Gerry Shigouz was in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, listening to Pope Francis’ words as he travels the country on his “penitential pilgrimage”.
She told Vatican News’ Marine Henriot that she was “nervous”. Nervous to be surrounded by Catholic Church officials, and nervous to even look at some of the priests attending the Pope’s meeting with indigenous peoples at Maskwacis.
She said she feels this way because she is a residential school survivor, having attended Muscoweguan Residential School from 1962 to 1971. Along with Gerry, “my brother George attended for eleven years, my sister Darlene attended for ten years, and my little sister Connie attended for six.”
But Gerry has not always been able to speak about those years, explaining that she started sharing her story with other students only in 2015. Since then, she has “probably” shared it with about 15,000 individuals so far, from elementary school to university.
“I share my story because I like to get the truth out about our history and what happened, so that people know” because, she added “they didn’t learn that in school”.
“The world needs to know what’s going on,” stressed Gerry. She recalled the visit of an indigenous delegation to the Vatican in April, noting that there was no mention of the hundreds of children being found, to this day, on residential school grounds.
“I want people to know that they are mourning. We are grieving, and we feel sorry for those little children who never made it home.”
More than words
It took Gerry a lot of courage to attend the events in Edmonton. She cut off her relationship with the Church in 2010, the same year in which she disclosed her abuse and began to speak about what happened.
“I’m really nervous, and I feel uncomfortable right now,” she confessed as she attended the encounter with the Pope in Maskwacis. “But I am here, looking for and expecting an apology. I would like action. More than words. I’m looking for the apology to be sincere and genuine” and for “responsibility and accountability to be taken for the harms and the wrongs that were done. That’s what I’m looking for.”
Gerry recounted that her courage comes from whom she is there standing for.
“I’m here today to stand for my brother George. George never got to share his story. He never became a dad. He didn’t graduate, because he experienced so much trauma at residential school.”
And along with George, Gerry is standing for her parents: “my Mum and Dad, because their kids were taken.”
More than 236,000 people die annually from drowning – among the leading causes of death for those aged one to 24 years, and the third leading cause of injury deaths worldwide overall – the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, urging everyone to “do one thing” to save lives.
The appeal on World Drowning Prevention Day outlines actions that individuals, groups and governments can take, and highlights initiatives already underway in some countries.
The majority of drowning deaths, more than 90 per cent, occur in low- and middle-income nations, with children under five at greatest risk.
These deaths are frequently linked to daily routine activities, such as bathing, collecting water for household use, travelling on boats or ferries, and fishing. The impacts of monsoons and other seasonal or extreme weather events are also a frequent cause.
“Every year, around the world, hundreds of thousands of people drown. Most of these deaths are preventable through evidence-based, low-cost solutions,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.
To commemorate World Drowning Prevention Day, cities across the world are lighting up some of their prominent landmarks in blue.
WHO has its headquarters in Geneva, and the Jet d’Eau in Lake Geneva – one of the most famous attractions in the Swiss city – will be illuminated in blue on Monday evening.
Focus on solutions
The UN’s health agency works with partners, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in the United Kingdom, and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, to raise awareness on drowning prevention.
The founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, described drowning as a global public health challenge.
“In many cases, we know what works to prevent drowning. We’ve developed tools and guidance to help governments implement solutions – and if we do more together, we really can save thousands of lives,” said Mr. Bloomberg, the WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries.
WHO has recommended six evidence-based measures to prevent drowning, which include installing barriers controlling access to water, and training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation techniques.
School-aged children also should be taught basic swimming and water safety skills, while boys and girls should be provided supervised daycare.
Other measures call for setting and enforcing safe boating practices, shipping and ferry regulations, and improving flood risk management.
Formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning.
Share and support
As part of the call to “do one thing”, individuals are urged to share drowning prevention and water safety advice with their families, friends and colleagues. They are also encouraged to sign up for swimming or water safety lessons, or to support local charities or organizations working on drowning prevention.
Meanwhile, groups can do their part, for example by hosting public events to share water safety information or launching water safety campaigns.
WHO also advocates action at the government level, including developing or announcing new drowning prevention policies, legislation or investment, and supporting drowning prevention programmes, whether domestically or internationally.
Commitment from countries
The UN agency and its partners are supporting countries to design and implement new prevention initiatives.
Bangladesh is among countries that have committed to drowning prevention programmes, and authorities there have started a three-year scheme to reduce drowning among children.
As part of the programme, the government will take over the 2,500 daycares established and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies over the past decade. The authorities will expand the programme by adding an additional 5,500 daycares to provide supervision to 200,000 children aged one to five years.
Other countries that have received support for drowning prevention initiatives include Vietnam, Uganda and Ghana.
The theme of this year’s World Day against Trafficking in Persons is “use and abuse of technology”. Below, find examples of how technology can be harnessed to detect, rescue, and support potential or exploited trafficking victims.
The Internet is part of everyday life for billions of people around the globe. Daily activities that once necessitated in-person interaction – from shopping to romance, banking, and even health care – are now, not least due to the COVID-19 pandemic, commonplace online.
But there is a dark side to all of these advances. As the world has become more tech-savvy, so have human traffickers.
The internet and digital platforms offer traffickers numerous tools to recruit, exploit, and advertise victims; organize their transport and accommodation; and hide criminal proceeds – and all that with greater speed, cost-effectiveness and anonymity.
However, in the use of technology also lies great opportunity. “To protect people, we need to protect digital spaces from criminal abuse,” says Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “We can assist law enforcement authorities to use, with technical support and appropriate safeguards, artificial intelligence, data mining and other tools to detect and investigate trafficking networks.”
Moreover, the Internet can help provide support to victims across great distances, while awareness-raising activities on the safe use of social media could help reduce the risk of people falling victim to trafficking online.
Using technology to help victims before they are exploited
One example of a powerful, positive use of technology to counter human trafficking comes from Love Justice International, a civil society organization that has received funding from the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking (UNVTF). Love Justice works to identify potential victims while they are in the process of being trafficked – that is, after they are recruited but before they are exploited.
By combining its own data on previous potential victims with road network graphs from OpenStreetMap (a collaborative open-source geographic database), it has created route heatmaps showing the road segments that are likely to be most heavily used for human trafficking in certain areas.
Love Justice uses this mapping approach, together with data from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and GDP estimates from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite to develop a predictive model that extends the use of route heatmapping to locations where victim route data is not yet available.
