Currently, one in five young women aged 20 to 24, were married as children, versus nearly one in four a decade ago, according to the new analysis, entitled, Is an End to Child Marriage within Reach? Latest trends and future prospects.
“The world is engulfed by crises on top of crises that are crushing the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students, not brides,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“Health and economic crises, escalating armed conflicts, and the ravaging effects of climate change are forcing families to seek a false sense of refuge in child marriage. We need to do everything in our power to ensure that their rights to an education and empowered lives are secured.”
Immediate consequences
Girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. They are less likely to remain in school, and face an increased risk of early pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of child and maternal health complications and mortality, UNIFED notes.
The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends, and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their mental health and well-being.
The report cites global progress, driven predominantly by a decline in India, though this country is still home to the largest number of child brides worldwide.
Progress is also evident in other contexts, including in populous countries where the practice has historically been common, such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia, as well as in smaller countries with lower levels of child marriage that are moving closer to elimination, such as Maldives and Rwanda, the analysis says.
The experiences of these countries illustrate that progress is possible in a variety of settings, UNICEF said.
Still, they tend to share common threads, including improvements in economic development, poverty reduction, access to employment and educational attainment at the secondary school level.
In Mozambique’s Nampula province, children paint a mural highlighting the negative impact of child marriage.
Threat multiplier
Worldwide, conflict, climate-related disasters, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 – especially rising poverty, income shocks, and school dropout – are helping to increase the drivers of child marriage while also making it difficult for girls to access health care, education, social services, and community support that protect them from child marriage.
As a result, girls living in fragile settings are twice as likely to become child brides as the average girl globally, the analysis notes.
For every ten-fold increase in conflict-related deaths, there is a seven per cent increase in the number of child marriages. At the same time, extreme weather events driven by climate change increase a girl’s risk, with every 10 per cent deviation in rainfall connected to around a 1 per cent increase in the prevalence of child marriage.
Precious gains to end child marriage in the past decade are also being threatened by the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, the analysis warns. It is estimated that the pandemic has already cut the number of child marriages that could have been averted since 2020, by one-quarter.
“We’ve proven that progress to end child marriage is possible. It requires unwavering support for vulnerable girls and families,” added Ms. Russell. “We must focus on keeping girls in school and making sure they have economic opportunities.”
Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan.
He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people.
Mr. Guterres made clear that the gathering had not focussed on recognition of the de facto authorities, but rather on developing a common, international approach to burning interlinked issues, such as terrorism, the crackdown on human rights, and the spread of drug trafficking.
“To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage”, he said. “Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past. The UN will continue to use its convening power to advance a forward-leaning approach, which puts the Afghan people first, and in a manner that is complementary to existing regional platforms and initiatives.”
The UN chief said the current ban introduced last month by Taliban leaders on Afghan women working for the UN – following on from a ban on them working for national and international NGOs “is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy.
“Let me be crystal clear: we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls’ rights. We will always speak out when millions of women and girls are being silenced and erased from sight.”
Collective interest
He said the envoys, which included UN Special Envoy, Roza Otunbayeva, had agreed it was important to “understand each other’s concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyone’s interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.”
They reached agreement on “the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.”
While different countries placed different priorities on human rights, terrorism, or drug trafficking, “there is a general recognition that they are intertwined”, and needed to viewed as a whole.
Secretary-General António Guterres briefs journalists in Doha, Qatar, on the situation in Afghanistan.
World’s biggest humanitarian crisis
He concluded speaking in his own capacity as Secretary-General, stating it was “difficult to overestimate the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan. It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.”
A staggering 97 per cent live in poverty, while 28 million Afghans, need some form of humanitarian assistance.
Funding is not forthcoming, with the Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, having received “a mere $294 million” so far.
The vast majority of the UN personnel delivering lifesaving aid, are Afghan nationals, he stressed and banning women workers “deliberately undermines the development of a country that desperately needs the contributions of all, in order to achieve sustainable peace and contribute to regional stability.”
Stay and deliver
He pledged the UN would never waver in its commitment to support the Afghan people, and the Organization is determined to keep on delivering to preserve the fragile lifeline
Throughout the past decades, we stayed, and we delivered. And we are determined to seek the necessary conditions to keep delivering.
