ‘serious concerns’ over Brexit t...")
