This incredible image was captured on the International Space Station (ISS) on February 12, 2023. In it, NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Nicole Mann‘s image is refracted through a sphere of water flying weightlessly in microgravity.
Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one transparent medium to another, such as when light passes from air to water or from air to a glass lens. When light enters a new medium, such as water or glass, it changes speed and direction, which causes it to bend or change its path. The amount of bending that occurs depends on the angle at which the light hits the surface of the medium and the difference in the refractive indices (a measure of how much the speed of light changes in the medium) of the two media.
The phenomenon of refraction has many practical applications, such as in lenses used in eyeglasses or cameras, in the design of optical instruments, and in the study of the properties of materials. Refraction also plays an important role in the formation of optical illusions and mirages.
Nicole Mann is one of the Crew-5 astronauts that arrived on station on October 6, 2022, after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 5. She conducted spacewalks on January 20 and February 2, accompanied by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, in construction work related to the installation of the International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs).
NASA
Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” Its core values are “safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion.” NASA conducts research, develops technology and launches missions to explore and study Earth, the solar system, and the universe beyond. It also works to advance the state of knowledge in a wide range of scientific fields, including Earth and space science, planetary science, astrophysics, and heliophysics, and it collaborates with private companies and international partners to achieve its goals.
SpaceX
Commonly known as SpaceX, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company that was founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, the company designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars.
JAXA
Formed in 2003, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was born through the merger of three institutions, namely the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). JAXA performs various activities related to aerospace, from basic research in the aerospace field to development and utilization and is responsible for research, technology development, and launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in advanced missions such as asteroid exploration and possible human exploration of the Moon.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Nicole Mann’s image is refracted through a sphere of water flying weightlessly in microgravity. Credit: NASA
The New York Times is suing the European Commission because to date its president Ursula von der Leyen has not made public the text messages exchanged during the Covid-19 pandemic with the CEO of Pfizer. Vaccine contracts still not made public
While civil society has been demanding for almost two years the publication of all the contracts signed between the European Commission and Pfizer, the case has been re-launched by the powerful American media, The New York Times, which has filed a complaint against the European Commission for refusing to publish the text messages exchanged between Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer and Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
The American media justifies its decision to sue the European Commission because it has the obligation to make public these exchanges which would contain information on the contracts of vaccines signed between the EU and Pfizer.
As a reminder, in April 2021, the New York Times published an article in which it reported that the Commission President and Pfizer CEO had exchanged text messages related to the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. This prompted a journalist to request public access to text messages and other documents relating to the exchange. The Commission identified three documents as falling within the scope of the request – an e-mail, a letter and a press release – all of which were published. The complainant turned to the Ombudsman because the Commission had not identified any SMS.
In January 2022, the Ombudsman criticised the Commission’s handling of the request for public access to SMS messages. After his investigation, it turned out that the Commission, instead of requesting a search of SMS messages, asked his office to search for documents that met the Commission’s internal registration criteria (text messages are currently not considered to meet these criteria). She urged the Commission to “conduct a more thorough search for relevant messages.
“The handling of this request for access to documents leaves the unfortunate impression of a European institution that is not forthcoming on major issues of public interest,”
On 29 June, EU Transparency Commissioner Věra Jourová replied that the search for messages had “not yielded any results”.
Following this the European Ombudsman had severely criticised the European Commission and considered the lack of willingness to find these SMS messages a red flag.
The European Commission does not consider SMS to be part of its duty of transparency, and says it cannot retrieve them either. Oversight bodies such as the European Ombudsman and the European Court of Auditors have already denounced the opacity that the Commission continues to maintain. So has the European Parliament.
The vaccine contract affair has caused a furore in Europe, with many politicians calling for an investigation into an extremely opaque deal. In fact, on 16 December, seven Green MEPs declared war on the President of the European Commission.
The final report of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse of Children in the Catholic Church in Portugal, releases validated testimonies relating to abuse cases that occurred between 1950 and 2022 and points to over 4,800 victims.
By Linda Bordoni
Reacting to the final report of the Independent Commission charged with investigating sexual abuse cases of minors in the Catholic Church in Portugal, the President of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) said his first thought is for the victims, and the second for the commission towards whom the Church is grateful for its competent, passionate and humane work.
The Commission’s 8-point report points to a minimum number of 4815 victims in 70 years. The body was set up by the Portuguese Conference to examine abuse in recent decades.
Bishop Josè Ornelas said the results will not be ignored and launched a message of reassurance to the victims pledging to work for transparency and justice.
“We have heard things that we cannot ignore. It is a dramatic situation that we are living,” he said, “pointing out that that the Bishops’ Conference was not in denial about the consequences of the outcome.
He asked the victims for forgiveness and apologized for the Church having failed to grasp the scale of the problem.
Child sex abuse is a “heinous crime,” Ornelas said in a statement, adding: “It is an open wound which pains and embarrasses us.”