Asked if there were any circumstances when he would meet Taliban leaders, Mr. Guterres said that while today was not the right moment, he would “obviously not refuse that possibility”.
He said he was personally invested in convening a follow up meeting of envoys at a future date.
Religion is one of the toughest challenges facing modern secular societies in their search for identity, equality and cohesion.
It’s increasingly a stronger source of identity than nationality or ethnicity for minorities and migrants while majorities appear to grow more and more religiously indifferent.
The paradigms of republicanism, as practised in France, or multiculturalism as implemented in a number of Western democracies, such as the UK and the US, or indeed employment-based integration models of Sweden or Germany, are all in crisis.
Europe has not yet found a middle way between secularism and state religion that combines national and religious identity, and where ethnic and religious minority groups can co-exist within a state’s institutions. But other countries’ experiences can perhaps shine a light.
First, some key questions: in accommodating religious diversity should we encourage more religion in public life, for both majorities and minorities, or move towards a more radical secularism? If the former is the way to go, what are the obstacles that a more egalitarian religious pluralism would face in liberal Western societies?
All sorts of problems could arise from minority groups making special requests for accommodation, including powerful majority churches finding it difficult to accept pluralism, feeling that their historically privileged position is threatened.
What about those who oppose the presence of religion in public life, let alone an increase of it? Will all minority religious groups be equally easy or difficult to accommodate? Recent rises in Islamophobia in Europe would suggest such moves would face significant opposition.
While most governments turn inwards to look at what went wrong in their own version of secular republicanism or multiculturalism, perhaps the answer is to be found in more radical views, beyond secularism, such as those in the large multi-religious and multi-ethnic democracies of Asia.
Looking for alternatives
India is a relevant case in point. The country faced a tough challenge at its creation in 1947. Divided at first along religious lines, the communal riots that followed its partition into India and East and West Pakistan signalled the trust deficit that existed between its majority Hindu and the Muslim communities.
Bringing people together under these circumstances required something more than the promise of state neutrality. The nation’s diverse communities, the victims of communal violence and the Muslims who stayed on in India needed to be assured that they would be equal partners in the emerging democracy and that they would be treated in a fair and just manner.
Jawaharlal Nehru signs the Indian Constitution in 1950.
A commitment to secularism – namely, that the state would not be aligned with any one religion – was an important first step. But it was not enough. In a society where religion was, and remains, an important anchor of personal identity, deeply valued by individuals and closely tied to notions of self-worth and dignity, the state had to make space for plurality of religious observances and cultural practices.
For members of different communities to have a sense of equality, the state needed to create a public culture that was hospitable to religious differences – one that allowed individuals to enter and participate in public life despite their religious beliefs.
Indifference towards matters of religion by the state, or complete neutrality and promise of non-intervention, were simply not the right answer.
Beyond secularism
To create a comfortable and non-alienating public culture, the Indian constitution gave each individual the right to observe their religious practices, and gave minorities the right to set up their own religious and educational institutions.
Minority educational institutions could receive funds from the state, if they so desired. Although no firm obligation was placed on the state, this allowed subsequent governments to support minority schools.
The government put together a list of public holidays that gave due consideration to different religious communities. At least one holiday was given for a major festival or event of religious importance, for each community. And it made an effort to design national symbols (such as the flag, and the national anthem) in a way that included different communities.
When it came to the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana was preferred to Vande Mataram. Although the latter had been used at different moments in the struggle for independence, it invoked spiritual symbolism from the Hindu religion, and this was to be avoided.
As India was embarking on its journey as a democracy, it had the opportunity to deliberately opt for inclusive symbols. But of course, this option is not available to most countries of Europe today. So what is there to be learned from the Indian state?
The lesson is the importance of creating a diverse public sphere that is inclusive and welcoming to all. And, most of all, one where cultural choices – in dress codes, food habits, and modes of address in social interaction – are not shaped entirely by the culture of the majority. This is the opposite to what we see in modern-day France, for instance.
No easy solutions
India’s founding framework went far beyond the idea of liberal secularism; it made a deliberate effort to give minorities the space to continue with their distinct religious and cultural practices and to pass them on. Culture and religion-related anxieties can be exploited to nurture resentment, and this had to be avoided.
