Concluding a five-day visit to the region, UNICEF Deputy Director Ted Chaiban noted that fighting has reached new heights and created the worst humanitarian crisis there since 2003.
He highlighted growing concerns for safeguarding children’s rights and protection of civilians as the situation worsens.
“Children are being killed, maimed, abducted, and recruited by armed groups with verified grave violations the highest ever; their rights to education and a safe childhood have been shattered,” he said.
UNICEF warned that the all-time high of 7.2 million internally displaced persons in eastern DRC could further spiral as armed groups take control of ever more territory and as fighting spreads.
These developments are occurring at the same time as the UN peacekeeping mission begins to depart from the country.
“We are seeing growing numbers of children killed and wounded with the recent shift to the use of heavier and sophisticated arms,” Mr. Chaiban said.
While in the region, he met with Congolese authorities and visited sites hosting thousands of displaced families.
“The only way to reduce this suffering is to double down on efforts by regional actors and the international community to negotiate a political solution to the conflict, including the Luanda process, Nairobi dialogue and other diplomatic efforts,” he said.
Rights experts urge Iran to revoke death sentence against activist
UN-appointed human rights experts on Monday urged Iran to revoke the death sentence against an anti-corruption activist.
Mahmoud Mehrabi was convicted on charges of “corruption on Earth”, a term they said “refers to a broad range of offences, including blasphemy and ‘crimes’ relating to Islamic morals”.
He was rearrested on 16 March 2023 in connection with his online activism on justice and corruption.
He later faced additional charges, including propaganda against the state, incitement of police and military forces to disobedience, incitement to war, crimes against national security and insulting the founder and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“It is alarming that Iran’s punishments for freedom of expression include the death penalty or long-term prison sentences,” the experts said, noting that local rapper Tomaj Salehi also received the death penalty two weeks ago.
They noted that at least five people were sentenced to death in connection with nationwide protests in 2022 against the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. At least 15 others are at imminent risk.
“We urge Iranian authorities to amend the Constitution and the penal code to prohibit executions and commute all death sentences,” they said.
The statement was issued by Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran; Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The experts receive their mandates from the UN Human Rights Council. They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work.
A woman displaced by gang violence is now living in a former theatre in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Humanitarians continue support to Haitians affected by gang violence
Aid organisations continue to provide emergency assistance to thousands of people across Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, amid ongoing gang activity, UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, reported on Monday.
OCHA warned that some residents are extremely vulnerable, with armed groups continuing to perpetrate coordinated attacks.
On Friday, the commune of Gressier, south of Port-au-Prince, was attacked and several houses set on fire, forcing an unknown number of people to flee.
Humanitarian partners are conducting assessments both in Gressier and nearby areas where people fled.
Currently, some 362,000 people are displaced in Haiti, half of them children, with 160,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
During the period from 8 March through 9 April, some 95,000 people fled the capital, 60 per cent of them to the southern departments, according to UN migration agency IOM.
Humanitarians remain steadfast in their commitment to assist the Haitian people. Since March, the World Food Programme (WFP) has helped more than 800,000 people nationwide through its school feeding, emergency and resilience programmes.
WFP has also distributed more than 825,000 meals to over 95,000 displaced people in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan zone.
A broad coalition of partners from across Europe have joined forces to launch the second year of the #PlantHealth4Life campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the deep links between plant health and our daily lives. The objective? Stimulate citizen action to protect plant health. Belgium, through the Federal Public Service of Public Health, Safety of the Food Chain and Environment (FPS SPSCAE), is once again participating in the campaign led by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission (EC) and 21 other European countries.
Plants make up 80% of the food we eat and clean the air we breathe. But that’s not all: healthy plants mean good agricultural yields, which affects the availability and price of food for consumers. Climate change and human activities such as trade and travel are putting a lot of pressure on plants; The spread of pests and plant diseases can have disastrous economic and environmental consequences.