These route heatmaps help Love Justice to determine where to put new ‘Transit Monitoring Stations’. At these stations, staff trained on how to profile potential victims – i.e., people who are in the process of being trafficked or at high risk of trafficking – ask a series of questions.
The organization uses machine learning to assign relative weights to a set of ‘red flags’ that may be uncovered through the questioning process, which help create the most accurate prediction of whether a person is in the process of being trafficked.
When staff identify a potential victim that meets the criteria, they attempt to ‘intercept’ them by convincing them to return to safety, or by involving law enforcement in cases with minors or more serious evidence. In cases where the risks are lower, where migrating for work is the most viable option for economic empowerment, or where migrants simply choose to continue their journey despite the risks, Love Justice works to facilitate informed and safe migration.
To date, Love Justice has intercepted 30,578 people to prevent them from being trafficked across 64 monitoring stations in 28 countries.
“When Love Justice staff first questioned me, I was afraid and lied about some of the things that happened,” said Safia*, a 14-year-old girl from India who had been deceived and molested by a trafficker before Love Justice monitors intervened.
“After I became more comfortable with them, I started telling them everything that happened. Had I not been intercepted, my life would have been difficult, and people would have looked down on me. I hope to become a police officer after I finish school. I want to be able to help other girls who suffer like I did.”
The organization also cooperates with the local authorities, providing them with information and insights to bring traffickers to justice. Love Justice reports that 1,176 arrests have been made as a result of its work, with 32 per cent of closed cases resulting in convictions. The organization’s work is a clear example of how technologies can be harnessed for good when it comes to human trafficking.
Using technology to provide support to trafficking victims
Espacios de Mujer, also funded by the UNVTF, provides psychosocial support to trafficked women in Colombia. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the civil society organization had to re-strategize on how it was going to get these critical, life-affirming services to victims in dire need.
The organization decided to bring its psychosocial support online, reaching out to 27 victims to help them improve their mental health. In order to help others and provide the same support online as it can in-person, Espacios de Mujer then created a virtual guide (in Spanish), outlining its methods for both professionals wishing to lead similar programmes and victims participating in the programme.
As one trafficking victim, Jessica, noted: “During the pandemic I got the virus, but I never felt alone because Katherine and Jenifer [respectively, a social worker and psychologist at Espacios de Mujer] called me a lot and helped me address my needs from home.”
Dennis Radtke MEP in conversation with representatives of the airport management (from left to right): Fabian Zachel (Head of Public Affairs), Dennis Radtke MEP (CDU), Peter Nengelten (Airport Neighbourhood Office).
DÜSSELDORF, 22 July 2022 – For Dennis Radtke, CDU MEP, the chaos at German and European airports was predictable. For the social expert in the European Parliament, the fact that passengers have to be at the airport several hours before departure, that it takes weeks for their suitcases to be delivered to their destination or that they even miss their flights has a lot to do with working conditions.
After a visit to Düsseldorf airport, the CDU politician is appalled by the prevailing working conditions at the external companies operating at the airports:
“New hires are exclusively part-time. Workers who spend the night in cars because they have no more money for petrol remind me more of Chinese migrant workers than of the birthplace of the social market economy.”
Radtke said in Düsseldorf:
“The responsible federal security bodies have completely failed. Security checks at airports are a sovereign task. They ensure the safety of all passengers and also contribute to the protection against terrorism.”
He said it was an absolute sham for the federal police to try to fill the gaps in passenger screening by deploying so-called “part-loans” (not qualified security staff).
Federal Government and especially the Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, should no longer look the other way when it comes to security, he added.
“The Federal Minister of the Interior must finally ensure that when services are contracted out, at least good working conditions are guaranteed for the employees.”
Before the start of a new travel weekend, the North Rhine-Westphalian MEP spoke with representatives of the management and works councils at Düsseldorf Airport and got an idea of the current situation by taking a look behind the scenes. Radtke said that it was alarming that in the meantime 100 employees of the service provider DSW at Düsseldorf Airport had filed overload and endangerment notices with the employers under labour protection law. “These are unacceptable conditions.”
A fortnight ago, the social policy spokesman of the EPP group in the European Parliament asked the European Commission with a catalogue of questions to urgently ensure better working conditions through firm regulations. “It cannot be that not only flights are cancelled, but that Lufthansa lets thousands of flights fly from airport to airport without passengers in order to halfway escape the chaos,” Radtke complains about the current situation. Miscalculations by the federal police and security companies had led to this lack of planning.
“The deficits at airlines and airports are in many places the result of ruinous downward competition,” Radtke laments the conditions. The trend towards cheap flights has ensured that fewer and fewer people are paid fairly for their work. Radtke: “That’s why many workers have looked for new jobs in other sectors in recent years.” Whether the decision to put aviation security in the hands of profit-oriented security companies was the right one should therefore at least be questioned, Radtke continued. He wanted to make sure that people could fly to their well-deserved holidays again and that the necessary business flights were carried out. It is therefore necessary that airlines and airports urgently improve their social standards and employ qualified staff at fair wages. Radtke: “Otherwise we will not succeed in finally fixing this chaos.”
Dennis Radtke MEP in discussion with works councillors of the airport and the external companies operating there (from left to right):
Güclü Alakus (DSW Deutscher Schutz-und Wachdienst GmbH + Co. KG Düsseldorf), Hatic Eligül (Deputy Chairman of the Works Council DSW Deutscher Schutz-und Wachdienst GmbH + Co. KG Düsseldorf), Jürge Rütten (DSW Deutscher Schutz-und Wachdienst GmbH + Co. KG Düsseldorf), Dennis Radtke MEP (CDU), Bouchaib Zine (Chairman of the Works Council Aviapartner Düsseldorf GmbH & Co. KG), Uwe Kmoch (Deputy Chairman of the Works Council Flughafen Düsseldorf Ground Handling GmbH).Dennis Radtke MEP in conversation with representatives of the airport management (from left to right): Fabian Zachel (Head of Public Affairs), Dennis Radtke MEP (CDU), Peter Nengelten (Airport Neighbourhood Office).Dennis Radtke MEP (CDU) informs himself about the current situation on site at Düsseldorf Airport.