Saffron is a highly significant colour for Hindus. Photo de Zetong Li- .pexels
Visible differences that marked the bodies of citizens in different ways were not seen as threatening. One could get past them, or at least see them as markers of identity instead of prejudging them as liberal or anti-liberal.
This was an important starting point but it had to be supplemented by government policies that ensured equal opportunity and security for all. Governments at the political centre and in different states failed to perform these tasks. Repeated incidents of inter-community violence, such as the 2013 Muzaffarnagar and 2002 Gujarat riots, and the failure to punish the perpetrators of such violence have pushed vulnerable minorities into the arms of their community for solace and legitimised the hold of religious leadership.
These could have been avoided. The state could have given a stern message that such forms of violence and community targeting would not be tolerated. But in case after case, governments let their citizens down. Political parties were divided, choosing to stand with different communities at different times but always with an eye on electoral gains.
In an effort to curb such communitarian politics, the Supreme Court has recently prohibited appeals to religion and caste during elections. This is being seen as a landmark judgment by some, but even though it aims to force parties to think of all citizens, and not merely one community, it does not address all concerns.
It has not, for example, forbidden reference to Hindutva – the founding principle of Hindu nationalism. The courts claim it denotes a way of life rather than a religious doctrine used as part of a campaign for cultural homogenisation.
Space for dissent
The point is that, in a democracy, it is not religion per se but efforts to stigmatise and intimidate people or groups that is a matter of concern. This is what India has yet to tackle effectively. When political parties can reach out to religious communities, take up their concerns and show that they give representation to candidates from different religions, they give a voice to minorities. This stems the sense of alienation and neglect that radicalisation so often taps into.
The most serious challenge today is to make space for individual dissent and autonomy and protect a person from those who wish to enforce the diktats of the community or the nation. India has focused so heavily on equality between groups that it has neglected to protect individual liberty – something that is pursued more effectively in Europe.
European countries foster a stronger sense of personal liberty. Sykle Ibach, CC BY-NC
India has much to learn on this subject from Western Europe. But its own journey shows that the presence of religion or its markers are not, and should not be, seen as the most important threat. It is not a case of more religion or less of it.
Anxieties about religion and the lack of respect for it can be tapped to create a rigid and more closed identity along with a politics of resentment. The focus must therefore be on creating a stake in democratic politics, involving different communities at different levels of institution functioning and extending avenues for equal opportunity.
The pluralised public sphere
It should go without saying that no state’s approach to religion is perfect, and India faces its own significant problems with diversity and integration, from religious violence to the persistence of the caste system. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing for Europe to learn.
Put simply, integrating religious differences is easier when religious freedom goes hand-in-hand with an understanding of the nature of religious commitments, and the creation of a pluralised public sphere.
Neutrality is insufficient when communities already see religion as an important part of their personal identity, one they want to hold on to along with their civic identity. It should be possible to have both.
Current political debates in the West need to open up to solutions that go beyond secularism, from places like India and from elsewhere. They need to embrace differences with policies for integrating minorities into education, the labour market and overall public life.
Europe must open up to new ideas about the secular state 6Europe must open up to new ideas about the secular state 7
The digital ruble will be offered to everyone after it has been tested among a narrow circle of real customers. This was stated in the State Duma of Russia by the governor of the Central bank, Elvira Nabiulina, quoted by TASS.
“We are ready to proceed with the pilot introduction of the digital ruble, to conduct real operations with real money. For now, it is about small amounts and a small number of customers, after which we will be able to offer the digital ruble to everyone,” said Nabiulina.
According to her, the digital ruble is the third form of money that will be in circulation in parallel with available and non-available funds, and each user will decide for himself which form to use. “Anyone who cannot or does not want to use new technologies should not be discriminated against. We will continue to develop the available payment system as well,” she noted.
The Russian Central Bank presented the concept of the digital ruble in October 2020. It will be in the form of a unique digital code and will be kept in a special digital wallet. Users will be able to exchange the code in question and thus make money transfers.
Meanwhile, the ruble continued to fall on the foreign exchange market and approached the mark of 82 rubles per dollar.