Think of Ralstonia solanacearum, a bacterium that puts potato production at risk, which represents more than 100,000 hectares of agricultural land in Belgium. Similarly, fruit flies (Bactrocera dorsalis) have a major impact on fruit and vegetable production and the trade chain, with potential losses amounting to €10 billion per year in the European Union.
Tobin Robinson, Head of EFSA’s PLANT HEALTH Unit, who will present the campaign at the “Plant Health Without Borders” symposium organised today in Brussels by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, said:
” Plant health has an impact not only on the environment, the economy and the European food chain, but also on our present and future – by preserving plant health, we protect life. It is therefore a source of pride to see how Europeans are engaged in this area, as evidenced by the unprecedented participation of Member States in the #PlantHealth4Life campaign,”
“Enlightened European citizens, armed with accurate information on plant health, can help protect and preserve our biodiversity” said Claire Bury, Deputy Director-General for Food Sustainability at DG SANTÉ. “Plant health is a priority for the European Commission under the One Health approach. By informing citizens about the importance of not importing pests into the European Union and by giving them the knowledge to take appropriate action, we can make a difference.»
Every European can do something about it!
The actions of every European are essential to keep plants healthy. Visit the #PlantHealth4Life campaign website and find out how you can keep plants healthy. You will find resources available in all EU languages, including press materials, social media posts to share on your channels and videos.
You may find them useful, especially if you are:
a curious traveler who loves to explore the world and nature;
a gardener who grows and cares for his vegetables, flowers and trees at home, in his garden or on his balcony;
a parent, concerned about the food their children eat, and eager to protect farming communities, the environment, and biodiversity for future generations.
This year offers many opportunities to participate in the campaign, which will tour trade fairs, exhibitions and schools in the participating countries. Check the national page of the campaign website to see what’s happening in your country, and stay tuned for more information as it becomes available!
A multi-country campaign
#PlantHealth4Life is a multi-year, multi-country campaign designed at the request of the European Commission and based on an in-depth analysis of perceptions and behaviours related to plant health across the European Union, in which Belgium is participating for the second year in a row. This year’s campaign involves 21 Member States and one candidate country, doubling the reach of the previous year: Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Montenegro.
Last weekend, Rai 3, a television channel of Italy’s national broadcasting service, aired a programme on Italy’s failure to fulfil its obligations as a member of the European Union. How adherent a member state is to these obligations is measured by the number of infringement proceedings taken against it by the European Commission for perceived breaches of Treaty commitments. Widely perceived as one of the most pro-European states, comparative statistics of infringement proceedings taken by the Commission against member states over time show that Italy has a markedly poor record in respecting EU law.
Not surprisingly, the discrimination against “Lettori”, the non-national teaching staff in Italian universities, was addressed in the Rai 3 programme. The discrimination represents the longest-running breach of the parity of treatment provision of the Treaty in the history of the EU. Further, it is newsworthy in that last July the Commission took the decision to refer yet another infringement case against Italy to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). A series of articles in The European Times traces the legal history of the Lettori and their campaign against the discrimination they have suffered from the first of the Allué rulings in 1989 to the decision of the College of Commissioners to refer the latest infringement proceedings against Italy to the CJEU in July of last year.
John Gilbert is National Lettori Coordinator for FLC CGII, Italy’s largest trade union. Interviewed by Rai 3 at the University of Florence, where he teaches, he briefly outlined the background to the discrimination case under scrutiny. In the line of litigation which leads from the Allué ruling of 1989 to the pending infringement case against Italy, the Lettori have won 4 cases before the CJEU on the issue of parity of treatment with their Italian colleagues. This statistic most probably shocked the Rai audience, given the general perception that sentences of the CJEU are final and definitive. The duration of the litigation has meant that many Lettori have retired without ever having worked under the non-discriminatory conditions to which the parity of treatment provision of the Treaty entitles them. Further, the discrimination is also in effect a gender-based discrimination: 80% of the 1,500 Lettori who teach or have taught before retirement in the Italian universities are women, Mr. Gilbert pointed out.