State aid: Commission approves €700 million Italian scheme to support companies in context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The European Commission has approved a €700 million Italian scheme to support companies in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, adopted by the Commission on 23 March 2022, based on Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), recognising that the EU economy is experiencing a serious disturbance.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Russia’s unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine continues to negatively affect the EU and the Italian economy. This €700 million scheme will enable Italy to mitigate the economic impact of the current geopolitical crisis on companies across sectors. We continue to stand with Ukraine and its people. At the same time, we continue working closely with Member States to ensure that national support measures can be put in place in a timely, coordinated and effective way, while protecting the level playing field in the Single Market.”
The Italian measure
Italy notified to the Commission a €700 million scheme to support companies in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This measures follows two schemes to support the agricultural, forestry, fishery and aquaculture sectors that the Commission approved on 18 May 2022 (SA.102896) and on 22 June 2022 (SA.103166) respectively.
The measure will be open to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entities with less than 1,500 employees (Midcaps) active in all sectors, with the exception of primary production of agricultural products, fishery, aquaculture, banking and financial sectors, affected by the current geopolitical crisis and the related sanctions.
In order to be eligible, companies must (i) have achieved, during the fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021, at least 20% of their turnover via exports towards Ukraine, the Russian Federation or Belarus; and (ii) foresee a contraction of such part of their turnover by at least 20% for the fiscal year 2022.
Under the scheme, eligible beneficiaries will be entitled to receive limited amounts of aid in the form of direct grants.
The Commission found that the Italian scheme is in line with the conditions set out in the Temporary Crisis Framework. In particular, the aid (i) will not exceed €400,000 per company; and (ii) will be granted no later than 31 December 2022.
The Commission concluded that the Italian scheme is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State, in line with Article 107(3)(b) TFEU and the conditions set out in the Temporary Crisis Framework.
On this basis, the Commission approved the aid measure under EU State aid rules.
Background
On 23 March 2022, the Commission adopted the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to enable Member States to use the flexibility foreseen under State aid rules to support the economy in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Temporary Crisis Framework provides for the following types of aid, which can be granted by Member States:
Limited amounts of aid, in any form, of up to €35,000 for companies affected by the crisis active in the agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture sectors and of up to €400,000 per company affected by the crisis active in all other sectors;
Liquidity support in form of State guarantees and subsidised loans; and
Aid to compensate for high energy prices. The aid, which can be granted in any form, will partially compensate companies, in particular intensive energy users, for additional costs due to exceptionalgas and electricityprice increases. The overall aid per beneficiary cannot exceed 30% of the eligible costs, up to a maximum of €2 million at any given point in time. When the company incurs operating losses, further aid may be necessary to ensure the continuation of an economic activity. Therefore, for energy-intensive users, the aid intensities are higherandMember States may grant aid exceeding these ceilings, up to €25 million, and for companies active in particularly affectedsectors and sub-sectors up to €50 million.
Sanctioned Russian-controlled entities will be excluded from the scope of these measures.
The Temporary Crisis Framework includes a number of safeguards:
Proportional methodology, requiring a link between the amount of aid that can be granted to businesses and the scale of their economic activity and exposure to the economic effects of the crisis;
Eligibility conditions, for example definingenergy intensive users as businesses for which the purchase of energy products amount to at least 3% of their production value; and
Sustainability requirements. Member States are invited to consider, in a non-discriminatory way, setting up requirements related to environmental protection or security of supply when granting aid for additional costs due to exceptionally high gas and electricity prices.
The Temporary Crisis Framework will be in place until 31 December 2022. With a view to ensuring legal certainty, the Commission will assess before that date if it needs to be extended. Moreover, during its period of application, the Commission will keep the content and scope of the Framework under review in the light of developments regarding the energy markets, other input markets and the general economic situation.
The Temporary Crisis Framework complements the ample possibilities for Member States to design measures in line with existing EU State aid rules. For example, EU State aid rules enable Member States to help companies cope with liquidity shortages and needing urgent rescue aid. Furthermore, Article 107(2)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union enables Member States to compensate companies for the damage directly caused by an exceptional occurrence, such as those caused by the current crisis.
Furthermore, on 19 March 2020, the Commission adopted a Temporary Framework in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. The COVID Temporary Framework was amended on 3 April, 8 May, 29 June, 13 October 2020, 28 January and 18 November 2021. As announced in May 2022, the COVID Temporary Framework has not been extended beyond the set expiry date of 30 June 2022, with some exceptions. In particular, investment and solvency support measures may still be put in place until 31 December 2022 and 31 December 2023 respectively, as already provided for under the existing rules. In addition, the COVID Temporary Framework already provides for a flexible transition, under clear safeguards, in particular for the conversion and restructuring options of debt instruments, such as loans and guarantees, into other forms of aid, such as direct grants, until 30 June 2023.
The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number SA.103464 in the State aid register on the Commission’s competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of State aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the Competition Weekly e-News.
More information on the Temporary Crisis Framework and other actions taken by the Commission to address the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can be found here.
In recent years, as more and more children’s graves have been discovered in residential schools across Canada, the world is discovering the trauma of a population that suffered for decades under a system designed to “kill the Indian within the child. It is in this martyred land that Pope Francis is making a penitential pilgrimage from July 24 to 30.
In 1990, Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations broke the silence and denounced for the first time publicly the cases of abuse in the residential schools run by the Canadian federal government and supported by the Catholic Church. In the 2020s, the discovery of the graves of hundreds of children in the vicinity of these institutions provoked a wave of indignation and awakened Canadian and world opinion to the realities of Canada’s Natives communities. “In recent years, we have gone from a great ignorance and indifference on the part of the Canadian population towards the native people, to an openness,” notes Jean-François Roussel, a researcher attached to the University of Montreal, anthropologist and specialist in native cultures.
It is therefore a traumatized population that Pope Francis has come to meet on their land in the summer of 2022. A violence experienced in the residential schools, which crosses generations. Some native people have decided to cut ties with their families, with the community, because it is too difficult,” continues Jean-François Roussel, “others have never understood why their parents showed so little love, and the insecurity is reproduced between generations. It is very difficult to deal with this history, with reflexes that we don’t understand very well. Others still, did not have the words to talk about what they suffered: “There is shame and anger turned against oneself”, explains the anthropologist.
Being indigenous and Catholic
The Catholic Church has had a relationship with Canada’s Aboriginal peoples since the 17th century. In 1998, the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council was created within the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to offer information and recommendations about Aboriginal communities and thus begin a healing process.