The Russian Central Bank and commercial banks already started testing the digital ruble platform in early 2022, and the first transfers in digital rubles between citizens are already a fact.
Three banks from the pilot group (which includes 12 banks) have already connected to the platform. Two of them have successfully completed a full cycle of transfers in digital rubles between customers using mobile banking.
“Customers not only opened digital wallets on the digital ruble platform through the mobile application, but also exchanged non-existent rubles from their accounts to digital ones and then performed digital ruble transfer operations between themselves,” the Russian Central Bank reported.
“This year, we will test different scenarios and improve the digital ruble platform. At the next stages of the platform’s development, we also plan to ensure seamless interaction with digital platforms and digital ecosystems,” said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russian Federation.
As the economy moves online, digital currencies will be the future of financial systems, Russia’s central bank governor Elvira Nabiulina said back in June 2021. There is a need for fast, low-cost payment systems, and central bank digital currencies can fill that gap, she said in an interview with CNBC.
“I think this is the future of our financial system, because it correlates with the development of the digital economy,” Nabiulina pointed out.
Former US Treasury official Michael Greenwald, however, thinks this could be a problem for the US.
“What worries me is that Russia, China and Iran are creating digital currencies of their central banks to operate outside of the dollar, and other countries have followed,” he told CNBC, adding: “That would be alarming.”
It should be noted that central bank digital currencies are not the same as cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ethereum, etc.). They are issued and controlled by the authorities, and the value of one digital ruble will be equal to one cash ruble, Russia’s Central Bank said last year.
CNBC reminds that cryptocurrencies were illegal in Russia until 2020 and still cannot be used to make payments.
Many central banks around the world are developing sovereign digital currencies, which their advocates say can promote financial inclusion and facilitate cross-border transactions. But Elvira Nabiulina predicts that there will be challenges in finding “common solutions” between systems that have been developed independently by different countries.
Elvira Nabiulina also commented on the US sanctions, which she defined as a “constant risk” for Russia. Over the years, Washington has imposed sanctions on Russia for a variety of reasons, from suspected poisoning of opposition politicians to alleged meddling in US elections and cyber attacks.
“That’s why our monetary policy, as well as fiscal policy and all macroeconomic policy, is quite conservative,” she said. According to her, Moscow’s reserves are “large enough to withstand all financial scenarios or geopolitical scenarios and are probably more diverse than the reserves of other countries.”
“Dedollarization is part of a broad policy to manage currency risks,” Nabiulina said.
On 9 May, the European Union will celebrate Europe Day 2023, a moment to commemorate the Schuman Declaration on 9 May 1950.
To mark the special occasion, the EU institutions, including EU delegations and representations worldwide, will organise a wide range of online and on-site activities, providing citizens with the opportunity to discover and experience the European Union.
This May, Europe Day will bring citizens together to learn more about how the EU is supporting peace, security and democracy through its resolve in face of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and other conflicts worldwide. Europe Day 2023 will also enable visitors to get better acquainted with the EU’s efforts to build a Europe which is green, digital and competitive, fair and skilled, as well as strong, resilient and safe. This year, it will also shed special light on the 2023 European Year of Skills, which will kick off on 9 May.
On and around Europe Day, the EU institutions will host a wide range of interactive activities at their locations across the 27 EU member states and around the world.
EU citizens will be able to experience the EU institutions in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg:
Saturday, 6 May: In Brussels, citizens will be able to visit the EU institutions. More information on the programme of activities can be found here.
Tuesday, 9 May: Citizens will be able to visit the European Court of Justice and the European village in Luxembourg city, set up by the Commission representation together with the national authorities, member states’ embassies, EU Institutions based in Luxembourg and civil society. More information is available here.
Saturday, 13 May: Members of the public will be able to look around the European Parliament in Strasbourg and see the seat of Europe’s largest democratic body. More details can be found here.
On 9 May, the EU will also host the European Year of Skills Festival. The festival will link to many other activities putting skills centre stage in different parts of Europe. On the dedicated EYS website more information can be discovered about the European Year of Skills, as well as further details on local activities across Europe.