Present for the press conference at the Catholic University of Portugal, in Lisbon, was a number of Catholic experts and leaders, including Father Hanz Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The report
Releasing the report at a press briefing, Commission coordinator and president, Pedro Strecht, said 512 testimonies have been validated, out of a total of 564 received, relating to cases that occurred between 1950 and 2022.
He explained that the testimonies, presented to the organization between January and October of last year, point to a “much more extensive” network of victims, calculated in a “minimum, very minimum number of 4815 victims”.
“It is not possible to quantify the total number of crimes”, Strecht said, given that some victims were abused several times.
However, he noted that it is important “not to confuse the part with the whole,” and said the number of abusers within the Church is “low”. “The percentage of its existence, as practiced by members of the Church,” Strecht explained, “is very small, on the reality of the subject of sexual abuse of minors in general”,
Work done with freedom
Strecht emphasized that the Portuguese Episcopal Conference “always supported” this work, and he thanked all the victims who “dared to give voice to silence”.
He spoke of work done with “freedom”, recognized as necessary by several of the testimonies.
A total of 25 cases have been passed to public prosecutors, many others fell outside the statute of limitations.
The alleged abusers who are still alive will be identified, and a list of their names will be sent to the Catholic Church and to Judicial authorities by the end of February.
The Independent Commission ceases the functions for which it was designated by the CEP.
Strecht said its members “reached the end of this long and also painful work with the feeling of accomplishment”, and stressed that “the pain of the truth hurts, but it sets you free”.
On March 3, in Fátima, an extraordinary plenary assembly of the CEP is scheduled to analyze the CI report.
In an interview with French magazine Le Figaro on January 30, Sonia Backes, deputy Minister of the Interior for Citizenship, announced that she intends to engage Europe on the issue of “cults” usage of social networks. To combat what she calls “sectarian deviances”, she thinks that “If we want to intervene with regard to social networks, the action to be taken must be at the European level.”
Sonia Backes is an interesting character. Coming from the French far remote province of New Caledonia, a former French colony in the Pacific Ocean that still belongs to France, where she made a name for herself by being a rabid anti-independence politician, she has been appointed as State Secretary for citizenship in the French government in July 2022, under the authority of the Minister of Interior. As such, included in her portfolio was the strange French agency called Miviludes (acronym for French Inter-ministerial mission for monitoring and combating cultic deviances), which has the task of combating “cults” in France, a vague term for religions that do not enjoy the French authority’s acceptance, i.e., mainly new religions. Backes, who defends “Christian values” when she is in Caledonia, and a hardcore “laicity” when she is in France, took her new role to heart.
While Miviludes has been highly criticized internationally for its stance against some religious movements throughout the years, it barely triggers any criticism in the French media. On the contrary, it gets a significant support from them for their anti-cult propaganda. A couple of months after being appointed, Backes went around almost all French media explaining her role as the senior of Miviludes, and the need to reinforce the fight against “cults”. What was most interesting was the narrative she spread, that she was raised “in Scientology” by a Scientologist mother, and that she had to escape Scientology and her mother when she was 13, after having “discovered” that she was in “a cult”.
Sonia Backes and Scientology
This narrative seemed well accepted by the French media, though for an outsider it may look rather strange that a Minister in a democratic country would engage into personal “familial” revenge against a specific religious movement, Sonia Backes went as far as to state that she was working on new laws that would permit the State to combat Scientology activities on French territories. (It might be interesting to note that outside of France, Scientology is recognized as a genuine religion and enjoys this legal status, in, to name a few, Spain, Italy, the UK, Portugal and The Netherlands where it recently received the official status of “public utility” by the authorities. Moreover, even in France, most courts have recognized the religious nature of Scientology). The reason she gave for this new task was that Scientology intends to open a large new Church building in the Paris area and the “authorities” had tried to prevent from doing so, but the Church won in court. Her ‘reasoning’ was, therefore, that this failure by the authorities demonstrates that existing laws are not sufficient. (The Church of Scientology indeed won in court after the City Hall of Saint Denis tried to prevent it from starting renovations of the building, and the Court of Appeal which decided on the case, convicted both the City Hall and the State for misuse of power, a serious conviction for State agents).
Quite unfortunately for her, Sonia Backes has a brother who is a Scientologist himself, and who gave an interview in which he provided a different narrative on Backes’ childhood. Per the brother, “The truth is that she never ‘escaped Scientology’ as she pretended in ‘Le Figaro’ (French neswpaper) and elsewhere”.