In 2009, during an exceptional audience, Benedict XVI received Aboriginal representatives in private. The Bavarian Pope expressed his regret for the role of the Church in the forced assimilation of Aboriginal children: “The Holy Father expressed his regret for the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of certain members of the Church and offered his sympathy and solidarity in prayer. His Holiness emphasized that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society,” the Holy See press release said at the time.
The Canadian Church officially apologized in September 2021 and six months later announced the creation of a $30 million fund to finance various reconciliation projects across Canada. In the spring of 2022, receiving more than 150 members of an Aboriginal delegation at the Vatican, Francis expressed his shame and indignation: “For the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church, I ask God’s forgiveness and I would like to say to you from the bottom of my heart: I am truly grieved. Today, the official website of the national organizers of the papal visit states, “the Catholic Church has a responsibility to take authentic and meaningful steps to accompany the indigenous peoples of this country on the long road to healing and reconciliation.
Sacred Heart Church of the First Nations. Edmonton, Canada
Elder Fernie Marty is the Elder of Sacred Heart First Nations Church and will welcome the Pope to Edmonton on Monday, July 25. This sunny man, with a ponytail and deep eyes, defines himself as Catholic and Aboriginal. Born in Edmonton, he belongs to the Papaschase First Nation. “I feel blessed to live in both worlds,” he said during the final preparations to welcome Francis, “my mother made sure I was baptized at birth, and my mother’s family made sure I stayed close to our Aboriginal culture. I was able to blend these two cultures that I was born into. According to the last major Canadian census conducted in 2011, 36% of Aboriginal people said they were Catholic and 31% said they did not belong to any religious group. A non-mandatory census, however, nuances Jean-François Roussel, “all researchers agree that this census is not very reliable”, but it is currently one of the only statistical tools available to determine the proportion of Catholics among Aboriginal people: “The Catholic faith remains an important reference among Aboriginal communities and in the family memory. There is an existential dimension to the Christian faith, an attachment to Christ with local community forms.
Moreover, if some indigenous people feel that they have been betrayed by the Church, respect for the choice of individuals and religious freedom are highly valued in the indigenous culture.
Attachment to the Land
Land is intrinsically attached to the Indian Act of 1876. This same land on which the 139 residential schools were built, this same land confiscated by the Canadian federal government, divided into reserves “to solve the Indian problem”, explains Jean-François Roussel. Thus, although Alberta is the traditional territory of the First Nations, the 138 reserves represent today only a little more than 1% of the total surface of the province, sheltering the members of the 47 First Nations of Alberta.
Reserves managed with humiliating texts. For example, some stipulate that these despoiled territories must not measure more than 2.6 square kilometres for each family of five. Many generations of natives have grown up on coveted, confiscated land, “the land is linked to a suffering experience”, explains the anthropologist, “the residential schools were created to transform the mentality of the children, to remove this relationship to the land and make them into Canadians like any other, who mixed with other Canadians”.
Finally, the land also represents the motherland, the shelter of the buffalo, the source of food and the basis of nomadism, before their gradual disappearance and the arrival of famine in certain regions. “Yes, I heard the apology of the Pope in Rome, and it was essential, but it is much more important precisely here, because this is where everything happened. I don’t know what healing looks like that we’re talking about, but whatever happens, I’m ready to follow it!”, concludes Elder Fernie Marty.
Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, from Sudan, has addressed the People of Sudan in what arrives as a heartfelt appeal to everyone in the country affected by a civil war o 10 years, for peace, and democracy.
The speech also covers issues such as discrimination and internal threats, against discrimination and internal threats, saying that “our country is going through crises that are the most dangerous in its modern national history. Crises that threaten its unity, safety, security and social fabric.”
He also said that:
“I am watching and fully aware of the internal and external conspiracies/plans against the country, and I call from this forum/platform on all honorable patriots from different political parties, revolutionary and communal forces, to unite and pay attention to the dangers facing the country, and to reach as a matter of urgency at an effective political solutions to the current crises of the homeland”.
And concluded that he:
“reiterate, from the position of my national and moral responsibility, my full commitment to work to protect the goals of the glorious December revolution, and to protect the transitional period so that it leads to a real democratic transformation through free and fair elections.”
Here is the translated full message of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (original below)
First of all, I pray to Allah, the Almighty to shower His Mercy over every soul that was killed unjustly in the Blue Nile, Darfur, eastern Sudan, Khartoum and every part of this dear country. I address you today while our country is going through crises that are the most dangerous in its modern national history. Crises that threaten its unity, safety, security and social fabric.
This ugly situation imposes upon all of us to revise ourselves in an honest and sincere manner to shoulder our national and moral responsibilities. The spread of tribal conflicts throughout the country, bloodshed without taking into account the sanctity of the soul that God has forbidden, and the rising voices of hatred and racism, will inevitably lead our country to collapse, which we will not be part of and we will not remain silent or silent at all about everything that threatens the corporate existence of this country and its people.
I am watching and fully aware of the internal and external conspiracies/plans against the country, and I call from this forum/platform on all honourable patriots from different political parties, and revolutionary and communal forces, to unite and pay attention to the dangers facing the country, and to reach as a matter of urgency at an effective political solution to the current crises of the homeland.
It is high time now to listen to the voice of reason/wisdom, and reject all forms of the futile struggle in which no one will win except the enemies of this country and those who are wishing and waiting for all the evils to befall the country.
Dear Sudanese People…
Perhaps you have followed the decisions issued by the President of the Sovereign Council and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on the fourth of this July. These decisions that we worked to formulate together and through continuous consultation, in the spirit of one team, and with a sincere intention to proffer solutions to the national crisis, no matter what concessions it costs us. We will not cling to an authority that leads to shedding the blood of our people and destabilizing of our country.
Therefore, we have decided together to allow the forces of the revolution and the national political forces to negotiate and agree without our intervention in the military institution. We have sincerely decided to leave the issue of governance to the civilians, so that, the regular forces should devote themselves to performing their noble national tasks as stipulated in the Constitution and defined by the Law.
Therefore, from this standpoint, I call on all the revolutionary forces and the national political forces to expedite the proffering of urgent solutions that can lead to the formation of the Institutions of Transitional Governance.
Dear Sudanese people.