Throughout the 27 EU member states and across the world, the EU institutions with their partners and networks will celebrate Europe Day through a host of engaging, informative and entertaining activities. The Representations of the European Commission in close cooperation with the European Parliament Liaison Offices, the Europe Direct Centres and other national and regional partners plan various actions to mark the day like edutainment activities and quizzes, festivals, sportive activities, cultural events and debates but also visibility activities and social media campaigns.
In addition, EU Delegations will mark Europe Day all around the world and highlight European unity and solidarity.
Roman Period Egyptian - Portrait of a young woman with a gilded wreath 120-140 AD (e - (MeisterDrucke-638763)
Scientists have studied a Fayum portrait of a young woman dating back to the 2nd century and stored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
They noticed a tumor on her neck and suggested that it was probably a realistic representation of a goiter – an enlargement of the thyroid gland. This is reported in an article published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation.
About a hundred kilometers southwest of Cairo is the Fayum oasis, located in a natural depression with an area of about two thousand square kilometers. People have inhabited the oasis since prehistoric times, but its economic and cultural development began at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, when a new capital was built here under the kings of the 12th dynasty – the city of Iti-Tawi. Thanks to built canals and dams in the Fayum oasis, a large area is irrigated, which allows it to become the richest region of Egypt.
The Fayum also flourished in later times, when the country was ruled first by the Ptolemaic dynasty and then by the Romans. Despite the many finds made in the area, the oasis is known above all for the so-called Fayum portraits. They are usually realistic representations made in the Greco-Roman style that cover the faces of mummies. The tradition of their production dates back to the time when numerous foreigners began to settle in Fayum, who adopted the ancient Egyptian experience of embalming the dead. But at the same time, on the faces of the mummies, they did not put voluminous masks, but portraits. These artifacts date back to the first centuries AD and are sometimes found outside the Fayum Oasis. Scientists currently know about a thousand Fayum portraits.
Raffaella Bianucci of the University of Palermo, along with colleagues from Australia, Britain and Germany, studied a Fayum portrait of a young woman wearing a gilded wreath. This artifact, which measures 36.5 x 17.8 centimeters, was acquired in Egypt in the early 20th century and has been dated to AD 120-140. It is currently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Scientists note that a tumor is clearly visible on the woman’s neck, which does not resemble the “rings of Venus” – transverse folds on the neck that appear as a result of a number of physiological features. At the same time, according to scholars, most of the Fayum portraits depict people realistically. According to the researchers, the woman probably had goitre. According to the researchers, no earlier cases of goiter have yet been recorded among the ancient Egyptians, although it is very likely that the disease was common. The explanation is that, despite the mass prevention started in Egypt in 1995, which consists in adding potassium iodide to table salt (iodization), goitre is still an endemic disease in Fayoum.
Earlier, it became clear that excavations are taking place in the Fayum oasis. Egyptian researchers discovered a large burial facility and a number of Greco-Roman burials that, among other things, contained papyri and mummy fragments with Fayum portraits.
The small fragments are embedded in the Welsh Cross, which will be seen by millions of people
The coronation procession of King Charles III will be led by a cross that includes religious relics gifted by Pope Francis, the Island’s media reported.
For the accession to the throne of the British monarch, the Holy Father provided two pieces of the authentic cross of Christ’s crucifixion.
The small fragments are embedded in the Welsh Cross, which will be seen by millions of people when it is brought into Westminster Abbey in London on May 6.
The two particles are shaped like crosses – one is 1 cm and the other is 5 mm. They are set in the larger silver cross behind a rose crystal gem and can only be seen up close.
The cross will be consecrated by Archbishop of Wales Andrew John at a service at Holy Trinity Church in North Wales on Wednesday before it heads to London.
After his return, it will be divided between the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Wales.
The Welsh cross is made from recycled silver bullion provided by the Royal Mint, located in south Wales, AP Media notes.
European and US human rights academics concerned about post-authoritarian persecution and the Tai Ji Men Case
INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY: Chen Chu acknowledges the importance of the issue and discusses Tai Ji Men case
In the middle of last month, an international human rights investigation group consisting of human rights academics and experts, media editors and reporters from Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Romania and the US visited Taiwan and met with government agencies and human rights organizations.