He explains that their mother was indeed a Scientologist, that she took very good care of her kids, including Backes, and that Sonia waited for her mother to die (Backes mother died on July 23, 2022) before spreading lies about Scientology and her family. When asked why his sister would have to “invent” such a story, he answered: “a few days before she died, my mother showed and gave me a text message that Sonia had just sent to her. In the text message, Sonia Backes was explaining that she was going to have Miviludes in her portfolio as a Secretary of State, and she was afraid that Mediapart (a French online newspaper specialized in investigating politicians and potential scandals) would discover that our mother was a Scientologist. As you know, Miviludes has always promoted the discrimination of Scientologists. Then, Sonia added that for this reason, she would have to say that she had left the family because of Scientology, to avoid a scandal.”
In fact, the text message, which we had the opportunity to read in full, was dated July 9, 2022 and read as follows:
Sonia Backes: Hello, I also wanted to tell you something. In my Portfolio I have ‘the fight against sectarian deviances’. So it’s probable that Mediapart takes on the fact that you are a Scientologist. I am currently seeing how to tackle the topic so that it does not become explosive. But I will certainly have to say that I left your home because of this. And that I refuse that you tackle this topic with me… Let’s see each other when I have a bit of time!
That of course tends to corroborate the brother’s narrative more than Sonia Backes’ one. Then the mother answered to this text: “It would be better if you would tell the truth, which is that you live in Caledonia by choice.” Then Sonia invited her mother and stepfather, both Scientologists, to visit her at her new office in the Ministry of Interior, showing that she had not severed any link with her Scientologist family before her mother died.
Contrary to her expectations, Mediapart never took on the Scientology story, and it looks like they do not really care about that kind of religious controversy, being more interested in corruption affairs by members of the government. To our knowledge, the Church of Scientology did not comment on Backes’ childhood and her relationship to her deceased mother.
Sonia Backes with her Scientologist mother and stepfather in March 2022 in Paris
Miviludes’ links with Russian extremists
Miviludes has a long history of attacking new religious movements in France and while it nowadays continues to attack the Jehovah Witnesses, the Evangelicals, and other religious groups such as Scientology or Buddhist groups, it extended its scope to include conspiracy theorists, survivalists, ecological movements and alternative health practitioners, in a weird melting pot and drawing the most hazardous comparisons.
But more predominant are the links of Miviludes with Russian anti-Ukrainians propagandists, an alliance based on the similarity of targets (non-accepted religions), to the point that recently, 80 Ukrainian prominent scholars wrote to the President Macron to ask him to stop funding the FECRIS, a European federation based in France that has been a front line partner of the Miviludes for decades, and has many Kremlin hardliner propagandists in its ranks. Despite this, Miviludes and Sonia Backes continued to partner officially with FECRIS and even has in its steering Committee a former politician, Georges Fenech, who has traveled to the occupied Crimea with other parliamentarians in 2019, to meet with Putin and testify about how well Crimea was doing under Russian occupation.
A French delegation in Crimea in 2019, with Georges Fenech, current member of the Miviludes steering committee, in the back.
In 2020, FECRIS was identified by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bi-partisan US governmental body, as a danger for democracy and human rights, and pointed it out as being actively engaged in “ongoing disinformation campaign against religious minorities”.
Miviludes’ attempts to convert Europe
It’s not the first time that the French Miviludes tries to export its model to a European level. Their last attempt was in 2013-2014, when they had tasked a French MP (also a member of the Miviludes’ steering committee) Rudy Salles, to work onto the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for it to issue a recommendation and a resolution on the issue of “cults and minors”. In March 2014, Salles had proposed both a draft recommendation and a draft resolution, which aimed at exporting the French model to the 47 states of the Council of Europe and create an “observatory of cults” at the European level, a sort of European Miviludes which would oversee the repression of religious minorities in the continent.
The draft documents caused an outcry internationally, and the PACE received protestation letters from all over the world, from Jewish Israelian scholars to the well-known Moscow Helsinki Group to Muslim human rights federations as well as Christian (Catholic and protestant) and atheist human right defenders. Even the former Jurisconsult of the European Court of Human Rights, Frenchman Vincent Berger, was outspoken and declared in the premises of the Assembly that the French model described in the draft documents would “seriously undermine religious freedom and freedom of association guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Indeed, they cast aspersions on all new religious and spiritual groups that have emerged in Europe alongside traditional churches and denominations…”
Vincent Berger, former Jurisconsult of the ECHR, speaking against the Rudy Salles proposals at the PACE on 8 April 2014
Unsurprisingly, the day of the vote by the Parliamentary Assembly, the European parliamentarians rejected the recommendation and decided to transform the resolution into its opposite, erasing from it any discriminatory proposals, and replacing them with the following statements:
The Assembly calls on member States to ensure that no discrimination is allowed on the basis of which movement is considered as a sect or not, that no distinction is made between traditional religions and non-traditional religious movements, new religious movements or “sects” when it comes to the application of civil and criminal law, and that each measure which is taken towards non-traditional religious movements, new religious movements or “sects” is aligned with human rights standards as laid down by the European Convention on Human Rights and other relevant instruments protecting the dignity inherent to all human beings and their equal and inalienable rights. (…) The Assembly does not believe that there are any grounds for discriminating between established and other religions, including minority religions and faiths, in the application of these principles.