I will do my best to overcome any difficulties/challenges they may face in order to reach what will bring our country back to safety.
Dear Sudanese people…
I have spent the past weeks in Darfur and will return there again, to continue what I started there to implement and complete the peace agreement. I was shocked by the extent of the destruction left by the years of war and marginalization there, the extent of conflicts and disputes between the components of the region, the spread of poverty, the shortage of services as well as the absence of the State/ Rule of Law.
I have made great efforts that started yielding positive and promising results. I will continue in collaboration with my other colleagues/comrades the work we have embarked upon until every inch of our country enjoys security and stability, and until we end the rhetoric of racism and hatred once and for all.
I call on all the sons and daughters of the people of Sudan, to spread the culture of tolerance and acceptance of each other, raise the level of awareness among the people to understand and accept diversity in our country and the dare need to end all forms of discrimination.
All human beings are equal, and there is no difference between one section or another, or one tribe or another, or one race and another. We are all human beings. God created us from clay, and we will return to Him to reward us for our work, so He will reward those who do good and punish those who have wronged according to their sins.
In conclusion, I reiterate and from the position of my national and moral responsibility, my full commitment to work to protect the goals of the glorious December revolution and to protect the transitional period so that it leads to a real democratic transformation through free and fair elections.
I will also reiterate my commitment to work with the military and security institutions, And all the loyal patriots who are keen to abide by our constitutional duties and work together for the reformation of the military and security systems, to implement the Juba Agreement for the Peace in Sudan, including the provisions of security arrangements to reach a single professional army that reflects the plurality and diversity of Sudan, preserve the country’s security and sovereignty and repels all forms of aggression against it.
We also renew the call to the brothers who are still bearing arms to join the peace.
Long live Sudan free and independent, and may God protect our country and its people from all evils.
Original text in:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
بيان صحفي
أترحم أولاً على كل نفس أزهقت بغير حق في النيل الأزرق ودارفور وشرق السودان وفي الخرطوم وكل بقعة من بقاع هذا الوطن العزيز، أخاطبكم اليوم وبلادنا تمر بأزمات هي الأخطر في تاريخها الوطني الحديث. أزمات تُهدّد وحدتها وسلامتها وأمنها ونسيجها الاجتماعي، وتفرض علينا جميعاً وقفة أمينة وصادقة مع النفس، وتحملاً للمسؤولية الوطنية والأخلاقية. إن انتشار الصراعات القبلية على امتداد البلاد، وإراقة الدماء دون مراعاة حرمة النفس التي حرم الله المساس بها، وتعالي أصوات الكراهية والعنصرية، ستقود بلادنا حتماً للانهيار، وهو ما لن نكون جزءاً منه ولن نصمت أو نسكت إطلاقاً عن كل ما يهدد هذه البلاد وإنسانها. إنني أراقب وأعلم تماماً المخططات الداخلية والخارجية التي تتربص بالبلاد، وأدعو من هذا المنبر كل الوطنيين الشرفاء من قوى سياسية وثورية ومجتمعية، للتكاتف والانتباه للمخاطر التي تواجه البلاد، والوصول لحلول سياسية عاجلة وناجعة لأزمات الوطن الحالية، فقد حان وقت تحكيم صوت العقل، ونبذ كل أشكال الصراع غير المجدي الذي لن يربح فيه أحد غير أعداء هذا الوطن ومن يتربصون به شراً.
الشعب السوداني الكريم …
لعلكم تابعتم القرارات التي أصدرها السيد رئيس مجلس السيادة، والقائد العام للقوات المسلحة، الفريق أول ركن عبد الفتاح البرهان، في الرابع من يوليو الجاري، هذه القرارات التي عملنا على صياغتها معاً وعبر تشاور مستمر وبروح الفريق الواحد وبنية صادقة أن نوفر حلولاً للأزمة الوطنية مهما كلفنا من تنازلات، فنحن لن نتمسك بسلطة تؤدي لإراقة دماء شعبنا والعصف باستقرار بلادنا، لذا فقد قررنا سوياً إتاحة الفرصة لقوى الثورة والقوى السياسية الوطنية، أن يتحاوروا ويتوافقوا دون تدخل منا في المؤسسة العسكرية، وقررنا بصورة صادقة أن نترك أمر الحكم للمدنيين، وأن تتفرغ القوات النظامية لأداء مهامها الوطنية السامية المنصوص عليها في الدستور والقانون. لذا ومن هذا المنطلق فإنني أدعو كل قوى الثورة والقوى السياسية الوطنية للإسراع في الوصول لحلول عاجلة تؤدي لتشكيل مؤسسات الحكم الانتقالي.
الشعب السوداني الكريم ..
سأبذل قصارى جهدي لتذليل أي صعاب قد تواجههم في سبيل الوصول لما يخرج بلادنا لبر الأمان.
الشعب السوداني الكريم … لقد أمضيت الأسابيع الماضية في دارفور وسأعود إليها مرة أخرى، لمواصلة ما بدأته هناك و تنفيذ اتفاق السلام واستكماله. لقد صُدمت من حجم الدمار الذي خلّفته سنوات الحرب والتهميش هناك، وحجم الصراعات والخلافات بين مكونات الإقليم وانتشار الفقر وسوء الخدمات وغياب الدولة، وقد بذلت جهوداً كبيرة بدأت تظهر نتائجها بصورة مبشرة، لذا سأواصل مع رفاقي الآخرين، العمل الذي شرعنا فيه حتى ينعم كل شبر من بلادنا بالأمن والاستقرار، وحتى نُنهي خطابات العنصرية والكراهية بصورة نهائية، وأدعو كل أبناء وبنات هذا الشعب لنشر ثقافة التسامح وقبول الآخر والوعي بتعدّد بلادنا وتنوعها وضرورة إنهاء كل أشكال التمييز فيها، فكل البشر متساوون ولا فرق بين جهة وأخرى أو قبيلة وأخرى أو عرق وآخر. كلنا بشر خلقنا الله من طين وسنعود إليه ليجزينا عن عملنا فيجازي من أحسن خيراً ويعاقب من أساء بآثامه.