(Originally published by our cousin newspaper TAIPEI TIMES)
The group’s final visit was to the Control Yuan’s National Human Rights Commission in Taipei, where they met with Control Yuan President Chen Chu (陳菊) and commission members Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) to discuss issues related to transitional justice, post-authoritarian human rights persecution cases and the commission’s duties.
The group previously visited the National Human Rights Museum in New Taipei City — the former site of a prison in which more than 8,000 political prisoners were held and tried in military courts during the Martial Law period, including Chen.
European and US academics and human rights experts pose for a picture in front of the Control Yuan in Taipei in an undated photograph.
Photo: Taipei Times
Citizen Congress Watch board member Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), who accompanied the group, said: “These academics have seen the prison cell in which Chen Chu was being held at the time. She was an inmate at the time, and she is now the president of the Control Yuan. In addition to admiring her courage at the time, we also believe that her experiences and abilities can prevent Taiwan from repeating her experiences, and bring progress in all aspects of Taiwan’s human rights.”
Led by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, who is editor-in-chief of religious magazine Bitter Winter and a world-renowned academic, and Willy Fautre, president of the Belgium-based non-governmental group Human Rights Without Frontiers, the delegation said Taiwan’s most valuable assets are freedom, democracy and human rights.
The delegation also focused on human rights abuse cases that have not yet been fully redressed in Taiwan’s post-authoritarian era, including a case involving the previously persecuted Tai Ji Men Qigong group, which urgently requires the implementation of transitional justice and obtaining redress.
European and US academics and human rights experts meet with Control Yuan President Chen Chu, front, third right, during a visit to the Control Yuan and the National Human Rights Commission in Taipei in an undated photograph.
Photo: Taipei Times
The group was accompanied to the National Human Rights Commission by Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Pusin Tali, who was appointed after the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) created the position.
Pusin Tali is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church and has experienced first-hand the political oppression that the church has undergone.
Upon hearing about the international attention surrounding the Tai Ji Men case, including from the delegation, he made an appeal.
“The international community is supporting Tai Ji Men. While waiting for legislative reforms, the most important thing is to allow them to use their land and academies properly,” he said. “This will help them cultivate their minds and spirits. Religion is about bringing out the good side of people. Our country should make good use of Tai Ji Men and use it as a form of international diplomacy.”
The delegation’s visit was organized by the Taiwan-based Chinese Democracy Academy Association and Citizen Congress Watch.
The organizers said they made special arrangements to help the international experts experience the democratic values of Taiwan more deeply.
“The National Human Rights Commission has been operating for two to three years, but it still lacks the power of judicial review,” Tseng said. “The power of judicial review is to provide it with a weapon, for example, temporary injunctive relief for cases where human rights are being infringed upon. It should be able to suspend the execution of illegal or inappropriate administrative penalties.”
Chen expressed her willingness to make the greatest effort possible to achieve this.
Introvigne said that through the group members’ meetings and exchanges in Taiwan over the past few days, they hoped to observe and experience the diversity and prosperity of religions in Taiwan.
While praising Taiwan’s efforts and attitude toward religious freedom, they nevertheless also had to bring up the unresolved issue of Tai Ji Men as a matter of religious freedom, Introvigne said.
“Many international scholars, including those in the United States, are concerned about this issue,” he said.
Introvigne said he believes that as a highly democratic country, Taiwan’s only way to solve such problems is through dialogue.
He emphasized that they are good friends and defenders of Taiwan and are willing to help wherever they can.
In view of the International Workers’ Day, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit made the following statement:
“On 1 May, as we mark International Workers’ Day, the EU remains committed to preparing people for the changing world of work. This means investing massively in skills. The need to nurture talent in Europe is urgent, with labour shortages reported in key sectors and more than three quarters of companies struggling to find workers with the requisite skills. The European Year of Skillsis our opportunity to fundamentally change the training mindset in the EU, building on the tools and actions already put in place under the EU Skills Agenda.
This is not only important to help people develop in their careers and plan their personal lives, it is also essential if we want Europe to remain competitive – as outlined in our Green Deal Industrial Plan – and to ensure that the transitions and the economic recovery are fair and inclusive.