That FLC CGIL, the largest trade union in the country, would call on the European Commission to prosecute Italy for its discriminatory treatment of the non-national Lettori was obviously a persuasive point for an audience of Italian viewers. Mr. Gilbert referred to the seven recent representations to Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, in favour of the Lettori. In addition to these representations, and together with Asso.CEL.L, an official complainant in the Commission’s infringement proceedings against Italy, FLC CGIL conducted a national Census of Lettori, which documented to the commission‘s satisfaction the prevalence of discrimination against Lettori in the Italian universities and was influential in the opening of the present infringement proceedings.
The coverage of the Lettori case by RAI, the official national broadcaster, continues the recent interest shown in the Lettori case by the Italian media. The one-day FLC CGIL strike of June 2023 in campuses across Italy was well covered in sympathetic local Italian media, with television coverage of the protests in Florence. Padova, and Sassari. The national broadcaster was particularly sympathetic to the Lettori case, stressing their high qualifications and the fundamental teaching role the Lettori play in the Italian universities. As an investigative, current-affairs programme, the conclusions drawn will carry weight with public opinion. In particular, Rai 3 was scathing that a discrimination which could eventually result in the imposition of heavy fines on Italy should have been allowed to continue for decades in defiance of CJEU sentences.
As yet, no date has been set for the hearing in the Commission’s case against Italy, listed in the CJEU register as Case C-519/23. Beyond the obvious interest shown in Italy, the case is being closely followed across Europe, especially by scholars of EU law. This is because the history of the case and the issues at stake go to the very heart of the efficacy of the infringement proceedings as a means to enforce EU law. For a better understanding of these undoubtedly complex issues and their important implications for the administration of EU justice, it is instructive to recall the 2006 enforcement ruling of the CJEU in Case C-119/04. It was for non-implementation of this ruling that the Commission took the infringement case which is now pending before the Court.
In Case C-119/04, the Commission recommended the imposition of daily fines of €309.750 on Italy for its continuing discrimination against Lettori. Italy enacted a last-minute law in March 2004, the provisions of which the CJEU held could remedy the discrimination. In the absence of evidence in the depositions as to whether this law had been properly implemented, the Court declined to fine Italy. That the Commission opened follow-on infringement proceedings clearly shows that it takes the view that the provisions of the March 2004 law were never subsequently correctly implemented.
The Lettori case then gives rise to a number of important considerations in relation to the conduct of infringement proceedings:
1. The Treaty provisions for infringement proceedings: The Treaty of Rome empowered the Commission to take infringement proceedings against member states for perceived violation of Treaty obligations. Later, a provision of the Treaty of Maastricht further empowered the Commission to take enforcement proceedings for non-implementation of infringement rulings and gave the CJEU the power to impose fines for non-compliance. Clearly, then the enforcement proceedings were introduced to bring closure. The Lettori case shows they have failed to do so.
2. Evidence: In Case C-119/04 the judges pointedly noted that there was no evidence from the Lettori in the Commission depositions to counter Italy’s claims that the March 2004 law had been correctly implemented. Had this evidence been made available to the Court, the case would obviously have had a very different outcome. Safeguards are needed to ensure that complainants, on whose behalf the Commission takes infringement proceedings, can check and respond to the deposition evidence of member states.
3.The confidentiality requirement. Though infringement proceedings are taken on behalf of complainants, the complainants are not technically party to the proceedings, and exchanges between the Commission and the member state remain confidential. In fairness to the Commission, it has gathered ample documentation from the Lettori complainants over the course of the present proceedings. However, under present arrangements, complainants remain in the dark as to a member state’s response to their submissions. At “La Sapienza” University of Rome, for example, the Commission has been informed that a contract deemed discriminatory in a 2001 ruling of the CJEU remains in force today. Lettori, in service for decades, can receive the same pay as colleagues hired years after the Allué rulings in defiance of the same 2001 judgement. Access to a member state’s counterarguments in situations like these would be instructive and helpful for complainants.