This was described internationally as a huge failure for the Miviludes and a victory for freedom of religion or belief, and for years France has not tried to export its model abroad again. Nevertheless, it might be that Sonia Backes is not aware of this embarrassing incident for France and will try to reiterate the failure.
European Court of Human Rights case law
One important factor to take into account is that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has considerably increased its case-law on this topic these last years. The most recent decision on this issue was “Tonchev and Others v. Bulgaria.” In that decision, rendered on December 12, 2022, the ECHR convicted Bulgaria for violation of article 9 (freedom of religion or belief), after 3 evangelical Churches had been stigmatized by a circular letter as “dangerous cults”, and considered that “these measures may have had negative repercussions on the exercise of religious freedom by the members of the churches in question”.
The most recent case law on State sponsored “derogatory language and unsubstantiated allegations” against religious beliefs includes a decision from 7 June 2022 (Taganrog LRO and Others v. Russia) which stated:
“After the introduction of the new Religions Act which required religious organisations to apply for new registration, Jehovah’s Witnesses appear to have been singled out for a differential treatment, along with other religious organisations deemed to be “non-traditional religions”, including the Salvation Army and the Church of Scientology. The Court found that they had all been denied new registration on spurious legal grounds and that, in doing so, the Russian authorities in the capital city of Moscow had not “acted in good faith” and had “neglected their duty of neutrality and impartiality”.
Already in 2021, Russia had been convicted for “failure to protect Krishna religious organisation’s beliefs from hostile speech used by regional State authorities in “anti-cult” brochure”, in the decision “Centre of Societies for Krishna Consciousness in Russia and Frolov v. Russia”. As far as the right to proselytism is concerned, the Court reminded the Russian authorities that “that freedom to manifest one’s religion includes the right to try to convince one’s neighbour, failing which, moreover, “freedom to change one’s religion or belief”, enshrined in that Article, would be likely to remain a dead letter”.
So, in other words, it’s likely that French Deputy Minister Sonia Backes is not really aware of these widely covered issues which has made France a pariah in the international scene as regards its anti-religious policies and stances for decades now. It might be that she is inclined to fight hard for making it an issue again. If so, it would unfortunately once more shed a sad light on her country, as it has in the past, which would no doubt trigger a strong response from human rights activists from all over the world. The only question, in a period when war and human rights have once more entered the European theatre, with all the crisis that it brought to us, is: does France wants to engage in such an outlandish and discriminatory battle?
Newsdesk/ & Press Release – “Live Again,” the Church of Scientology’s 2023 Super Bowl ad, premiered at the biggest media event in the US with a rousing and powerful message: If you think all is lost, think again. The video on Youtube has reached 2 million views in just the first 24 hours, in addition to the over 100 million estimated viewers (at once) that the Super Bowl opportunity provides (according to AP). On youtube only, without counting republications, and other social media,
In their press statement, Scientologists define the images and sound in the ad as “Stunningly beautiful cinematography and high-impact visual effects reinforce the “Live Again” message of hope and renewal. Paired with the uplifting statement “nothing is more powerful than you,” the ad reminds viewers that they have the inner strength to overcome life’s obstacles and create the future they deserve”.
This is the “11th consecutive year the Church of Scientology premiered a new ad at the Big Game” said the statement, and it is to be noted that each year their ads are among the most intriguing and talked about Super Bowl commercials.
“Live Again” was produced entirely in-house by Scientology Media Productions, the Church’s multimedia communications centre in Hollywood, California. The full ad can be watched and the original song downloaded at Scientology.tv/LiveAgain.
“Religious-themed ads have been relatively rare at the Super Bowl,” writes Bob Smetiana for Christianity Today [but not for the Church of Scientology, which has been doing that since at least 2013, Ed.] “The Church of Scientology has run ads in the past, and in 2018 Toyota ran an ad with the message “We’re all one team,” featuring a rabbi, a priest, an imam, and a saffron-robed monk headed to a football game, where they sat next to some nuns” concludes Smetiana.
The youtube viewership of the “Super Bowl Scientology ad” has been increasing exponentially (doubling) year after year.
2021 ad “Be More” reached 7.7 million views since airing 2 years ago,
2022 ad “We are giants” reached over 15 million views since it went live 1 year ago.
And here is the ad the Scientologists produced and launched during the Super Bowl 2023:
Additionally, they have published the full music song, a 3 minutes 51 seconds piece in SPOTIFY, that won’t let you be indifferent.
The Scientology Network debuted on March 12, 2018. Since launching, the Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories worldwide in 17 languages. Satisfying the curiosity of people about Scientology, the network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting the everyday lives of Scientologists; showing the Church as a global organization; and presenting its social betterment programs that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. The network also showcases documentaries by Independent filmmakers who represent a cross-section of cultures and faiths, but share a common purpose of uplifting communities.