One way we are working to match people’s skills to the needs on the labour market is through the Pact for Skills. To date, 17 large-scale partnerships have been set up in key industrial sectors such as renewable energy and microelectronics, each identifying where the skills gaps lie and committing to up- and reskill workers. We also recently presented recommendations on how to boost digital education and skills, as well as establishing a Cybersecurity Skills Academy to tackle the cyber talent gap.
Sadly, this is the second Labour Day that takes place against the backdrop of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. The EU remains committed to supporting the integration of people fleeing the war into the EU labour market, for as long as they wish to remain in the EU. Since March 2022, more 1.1 million employment contracts have been signed by people fleeing Ukraine. This is a testament to the contribution of employment services and employers who have worked quickly to adapt their systems and make this possible.
Finally, this day is an important occasion to recall that the Commission is committed to ensuring fair working conditions and strong labour rights for all workers in the EU, wherever they are from.
We welcome the adoption of the Directive on adequate minimum wages, which will help to ensure that that work pays and workers can earn a decent living. Fair wages and collective bargaining are more important than ever as households face an increased cost of living.
The Commission will continue to bring the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights to life, improving working conditions and ensuring fair and equal opportunities for everyone.”
Post-doctoral research fellow Sneha Shanbhag and PhD candidate Rong Wu have developed an effective compostable and breathable air filter made from corn-based protein.
It’s a breakthrough that holds promise for a sustainable line of personal protective equipment, says centre director Ravi Selvaganapathy, a professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at McMaster.
Finding ways to green the PPE industry has always been a goal for CEPEM, which opened its doors in June 2020 in response to the urgent need for Canadian expertise in the field.
“Many of the high-quality filter materials used in PPE are made from fossil fuel-derived materials that don’t naturally degrade in the environment,” Selvaganapathy says.
“These are forever maaterials that are going to remain behind if they’re not disposed of properly and there’s no good mechanism to dispose of them.”
Seeing piles of discarded face masks motivated Shanbhag and Wu to find a more environmentally sustainable way to keep people safe.
“We both care a lot about the earth and the environment and wanted to see a biodegradable option developed,” says Wu.
The pair looked into zein, a corn protein with low nutritional value that could potentially be sourced from agricultural waste, as a cost-effective plant-based polymer.
They developed a viable filtration material by electrospinning zein onto a paper base. They improved the filter’s durability and resistance to humidity by crosslinking the zein with citric acid to stop it from swelling, cracking or peeling off the paper backing.
And after testing of assorted designs, Shanbhag and Wu discovered that stacking the fibres into a pleated filter improved its breathability over longer-term use, while maintaining filtration qualities appropriate to an N-95 level mask.
Trials found the material would break down within about a month, making it a viable biodegradable alternative to the polypropylene-based filters in masks and respirators.
“I think there’s a lot of interest in the industry and the research community to produce biodegradable materials but there is a gap between our knowledge of those materials and transforming them into functional PPE,” says Shanbhag.
“We recognized the opportunity to use the centre’s capabilities to develop something useful that could potentially be a solution for years to come.”
The research is a very promising start toward creating viable biodegradable made-in-Canada PPE, Selvaganapathy says.
Along with integrating antimicrobial properties into the material, the centre will explore using other natural polymers, such as extracts from corn husks or wheat, to further improve the filter’s structure.
“For example, if we blend cellulose with zein to get better structural properties, we could remove that underlay of paper and have one material that is strong, with good filtration.”
Using plant products that are currently going to waste offers a cost-effective supply of raw material to keep biodegradable masks financially competitive, says Selvaganapathy.
But it also diverts those products from the waste stream, where they would otherwise add to greenhouse gases when burned or disposed of in landfill.
Shanbhag is also developing a biopolymer-based material with elastic properties that could potentially be used for mask ear straps in the future.
There is significant interest in cost-effective, biodegradable materials for PPE, Selvaganapathy says.
“Sustainability has become a very important criteria for almost all of the manufacturers in Canada.”
CEPEM focuses the ingenuity of McMaster engineering research on the challenges of next-generation PPE, says John Preston, associate dean, research, innovation and external relations with the Faculty of Engineering.
“We see our research and development helping Canadian companies become global industry leaders.”