4.Retrospective member state legislation to interpret CJEU rulings
Following on the ruling in Case C-119/04 and the Court’s acceptance that the terms of the Italian law of March 2004 could remedy the discrimination, local Italian courts routinely awarded Lettori plaintiffs uninterrupted settlements for reconstructions of career from the date of first employment. But, in December 2010 Italy enacted the Gelmini Law, a law which purported to provide an authentic interpretation of the March 2004 law, and by implication the attendant ruling of the CJEU.
Gelmini limits the full reconstruction of career due to Lettori to the year 1995-a limit nowhere prescribed in the CJEU ruling, or in the March 2004 law. At variance with rulings of the local Italian judiciary, it is also at variance with recent decisions of some Italian universities, such as Milan and Tor Vergata, which have awarded their Lettori uninterrupted reconstructions of career.
The point at stake here is obvious and does not need to be overlaboured. That a member state could be allowed to retrospectively interpret legislation on which the CJEU has already ruled, and to its own advantage, would set a precedent with very serious implications for the rule of law in the EU.
Kurt Rollin is Asso.CEL.L representative for retired Lettori. Commenting on the Rai 3 programme and the pending CJEU case against Italy, Mr. Rollin said:
“The intransigence of the Italian state has drawn the Lettori into a legal quagmire for over four decades. Despite recourse to all the available means for redress, Italy, with apparent impunity, has withheld our Treaty right to parity of treatment. It is heartening that RAI, Italy’s national broadcaster, and FLC CGIL, Italy’s largest trade union, have come out so clearly in favour of the non-national Lettori. Hopefully, the pending infringement case before the CJEU will deliver an overdue justice for our category.”
KingNewsWire. Professor Afe Adogame led Princeton Theological Seminary students on a tour of L. Ron Hubbard’s former residence in Bay Head, NJ, where Hubbard wrote “Dianetics.” The visit, enriched by historical insights from Mayor William Curtis, highlighted Hubbard’s impact and the home’s significance as a historic site.
In the community of Bay Head, New Jersey, a group of students, from Princeton Theological Seminary set out on an insightful tour through history guided by Professor Afe Adogame, a renowned expert in the exploration of emerging religious movements. This excursion took place before the commemoration of the release of “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” a significant publication, by L. Ron Hubbard, the esteemed American writer and founder of Scientology.
The famous L. Ron Hubbard Residence, where Mr. Hubbard penned his New York Times bestselling book, was the setting for this learning experience. This residence, currently recognized on the National Register of Historic Places represents a period in Mr. Hubbard’s life and the wider story of religious movements, in America.
Professor Adogame, who earned a doctorate in the history of religions from the University of Bayreuth in Germany is presently teaching Religion and Society at Princeton. Additionally as associate professor of World Christianity and religious studies, and director international at School of Divinity, New College, at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. His scholarly path and administrative role have positioned him as a figure, in religious studies.
Throughout the tour students learned about Mr. Hubbard’s impact, on religious thinking and the historical background surrounding his endeavors. The house, where Mr. Hubbard resided between September 1949 and April 1950 stands as the sole property, in Bay Head recognized so far by the U.S. Department of the Interior for its historical importance.
The group was welcomed by Bay Head’s Mayor William Curtis, who recently honored Hubbard posthumously with the first-ever Key to the City. Mayor Curtis shared insights into the city’s seafaring heritage and its community’s warmth and friendliness, which he described as the essence of Bay Head’s uniqueness.
The visit also highlighted the longstanding ties between the town and Princeton Theological Seminary, recalling how seminary leaders helped establish the Bay Head Chapel, a local landmark.
Reflecting on the experience, Professor Adogame praised Hubbard’s exceptional qualities, noting his charisma and profound impact on addressing existential and spiritual issues. “Visiting Hubbard’s residence not only connects us with a pivotal moment in religious history but also enriches our understanding of the complex dynamics that shape spiritual movements,” said Adogame.