ختاماً إنني أجدد التأكيد ومن موقع مسؤوليتي الوطنية والأخلاقية، التزامي التام بالعمل من أجل حماية أهداف ثورة ديسمبر المجيدة، وحماية المرحلة الانتقالية حتى تقود لتحول ديمقراطي حقيقي وانتخابات حرة ونزيهة، كما أؤكد التزامي التام بالعمل مع الجيش السوداني، وكل المخلصين الوطنيين الحادبين للالتزام بمهامنا الدستورية، والعمل على إصلاح المنظومة العسكرية والأمنية، وتنفيذ اتفاق جوبا لسلام السودان، بما في ذلك بند الترتيبات الأمنية وصولاً لجيش واحد مهني يعكس تعدد السودان وتنوعه، ويحافظ على أمن البلاد وسيادتها ويصد كل أشكال العدوان ضدها، كما نُجدد الدعوة للإخوة حملة السلاح للانضمام إلى السلام.
عاش السودان حراً مستقلاً، وحفظ الله بلادنا وأهلها من كل سوء.
The UN Secretary-General 'unequivocally' condemned the reported strikes in the port of Odesa this Saturday. The attack took place less than 24 hours after the signing of the Black Sea agreements on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.
“Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative”, António Guterres said in a statement published by his spokesperson.
In Instabul, Russian and Ukrainian Ministers signed on Friday the Black Sea Grain Initiative to resume Ukranian grain exports via the Black Sea amid the ongoing war. The agreement is meant to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain.
The Russian invasion, which began on 24 February, has sparked record food and fuel prices, as well as supply chain issues, with mountains of grain stocks stuck in silos.
According to media reports, at least six explosions were heard in Odesa on Saturday morning, and so far is unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infraestructure was hit.
Landmark study disproves that a “chemical imbalance” causes depression—a scientifically meaningless theory that has misled consumers while driving up antidepressant sales to $15 billion a year.
In a long and carefully researched article, President CCHR International Jan Eastgate, “Lauds Study Disproving ‘Chemical Imbalance‘ causes Depression“, as demonstrating “it is a Myth“. The watchdog, even if at times provoking eyes wide shut on people [i.e.: a person refuses to see something in plain view, because of preconceived notions of what this something should look like], seems to have been right all along despite the controversies (who knows if provoked by so-called “Establishment” or “psycho-pharma industry”?).
In her report, Eastgate says that:
“CCHR has been exposing since the late 1980s: the chemical imbalance theory has always been a marketing campaign with no basis in science. The fact is, the chemical imbalance myth has helped drive $15.6 billion-a-year global antidepressant sales. In light of the study’s damning findings, media dubbed this the “$15 billion hustle.”
Christopher Lane, PhD, author of the blog Side Effects described the study as “a decisive blow to the serotonin hypothesis of depression.
Pill-prescribing psychiatrists have been aware for years that depression isn’t caused by low serotonin levels, despite continuing to prescribe the pills, Dr Jonathan Raskin, a chair of psychology from the State University of New York, told media.
In another article, Psychology Today called it “A Multi-Billion dollar Error” and reported that:
The hedge proved highly effective, even though, as David Healy explained in 2015 in “Serotonin and Depression,” in the BMJ, in practice, it entailed embracing or tacitly accepting “the marketing of a myth.” Through further oversimplification, a revised metaphor of a “chemical imbalance” took root as folk wisdom for multiple, dissimilar conditions listed in the DSM.
And so, this is the very uncomfortable moment for all those who ignored it or attempted to ridicule the warnings, in which the mental health watchdog that has been warning on the issue for at least 33 years, could tell them “I told you so”.
For accuracy, we reproduce in full her article to make it available also to our non-English readers in their language.
Note in [x] to be found at the end of the article.
CCHR Lauds Study Disproving “Chemical Imbalance” Causes Depression; It’s A Myth
By Jan Eastgate President CCHR International July 22, 2022
A landmark study [The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence] has debunked one of the biggest mental healthcare marketing campaigns in modern history—that a “chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression” requiring antidepressants to correct it. Scientists at the University College London reviewed 17 major studies published over several decades and found no convincing evidence to support the theory (1).
The research confirms what CCHR has been exposing since the late 1980s: the chemical imbalance theory has always been a marketing campaign with no basis in science. The fact is, the chemical imbalance myth has helped drive $15.6 billion-a-year global antidepressant sales. In light of the study’s damning findings, media dubbed this the “$15 billion hustle” (2).
Lead author Professor Joanna Moncrieff said:
“The popularity of the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants.”(3)
Although the theory dates back to the 1950s, it was used to launch a marketing “revolution” in mental health treatment with the release of the first SSRI antidepressant, fluoxetine (Prozac) in the late 1980s, and marketed in more than 90 countries. By 2005 more than 54 million people worldwide were taking antidepressants to treat a non-existent chemical imbalance (4). That figure nearly doubled to 100 million in 2016 (5).
In the U.S. today, an astonishing 45 million Americans of all ages take antidepressants, of which 2.1 million are aged 0-17, per statistics CCHR obtained from IQ Via data tracking.
The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, says the general public has been falsely led to believe that abnormalities in serotonin or other biochemical abnormalities are responsible for their moods. The idea that depression is the result of a chemical imbalance has influenced people’s decisions about whether to take or continue antidepressants and “may discourage people from discontinuing treatment, potentially leading to lifelong dependence on these drugs” (6).
The researchers warn [according to Jacqui Wise “’No convincing evidence’ that depression is caused by low serotonin levels, say study authors,” BMH, 2022]:
“In particular, the idea that antidepressants work in the same way as insulin for diabetes is completely misleading. We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not.” (7).
Christopher Lane, PhD, author of the blog Side Effects described the study as “a decisive blow to the serotonin hypothesis of depression” (8).
SSRI antidepressants, such as Prozac, Zoloft and Effexor, have no other proven way of working, Professor Moncrieff and colleagues said.
“Thousands suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.”
Pill-prescribing psychiatrists have been aware for years that depression isn’t caused by low serotonin levels, despite continuing to prescribe the pills, Dr Jonathan Raskin, a chair of psychology from State University of New York, told media (9).
The disinformation given to consumers is addressed in another study of which Prof. Moncrieff is also a researcher. Published in April 2022 in SSM-Mental Health and titled, “Is the chemical imbalance an ‘urban legend’?” researchers looked at highly cited reviews of the causes of depression, highly referenced papers that discussed depression and serotonin, and several textbooks published between 1990 and 2012. All of the textbooks examined and nearly all academic papers supported the chemical imbalance theory despite the lack of evidence: “The findings suggest that the serotonin theory was endorsed by the professional and academic community,” the authors wrote. “The analysis suggests that, despite protestations to the contrary, the profession bears some responsibility for the propagation of a theory that is not empirically supported and the mass antidepressant prescribing it has inspired (10).