Broadcast from Scientology Media Productions, the Church’s global media centre in Los Angeles, the Scientology Network is available on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-verse and can be streamed at scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.
Vienna (Austria), 13 February 2023 — In many of the world’s drug crop-growing areas, isolation and poverty are inherent. Farmers in vulnerable populations cultivate illicit drug crops such as coca and opium poppy because they are unable to obtain sufficient income from legal activities. This is due to factors including a lack of available markets for licit crops, an absence of basic infrastructure, and communities being pushed onto marginal land by conflict or natural disasters.
This is the understanding around which the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s concept of alternative development centres. UNODC’s alternative development interventions aim to provide sustainable livelihoods to communities that cultivate illicit drug crops. They also target communities that have stopped illicit cultivation but used to cultivate illicit drug crops in the past or are vulnerable to doing so again in the future.
The programmes have provided development assistance amounting to more than USD 70 million since 2020. UNODC teams have been working in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Colombia, Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar and Nigeria to support entrepreneurship, empower the disenfranchised and help to preserve the environment.
The three phases of UNODC’s alternative development projects
The projects can be divided into three phases. The first is introducing high-value crops and new technologies. Technical assistance provided by UNODC delivers effective food security and product diversification initiatives to mitigate the effects on vulnerable groups of the eradication processes of illicit crops and their substitution for licit crops, in the context of sustainable agricultural development and in harmony with local ecosystems.
The second phase is consolidating farmers’ organizations, ensuring market access and competitiveness, and expanding to further farmers. Crop producers are encouraged to implement improved quality standards and generate sustainable income through strategic and commercial partnerships.
The final stage is ensuring sustainability and transferring responsibilities to communities. UNODC has supported farmers to obtain land ownership certificates, helped women to access land ownership, and educated farmers on sustainable forest management and reforesting valuable forest species to remove the root causes of deforestation in project areas.
These second and third phases are equally as important as the first. As UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly mentioned during the 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in 2020, “alternative development is much more than switching from one crop to another. It requires creating products for which there is market demand, supporting entrepreneurship, involving civil society, empowering the disenfranchised and preserving the environment. This is truly sustainable development.”
Highlighting the importance of market demand in successful income generation from producing licit alternative products, UNODC is working with partners worldwide to provide producers with access to sustainable markets. One of the prominent success stories has been UNODC’s partnership with the French coffee roaster Malongo to empower communities to grow coffee instead of illicit crops.
UNODC and Malongo’s cooperation agreements
Farmers from the Green Gold cooperative in Myanmar, ASIPAEM (a Spanish acronym for the local association of agroecological producers) in Bolivia, and the Vanmai Coffee Cooperative in Lao PDR directly signed long-term commercial agreements with Malongo, respectively in 2018, 2020 and 2021.
These agreements are forward contracts renegotiated each year according to stock exchange prices. They include provision of a roadmap for technical assistance to help ensure quality control and yields, and a plan to increase export to 400 tonnes over the next five years. In 2022, this partnership exported 300 tonnes of Fairtrade-certified coffee to Europe, generating profitable and sustainable income for thousands of farmer households in Bolivia, Myanmar, and Lao PDR.
As each cooperative has successfully obtained a Fairtrade license, Malongo can ensure that the coffee that reaches consumers is ethical and traceable, and that farmers are guaranteed a fair price for their coffee. Fairtrade certification promotes organic agriculture and supports agroforestry systems, and it prohibits the use of dangerous pesticides and GMO products. It also empowers women and helps each partner organization progress towards gender equity.
Soon, the alternative development programme will also be implemented in Colombia. In October 2022 UNODC and Malongo, in coordination with the Colombian government, selected two coffee-producing organizations, with high potential for quality production, with whom the partners will define a roadmap for technical assistance.
The producers are located in the municipalities of Ituango, in the department of Antioquia, and Miranda, in the department of Cauca. The partners aim to begin exporting Fairtrade premium coffee to Europe in 2023, from areas affected by illicit crop economies, and improving quality of life for 400 households.
Further information
UNODC’s alternative development project with Malongo has been supported by the French Interministerial Mission to Combat Drugs and Addictive Behaviour (Mildeca) in Bolivia, from the governments of Finland and Germany in Myanmar, and by the Germany, Japan, Luxembourg and United States governments in Lao PDR.
This project contributes directly towards the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
SDG 1 by addressing poverty;
SDG 2 by fighting hunger;
SDG 5 by working towards achieving gender equality and ethnic inclusiveness;
SDG 8 by growing local business and opening access to markets;
SDG 13 by contributing towards environmental protection; and
SDG 16 by strengthening institutions and the rule of law.