The L. Ron Hubbard Residence continues to offer tours, attracting visitors keen to trace Hubbard’s steps and explore the origins of Scientology. As the 74th anniversary of “Dianetics” just occurred, the residence remains a pivotal site for those interested in the intersections of religion, history, and culture.
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is now translated into over 50 languages and with over 22 million copies in the hands of readers in 160 countries.
Born on March 13th, 1911, Mr. Hubbard originally took occupancy of the Bay Head house in the first week of September 1949 and compiled 12 years of independent research into the Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health book. It was additionally in New Jersey that he trained the first Dianetics practitioners. Then, too, plans were laid at the Bay Head house for the first Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation and thus the framework of a movement now spanning better than 150 nations. L. Ron Hubbard’s Bay Head, New Jersey, home is where the saga of Dianetics began.
“We’re not receiving any aid, the crossing area has ongoing military operations and is an active war zone,” said Scott Anderson, from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in a post on X. “We are hearing continued bombardments in this area throughout the day. No fuel or aid has entered into the Gaza Strip and this is disastrous for the humanitarian response.”
The development comes amid deepening international concerns including from the UN Secretary-General about a full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah, fuelled by the closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing following a deadly rocket attack claimed by Hamas last weekend, and the seizure of Rafah crossing on Tuesday by Israeli forces, dashing ceasefire hopes.
In addition to concerns over dwindling supplies of fuel, food and other basic necessities in Gaza, UN humanitarians reported that tens of thousands of people in Rafah have been uprooted once more by Israeli evacuation orders.
“Every day we are displaced. Every hour we are displaced,” said Rafah resident Salah Rajab Gazan speaking to UN News inside the enclave. “We expected that the deal would be reached and we’d go [back] to Gaza City. But, what we expected did not happen, and the opposite happened.”
Gaza ‘has no future’
In another interview with our Arabic service correspondent there, a former resident of Jabalia camp in northern Gaza described his exhaustion and loss after seven months of war which had claimed the lives of his children.
“I can’t find a mattress to sleep on,” he said. “I used to have a house and floors. I am tired of life because there is no life in Gaza. Gaza has no future.”
Guterres concern
In a bid to secure an end to the war and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a direct appeal to the Government of Israel late Tuesday “to stop any escalation and engage constructively in the ongoing diplomatic talks”.
Posting on X late on Tuesday, the UN chief said that he was “disturbed and distressed” by the Israeli Defense Forces’ renewed military activity in Rafah, just as he called on Hamas leaders and Israel “to show political courage” and secure a ceasefire.
“After more than 1,100 Israelis killed in the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October, after more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, haven’t we seen enough?” Mr. Guterres asked.
Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is gripped by insecurity due to gang violence and now UNHAS, which is managed by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is the only option for humanitarian workers to travel safely in and out of the city and for critical equipment and relief aid to be transported and distributed within the country.
Robine JNBaptise, who works for UNHAS, and Christine Blais, who is employed by Construction Helicopters, the aviation company operating the aircraft, spoke to UN News about their experiences of working in a high-conflict zone.
Robine JNBaptise: We have two aircraft here in Haiti – a helicopter that holds about 19 people or can carry two tonnes or cargo and a fixed-wing jet 45 that carries nine people. I am an aviation and booking assistant, so am responsible for getting people on and off the aircraft. I also assist with administration and securing operating permits.
Christine Blais: I have served as a flight mechanic and crew chief flying missions around Haiti. On any given day, we would fly between two to six hours. Our aircraft are now based in Cap Haitien, but we have flown out of Turks and Caicos as well as the Dominican Republic.
Robine JNBaptise: It’s a stressful job, but luckily for me, I perform very well under pressure. On some days, we help up to 100 people, mainly [non-governmental organisation] NGO workers, but also UN staff. We are moving people to a safer part of the country, but also bringing essential staff back to Port-au-Prince. We have relocated some 200 people to destinations outside Haiti, so at the end of the day, it’s a rewarding job.