This was in response to “leading psychiatrists suggesting the chemical imbalance theory was an ‘urban legend’ that was never taken seriously by the psychiatric profession.” However, the present evidence shows that “this position is patently false (11).
Since 1989, following the approval of Prozac in the U.S., CCHR has exposed the chemical imbalance lie and the disservice to consumers who were told this.
In 1991, CCHR helped instigate a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel hearing into the evidence that Prozac could induce violent and suicidal behavior (12). The finding of this had the potential to adversely impact the newly launched marketing of the idea that a chemical imbalance caused depression if the drugs prescribed to treat it could chemically induce violence. It was not surprising that the psychiatrists on the panel, steeped in conflicts of interests with antidepressant manufacturers, rejected the evidence.
In 1997, international psychopharmacologist expert, Prof. David Healy, a psychiatrist, debunked the imbalance concept in his book The Antidepressant Era. He said there was plenty of evidence to confirm that doctors used the idea of an underlying chemical imbalance or serotonin abnormality to justify the prescription of antidepressants (13). In his book Let Them Eat Prozac Healy said that even in the 1970s research concluded that whatever was wrong in depression it was not lowered serotonin (14).
The “chemical imbalance” theory potentially spawned other dangerous ideas such as that the “serotonin deficiency hypothesis” could be responsible for violent behavior—rather than the drugs used to treat it (15). Meanwhile, psychiatrists and colleagues continued to reject the evidence that antidepressants can induce violent adverse reactions in some people taking them, while wide usage of antidepressants has coincided with increased acts of senseless violence in schools and the community.
In 2001, Healy testified in a trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming, involving Donald Schell, 60, who had been taking Paxil (paroxetine) for just 48 hours when he shot and killed his wife, his daughter, his granddaughter and himself. Healy said his own studies showed that SSRIs could cause one in four healthy volunteers to become agitated, and in some cases suicidal. The manufacturer’s internal documents exposed in the trial showed the company was aware that a small number of people could become agitated or violent from Paxil. Despite this knowledge, Paxil packaging did not at the time include a warning about suicide, violence or aggression, which made the company liable, according to a jury verdict that awarded $6.4 million to Schell’s surviving family (16). The FDA later rectified this for all antidepressants.
CCHR’s online report How Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide is a resource detailing more than 30 studies and over 60 cases of mass shootings and acts of violence committed by those taking or withdrawing from prescribed psychotropic drugs. For example, the British Medical Journal published:
“Perpetrators of school shootings and similar events have often been reported to be users of antidepressants….” (17) .
The mounting evidence of these potential risks did nothing to dissuade the marketing of the chemical imbalance theory and the need for more people to get hooked into taking antidepressants or other psychotropics.
Consumer Fraud
“A direct-to-consumer advertisement from 2003 told consumers that ‘while the cause is not known, depression may be related to an imbalance of natural chemicals between nerve cells in the brain’ and that ‘prescription Zoloft works to correct this imbalance.’”
As the study published in SSM-Mental Health notes: “This message was propagated on popular websites,” and “best-selling books, such as Listening to Prozac” by Peter Kramer (18).
In 2004, CCHR wrote a series of 20 widely distributed booklets in 17 languages about different aspects of coercive psychiatry, each of which included an important notice to readers on the inside cover:
THE THEORY THAT MENTAL DISORDERS DERIVE FROM A ‘CHEMICAL IMBALANCE’ IN THE BRAIN IS UNPROVEN OPINION, NOT FACT. One prevailing psychiatric theory (key to psychotropic drug sales) is that mental disorders result from a chemical imbalance in the brain. As with its other theories, there is no biological or other evidence to prove this. Representative of a large group of medical and biochemistry experts, Elliot Valenstein, PhD, author of Blaming the Brain says:
“[T]here are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person’s brain.”
In a published study that same year, Jonathan Leo, Associate Professor of Anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences, advised patients:
“If a psychiatrist says you have a shortage of a chemical, ask for a blood test and watch the psychiatrist’s reaction. The number of people who believe that scientists have proven that depressed people have low serotonin is a glorious testament to the power of marketing” (19).
In 2005, there was continued national exposure of the chemical imbalance fraud, especially as by then, the FDA had done a turn-around on its 1991 hearing into Prozac and in October 2004 had ordered a black box on antidepressant packaging to warn the drugs could cause suicide.
A representative of People Magazine phoned CCHR for a comment and was urged to do as Jonathon Leo suggested—contact the American Psychiatric Association (APA) president to ask what test psychiatrists relied upon to confirm a chemical imbalance. People obtained the admission from Dr Steven Sharfstein, then APA president, that: “We do not have a clean-cut lab test” to determine a chemical imbalance in the brain (20).
Then followed Dr Mark Graff, Chair of Public Affairs of the APA telling CBS Studio 2 News that the theory was “probably drug industry derived.” “We don’t have tests because to do it, you’d probably have to take a chunk of brain out of someone—not a good idea,” he said (21).
At which point, APA could and should have put an end to the façade, but didn’t.
In December that year, professors and researchers Jonathon Leo and Jeffrey Lacasse’s article, “Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect Between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature,” published in PLoS Medicine, found repeated evidence, as Christopher Lane recently wrote:
“that the FDA had approved the marketing of SSRIs with two phrases still heavily in the subjunctive tense—that depression ‘may be due to a serotonin deficiency’ and that SSRI efficacy, ‘modestly’ outcompeting placebo, was ‘presumed to be linked to potentiation of serotonergic activity.’ However, the research itself could not identify the precise mechanism” (22) .
Lane further noted:
“The FDA had accepted aspirational language that the drugs ‘help to restore the brain’s chemical balance’ and ‘bring serotonin levels closer to normal,’ even though both claims were, and remain, scientifically meaningless.”
“There is no such thing as a scientifically established correct ‘balance’ of serotonin,” Lacasse and Leo cautioned (23).
In 2010, Andrew Scull, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, issued a scathing rebuke about the theory:
“Patients and their families learned to attribute mental illness to faulty brain biochemistry, defects of dopamine, or a shortage of serotonin. It was bio-babble as deeply misleading and unscientific as the psychobabble it replaced, but as marketing copy it was priceless” (24) .