A second UN aid convoy reached northwest Syria on Friday to help earthquake victims, but humanitarians have warned that far more lifesaving help is needed, and much more quickly.
A total of 14 trucks crossed into opposition-held areas of Syria from Türkiye at Bab al-Hawa, the UN migration agency, IOM, confirmed.
DEATH TOLL CONTINUES TO CLIMB AND @UN & PARTNERS ARE RACING AGAINST THE CLOCK TO SAVE LIVES & PROVIDE SUPPORT. 1,347 DEATHS & 2,295 INJURIES HAVE BEEN REPORTED SO FAR MAINLY IN ALEPPO, LATTAKIA, HAMA, IDLEB COUNTRYSIDE & TARTOUS. #SYRIA HCT FLASH UPDATE 4 HTTPS://T.CO/VM78OCKXQF — OCHA Syria (@OCHA_Syria) February 10, 2023
Echoing the growing international calls for quicker and easier access into northwest Syria via new routes, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was ready to move supplies there, although roads had been damaged by Monday’s earthquakes.
“That slows down our deliveries,” said Corinna Fleischer, WFP Regional Director in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe. “We need to be able to go across the borders, we need customs officials to be there in sufficient numbers…We need all parties to do the right thing now.”
Crossline deliveries need to restart and be stepped up from Government-controlled areas into opposition territory, the WFP official insisted, as she explained that a full 90 per cent of people in the northwest depend on humanitarian assistance.
Prepositioned stocks supplied by crossline deliveries that were carried before the earthquakes are being distributed already, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said, adding that it hoped an agreement with the Government would allow for “fast and regular access” to the northwest.
Supplies depleted
“We are running out of stocks and we need access to bring new stocks in,” Ms. Fleischer said, as she noted calls for the crossing at Bab al-Salam – also into northwest Syria – to be reopened.
In the first four days since deadly earthquakes struck the region, WFP has delivered food assistance to 115,000 people in Syria and Türkiye, it reported.
More than 22,000 have died, according to latest reports, and many tens of thousands are too scared to move back into buildings that they fear may collapse, forcing them to sleep in cars, tents and anywhere else they can find shelter, amid freezing winter temperatures.
Hot meals, ready-to-eat food rations and family food packages that require no cooking facilities have been provided already by WFP.
“For the thousands of people affected by the earthquakes, food is one of the top needs right now and our priority is to get it to the people who need it fast,” Ms. Fleischer said.
In total, WFP requires $77 million for food rations and hot meals to 874,000 quake-affected people in Türkiye and Syria. This includes 284,000 newly displaced people in Syria and 590,000 people in Türkiye, which includes 45,000 refugees and 545,000 internally displaced people.
In another update, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that it had released medical supplies in northwest Syria to 16 hospitals treating survivors of Monday’s earthquakes.
On Thursday, medical and surgical trauma supplies from the WHO’s logistical hub in Dubai also reached Türkiye, but needs remain massive, with hundreds of clinics in both Türkiye and Syria damaged in the disaster, along with many hospitals.
Specialist international emergency medical teams coordinated by the WHO have been deployed “and there will be more coming” to complement the national teams already hard at work, said WHO spokesperson, Dr. Margaret Harris.
“We provide a much wider range of services as appropriate and needed,” Dr. Harris continued, not least for mothers anxiously preparing to give birth. “Of course, we do indeed have the trauma specialists, the people who can deal with multiple fractures, crush injuries, know how to deal with the complications and can bring in their expertise and also their specialist equipment.”
As the UN and partners step up the aid effort, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that some 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the disaster at the start of the week.
“There are 6.8 million people already internally displaced in the country. And this was before the earthquake,” said Sivanka Dhanapala, UNHCR Representative in Syria, speaking from Damascus.
Providing shelter and relief items remains the focus of the UNCHR response, and ensuring that collective centres for displaced people have adequate facilities, tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats and winter clothing.
The UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, said late on Friday that it has begun distributing 60,000 dignity kits to women and girls in the worst-affected areas of northwest Syria.
On Saturday, UNFPA plans to send two trucks from Türkiye as part of a cross-border convoy, carrying 330 reproductive health kits to 181 health facilities in northwest Syria. The kits will contain essential medicines, and equipment.
A convoy of 13 trucks arrived in Aleppo from Damascus on Friday, containing 9,500 female hygiene kits, 1,000 winter blankets and clothing for 5,000 people, which will be distributed to temporary shelters in Aleppo.
And more than 20 UNFPA-supported mobile health teams are taking reproductive health and psychosocial support to women and girls in the three most impacted areas of Aleppo governorate.