Christine Blais: When we land in Port-au-Prince, we keep the time on the ground to a minimum in order to mitigate the risks. We can land, load and take off within two to five minutes, which is very fast. We have a very good ground crew who keep us safe. In a high-conflict zone, we have to remain flexible at all times whilst responding to the needs of the UN.
A helicopter flies over an urban location in Haiti.
Robine JNBaptise: One of the big challenges we face is overflying Port-au-Prince, where gangs are fighting each other or with the police. There is always the danger that one of our aircraft gets hit by a stray bullet, although I don’t think that our aircraft are being intentionally targeted.
Christine Blais: Colleagues of mine were at the international airport when there was a security breach. It was definitely a dangerous and scary moment for them as shots were being fired as they were working on an aircraft. A commercial plane, which was on the ground at the time, was hit.
Robine JNBaptise: The international airport closed for some weeks, so we established a landing zone elsewhere. One big concern is that gangs could move into this area and take over the landing zone which would stop our operations.
This can be a scary job, but we are now used to the dangers and stress, although we make sure not to take risks. I have to keep in mind that anything can happen to me or the aircraft.
Christine Blais: In high-conflict zones, there are always unknowns, and we have to be aware of the threats at all times. I rely a lot on our team and understand that if something were to happen, you just have to deal with it as it comes.
A passenger arrives on an UNHAS helicopter.
Robine JNBaptise: The service we are providing is really lifesaving, so if our landing zones were shut down, it would be disastrous. At UNHAS, we always need to remind people that we are a humanitarian service and that we take no sides. Our role is to transport humanitarian workers and relief aid in order to help people in crisis.
I have never thought of leaving the country. If I leave, then who is there to stay? As a Haitian and a humanitarian worker, I want to be here and help to get the country back to where it once was.
At some point, the situation is going to improve because when we reach rock bottom, there’s nowhere else to go except up. This is my home, and I want to be part of a brighter future for Haiti.
Every day, more than 200 Belgians are diagnosed with cancer. It is for them and to support research into the disease that many organizations, volunteers and supporters have been involved for many years. The foundations were laid 100 years ago with the founding of the Belgian National Cancer League. From there the Cancer Foundation and ‘Kom op tegen Kanker’ grew. To honor their commitment and support all those who fight cancer every day, the Royal Mint of Belgium is issuing a commemorative coin worth 2 euros.
“With commemorative coins, we always honor people, events and organizations that have had a significant impact on our country and its people. This commemorative coin is no different. Because for people facing a cancer diagnosis, it seems like the world suddenly stops spinning. These are our doctors, our researchers, but also thousands of volunteers and supporters who prove to them every day that they are not alone. It is for them that the Royal Mint of Belgium is launching this commemorative coin. »
Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, responsible for Coordinating the fight against fraud and the National Lottery
Minister Van Peteghem and Currency Commissioner Giovanni Van de Velde presented the commemorative coin at the closing show of the 1000 km ‘Kom op tegen Kanker’. Like every year, the minister traveled the 1000 km himself, traditionally with a team from his hometown, De Pinte. A team founded around ten years ago in tribute to two people and their fight against cancer. It’s stories like this that inspire thousands of people to get on their bikes every year. For them too, this commemorative coin is a sincere thank you.
Two versions, directly available
This latest 2 euro coin from 2024 is offered to you in Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) and in a Proof version. The obverse of the coin features a stylized rainbow at the top, a symbol of hope for a world without cancer, with the mention of the country and the year BE 2024. In the center is the representation of a heartbeat in the form of an awareness ribbon, often pinned to show our solidarity with patients. At the bottom, the bilingual inscription Fight against cancer – Strijd tegen kanker, surrounded by the initials IB of the designer Iris Bruijns, the mark of the commissioner of currencies (an Erlenmeyer flask with a star) and the mark of the Mint Royal Netherlands (the staff of Mercury). As usual, this coincard is available in two languages.
The Proof version comes in a luxury case. Mintage is limited to a maximum of 125,000 and 5,000 coins, respectively. Both versions are also legal tender in all Eurozone countries. By the end of the year, 2 million copies of the coin will also be put into circulation.