There were psychiatrists that tried to distance themselves from the scandal. In 2011, Ronald Pies, editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times reacted to a report that CCHR, established by the Church of Scientology, had published about the chemical imbalance, and asserted that no well-informed psychiatrist had ever believed the chemical imbalance myth, calling it an “urban legend.” However, Moncrief and colleagues refute this, stating:
“Unfortunately, he continued this had not been widely understood, and ‘opponents of psychiatry mendaciously attribute the phrase to psychiatrists themselves.’ According to Pies, the theory had been propagated by the pharmaceutical industry alone, and should be ‘consigned to the dust-bin of ill-informed and malicious caricatures.’”
But that was not true.
In a 2005 APA patient leaflet, the association—representative of its membership—continued to parrot the theory, declaring, “antidepressants may be prescribed to correct imbalances in the levels of chemicals in the brain (25)”.
Pies continued to defend the profession but later amended his stance slightly: “He confessed that many psychiatrists do use the chemical imbalance explanation. He went on to claim, however, that psychiatrists don’t fully believe it, so they ‘feel uncomfortable and a little embarrassed’ when they do so,” the SSM-Mental Health study says.
Uncomfortable and embarrassed?
The priority concern should have been that millions of Americans were lied to and have continued to be led to this day to believe their emotional upheavals in life are chemically caused, thus blocking avenues that may offer real recovery.
Psychiatrists such as Australia’s Professors Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie continue to defend their turf, dismissing the London study as irrelevant. Hickie had once conducted a clinical trial that involved giving antidepressants to the elderly who were “at risk” of depression –drugging them before they were even confirmed to be “depressed (26)”.
In response to the London study, he defended:
“It’s been repeatedly shown that if you increase the concentration of serotonin or noradrenaline or dopamine, you observe an antidepressant effect.”
McGorry, who practiced pre-drugging teens and adults “at risk” of developing “psychosis” with antipsychotics, doesn’t want people to stop taking their antidepressants. He claimed, “There are many drugs that we have in medicine, across the board that are very effective, but we still are unclear exactly why they’re effective, and that’s a separate issue,” he said (27). [Emphasis added]
This smacks of more theories consumers are expected to believe—no-one knows how antidepressants “work,” but take them anyway.
CCHR has always stipulated no one should suddenly stop taking the drugs because of serious withdrawal effects and should withdraw only under medical supervision.
Dr Moncrieff says that telling patients their behavior is the result of a chemical imbalance conveys:
“the message that we are powerless to change ourselves or our situations. When things go wrong, it persuades us we need a pill to put them right. This approach may appeal to some people, and I am in no way disparaging those who chose to follow it. But it is important that everyone knows how little evidence there is to support it” (28).
In fact, the SSRI “miracle pills” are now acknowledged as being no more effective than a placebo. Studies show a 29-46% failure rate with antidepressants (29).
Yet, in tracking their usage in the U.S., CCHR provides statistics on its clearinghouse website and resource, www.cchrint.org. Take, for example, three of the top-selling antidepressants:
The number of Americans of all ages taking Prozac (including its generic version, fluoxetine) in the United States increased 27% between 2006 (4,451,617) and 2020 (5,655,422) (30).
Lexapro (including its generic version, escitalopram) usage increased 37% 2006 (5,957,349) and 2020 (8,170,580) (31).
For Zoloft (including its generic version, sertraline) there was a 61.6% increase between 2006 (5,843,138) and 2020 (9,447,275) (32).
It is not surprising given the level of dishonesty in this chemical imbalance scam that the World Health Organization and UN Human Rights agencies have criticized the failure of the biological model relied upon in the mental health field. On July 6th, 2020, Dr Dainius Pūras, a psychiatrist and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, addressed the UN Human Rights Council and advised that the dominance of the biomedical model has resulted in an overuse of medicalization and institutionalization. He warned against the exaggerated benefits of psychotropic medications and highlighted that their effectiveness is not comparable to other medicines that are essential for certain physical conditions, such as for example, antibiotics for bacterial infections. Further, “there are no biological markers for mental health conditions (33)”.
In February 2022, the UN Human Rights Commissioner reported that there is an overreliance on mental health drugs which are a “significant obstacle to the realization of the right to health (34)”.
The chemical imbalance lie has been one of the most significant obstacles.
(1) Joanna Moncrieff, Ruth E. Cooper, Tom Stockmann, Simone Amendola, Michael P. Hengartner and Mark A. Horowitz, “The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence,” Molecular Psychiatry, 20 July 2022, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
(7) Jacqui Wise “’No convincing evidence’ that depression is caused by low serotonin levels, say study authors,” BMH, 2022, https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1808
(10) Ang B., Horowitz M. & Moncrieff J., “Is the chemical imbalance an ‘urban legend’? An exploration of the status of the serotonin theory of depression in the academic literature,” SSM – Mental Health (2022), https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147405/
(17) CCHR’s report, Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence and Suicide, Los Angeles, 2018, p. 31,
(18) Op. cit., SSM – Mental Health (2022)
(19) Kelly Patricia O’Meara, Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill (Author House, 2006), pp. 47-48, citing Jonathan Leo, “The Biology of Mental Illness,” 2004
(20) People Magazine, 11 July 2005
(21) Interview of Dr. Mark Graff on CBS Studio 2, July 2005
(34) Annual report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, 49th session, 28 February–1 April 2022
Josep Borrell Fontelles - European Union, 2020
Copyright - Source: EC - Audiovisual Service
Russia: Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the expansion of the list of so-called “unfriendly States”
The European Union deplores the decision of the Russian government on 20 July 2022 to add five EU member states – Greece, Denmark, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia – to the list of countries for which measures in “Response to Unfriendly Actions of Foreign States” are applicable. The EU considers allegations regarding unfriendly actions as unfounded and unacceptable, urging Russia to revoke all such listings.
This decision is yet another step by Russia towards continued escalation of tensions with the European Union and its member states.
The earlier Decree establishing the list of so-called “unfriendly” states is incompatible with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. The EU calls on Russia to review its decision and fully respect the Vienna Convention.
The EU continues to call on Russia to immediately cease its aggression against Ukraine and all other violations of international law, including breaches of its own international obligations and commitments.