Six trucks are currently being prepared to carry supplies from Damascus to Lattakia and Hama over the weekend, UNFPA added.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the highest court in the European Union (EU). Established in 1952, the ECJ is responsible for ensuring that laws passed by the EU legislature are consistent with treaties and regulations that govern the EU. The ECJ acts as the guardian of EU law, settling disputes among member states and between individuals and their governments.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the highest court in the European Union (EU). The ECJ has jurisdiction over all legal disputes involving member states and institutions of the EU. It is responsible for interpreting EU law and ensuring that the laws passed by the EU legislature are consistent with treaties and regulations that govern the union. The decisions of the ECJ are binding on all member states, meaning that any law challenged in an ECJ case must be overturned or amended if it is found to be in violation of EU law.
A summarized History of the European Court of Justice.
The ECJ was established in 1952 as part of the European Coal and Steel Community and became the central judicial institution for the European Union after the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The Court’s primary role is to ensure that all laws passed by EU institutions are consistent with the founding treaties of the union, as well as other related EU legislation. In addition, the Court has jurisdiction to review national court decisions if they raise questions concerning EU law.
The Structure of the European Court of Justice.
The European Court of Justice is made up of three distinct divisions. The first is the Court of Justice, which is the highest individual court in the transnational court system and responsible for interpreting EU law and addressing disputes between member countries or states. The second division consists of the General Court, which handles cases related to civil and commercial matters. Finally, the Civil Service Tribunal hears disputes concerning staff members employed by EU institutions.
How are Cases Brought to the European Court of Justice?
Cases can be brought to the European Court of Justice through a variety of channels. Any citizen or legal entity may bring an action before the court alleging that their rights have been violated due to a breach in EU law, and the court also has jurisdiction over any disputes between EU member countries or states. The court also has direct jurisdiction in matters related to infringement proceedings brought against a member state or institution. Finally, national courts may refer questions of interpretation of EU law to the court for clarification.
Conclusions
After closely examining the history and structure of the European Court of Justice, it can be concluded that it is a powerful court with an impressive caseload. By exercising direct jurisdiction over disputes relating to EU law and referring questions of interpretation to the court, individuals are assured that their rights are being safeguarded. Additionally, with its streamlined organizational framework and flexible procedure, the ECJ ensures that cases are handled efficiently and fairly.
Cuban doctors and healthcare personnel assigned to work abroad are victims of human trafficking and exploitation similar to slavery by their own state, declared MEP Javier Nart (Spain/ Renew Europe Political Group) when he opened the conference on this issue he was hosting in the European Parliament on 8 February.
For decades, Cuban doctors have been surrounded by an exceptional but undeserved aura from which the image of the country has largely benefitted. The guest speakers invited to testify with concrete facts have indeed shed a very different light on the reality hidden in the shadow of the Cuban propaganda. The so-called international Socialist solidarity with poor countries conceals very serious systemic labor and human rights violations as it was already highlighted by two resolutions of the European Parliament.
On 10 June 2021 (Recital I, Article 10), the Parliament stressed that
“Resolution 168 of 2010 of the Ministry of International Trade and Foreign Investment of Cuba, imposes on all civil employees abroad who work for thestate or for state-owned enterprises, including medical personnel, unjustifiedduties and obligations that violate human dignity and the most basic and fundamental human rights; whereas all civil employees who do not finish medical missions or decide not to go back to Cuba are punished under the Cuban Penal Code with eight years in prison; whereas thesemedical missions have been classified as a modern form of slavery according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)and the statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (CUB6/2019) on the Cuban medical missions underscored the precarious and inhumane working conditions of the medical personnel, allegations that were supported by Human Rights Watch and 622 testimonies”
and condemned
“the systemic labour and human rights violations committed by the Cuban stateagainst its healthcare personnel assigned to work abroad on the medical, missionswhich are in breach of core ILO conventions ratified by Cuba; urges Cuba toeffectively implement and comply with the American Convention on Human Rightsand ILO Conventions 29 and 105 respectively; calls on the Cuban Government to ensure the right of Cubans to exit and return to their country, including fordoctors deployed in medical missions abroad, in line with international human rights standards; calls on the Cuban Government to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and to ensure the rights to freedom of association, including the registration of organisations, and collective bargaining, in line with ILO standards.”
This condemnation was reiterated in another resolution of the Parliament adopted on 16 September 2021 (Recital M).
Working conditions of Cuban doctors
Cuba’s practices have a dramatic impact on the lives of its overseas workers who only get 5 to 20% of the salary mentioned in their contracts that governments or foreign companies pay for them. Indeed, the Cuban state keeps the rest as fees to organizations depending on the Cuban Communist Party. This form of exploitation has been copied and pasted from the North Korean system of exploitation of tens of thousands of their workers in dozens of countries, such as Russia, China and even until a very recent past in the Polish shipyards of Gdansk.
When the Cuban doctors arrive at their country of destination, their passports are immediately confiscated. They are not allowed either to travel with their legalized diplomas to avoid defection. They are not allowed to get married with a local resident and they have to inform their superior about any local love relationship. This scheme is very similar to trafficking and prostitution carried out by mafia groups anywhere around the world.
The Cuban Law on Labor Regulations contains a number of disciplinary measures for civilian overseas workers who may violate a long list of internal rules, such as participating in local social events without authorization, leaving the country without authorization, traveling in the country without authorization, living with unauthorized persons, and so on.
When they realize that they are exploited by their own state and dare ‘defect’, they are considered deserters by the Havana.
Photo credit RENEW EUROPE All rights reserved
Article 176.1 of the Penal Code of Cuba provides that three to eight years in prison will be imposed on anybody failing to go back home at the end of his mission or abandoning it before the end. A declaration of “Abandonment of Mission” considering him a deserter is then sent to all State institutions; he subsequently loses all his properties in Cuba and is denied entry to Cuba for a period of eight years. However, almost nobody tries to go back to Cuba because of the risk to be persecuted and imprisoned. It is estimated that more than 5,000 parents were unable to see their children for at least 8 years.
Magnitude of the human exploitation
It is estimated that 50,000 to 100,000 civilian professionals in Cuba are concerned every year and according to governmental sources, the total number of overseas workers (teachers, engineers, seafarers, artists, athletes…) is close to one million out of a population of 11-12 million.
Their work generates $8.5 billion while tourism only brings $2.9 billion.
In more than 50 years, over a hundred countries have hosted such Cuban assistance.
Are they volunteers?
Photo credit RENEW EUROPE All rights reserved – Speaking J. Larrondo
A survey by Prisoners Defenders revealed that overseas workers were not volunteers but their decision was motivated by their extreme misery, their precarious labour conditions, the fear of retaliation for saying “no” or their indebtedness.
32% signed a contract and obtained a copy of it, 35% did not receive a copy and for 33% of the workers, a contract was not presented to them.
69,24% did not know the final destination (city, hospital, etc.) or defaulted upon arrival in the destination country.
Photo credit RENEW EUROPE All rights reserved – MEP Hermann Tertsch and MEP Leopoldo Lopez Gil
All these facts were provided and discussed by Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders, Leonel Rodriguez Alvarez, Cuban doctor (online), Juan Pappier, deputy director at the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, and Hugo Acha, senior researcher at the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC).
MEP Leopoldo Lopez Gil (Group of Christian Democrats) and MEP Hermann Tertsch (vice-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group participated in the debate as well as representatives of civil society organizations.
When Monday’s devastating earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria, killing thousands of people, Olga Borzenkova, a spokesperson for the UN migration agency (IOM), was in Gaziantep, Türkiye, one of the most affected areas. She describes her experience, and the emergency response effort that is underway.
“Like hundreds of thousands of other people in South-Eastern Türkiye, I was fast asleep when the world started to shake. I don’t really know how to describe to anyone who hasn’t felt an earthquake, let alone one of the biggest ever recorded in this region.
It’s just completely surreal. The floor and the walls were shaking, bending, and as we ran down the three floors to the street our only thought was to get far, far away from buildings.
It was sixty seconds of the worst terror I have ever felt. As we calmed down a bit and realised we had survived the shaking, we also realised it was raining, we were cold, and our legs felt like jelly, like they were not really part of our bodies. Everyone around us was calling out, shouting, screaming.
It took us a while but eventually we found a place to shelter after the urgency of the second quake, in a school. Along with hundreds of others we sat, lay down or stood on the basketball court, getting word to our families that we were safe.
Then I checked in with work and started to assess how I could help, how I could tell them what was going on, how to pay tribute to the wonderful people who were doing all they could to help me and thousands like me.
We spent Monday night in a shelter run by the Government. We felt a few trembles but it was comfortable and we had hot drinks and some food, as well as a place to sleep. Now I’m in the office, catching up on everything, including the heart-breaking news that we lost a colleague. Some others are injured, and have lost family members and, in some cases, homes. Others like my team member survived just by a miracle in Hatay.
It’s saddening beyond words. One minute we were sleeping, and the next we are part of one of the biggest disasters on the planet.
I am screaming inside, with despair, grief and fear. But I look at my colleagues, my neighbours, and my friends, who are affected much more than me, and they inspire me to carry on.
Massive shelter needs in Türkiye
Olga Borzenkova, IOM spokesperson, Gaziantep, Türkiye.
Türkiye is of course hugely prone to earthquakes and has built a world-class response mechanism. We’ve been working with them for more than 30 years and they are phenomenal partners. But even they will be stretched by this. This is a double whammy – over a million people who fled the war in Syria have temporary protection status in the area hardest hit by the quake.
Communities will have been devastated: schools and hospitals will have been damaged, workplaces wiped out. The logistics of aid will be fiendish – roads and runways will need to be rapidly repaired. This will be an enormous rescue, response and recovery operation and we are ready to respond in any way the government asks us to, for as long as it takes.