About the Royal Mint of Belgium The Royal Mint of Belgium is responsible for ordering Belgian circulation coins, design, quality control and combating counterfeiting. The Royal Mint also represents the Belgian State at the international level. Since the beginning of 2018, the minting and marketing of commemorative coins and medals has been assigned to the Royal Netherlands Mint. The King of the Belgians remains the issuing authority.
The official issues ordered by the Royal Mint of Belgium bear the mark of the Belgian Mint Commissioner, Giovanni Van de Velde, and the mark of the Royal Mint of the Netherlands. The Royal Netherlands Mint is one of the world’s top 5 manufacturers of circulation coins, commemorative coins and collector’s coins. Belgian commemorative coins are available via http://www.herdenkingsmunten.be/fr/.
The modern culturally diversified environment requires information to be shared and understood accurately to avoid misunderstandings. While some individuals speak a language fluently as their mother tongue, others need interpretation to understand what’s being communicated.
Unfortunately, interpreters aren’t the same. Getting better results requires selecting professional consecutive interpreting services to help prevent language barriers that hinder seamless communication, creating costly and undesired outcomes.
If you want to host an event that’s more interactive and engaging, consecutive interpretation does the magic. With this technique, the trained interpreter attentively listens to the speaker through note-taking and translates the message accurately to the audience. There are two types of consecutive interpretations including:
Long consecutive: It’s mainly used for more official engagements that can last up to 5-10 minutes or longer and usually involves taking notes to capture the meaning.
Short consecutive: It takes a more casual approach because the interpretation is limited to fragments of a sentence at a time. Unlike its counterpart, long consecutive, the note-taking technique isn’t used by the interpreter.
Consecutive interpreting is used widely for legal proceedings like arbitrations and hearings where the interpreter listens to the witness and translates.
Benefits of professional consecutive interpretation services
Any interpretation mode is necessary because it enables people speaking in different languages to understand each other. However, depending on the outcome of the speech, consecutive interpreting has more benefits including:
1. More reliable translations
Even if you’re an experienced interpreter, delivering a high-quality simultaneous translation can be challenging. Rushing through the process gives you little time to get the suitable words for effective translation.
Professional consecutive interpreting allows the interpreter to pay more attention to the subject including body language. Plus, there’s enough time to sufficiently prepare and deliver a more reliable and accurate outcome.
2. Increased audience engagement
Sometimes, listening to one person speaking can be boring. In many cases, the audience will lose focus, and it can get worse especially when two people speak simultaneously. However, allowing more time between the speech and translation can significantly enhance the attention levels of your listeners.
In addition, your audience will likely understand the topic better since they can easily compare what’s spoken in both languages.
3. No specialized tools required
In many events like conferences, speakers and the audience use different languages. This may require the organiser to use devices that support parallel communication. Luckily, consecutive interpretation sessions do not need special audio or electronic equipment, making them more affordable.
Instead, the interpreter relies on their language mastery and interpersonal skills. Moreover, the spare time allows for note-taking and reformulating the content for better outcomes.
4. It’s less demanding
Language interpretation usually comes with increased costs. That’s because at least two interpreters may be required for each language. Fortunately, only one consecutive interpreter is enough for a small seminar or training that lasts a few hours, which makes it less costly.
Conclusion
Interpretation is a complex process that helps to bridge language gaps. When done in real-time in a cross-cultural setup, it can be even more challenging. That’s why organisations must engage professional interpreters to ensure the audience receives accurate and reliable interpretation.
The debate is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in collaboration with the European political parties and the European Parliament.
EBU has announced the lead candidates for the Commission presidency who have confirmed their presence at the debate on 23 May:
The candidates will speak in English, and interpretation will be provided in 24 languages.
The debate will be moderated by Martin Řezníček (Czech TV) and Annelies Beck (VRT, Belgium).
The five candidates will debate on several key topics. Questions will be asked by the audience in the plenary chamber, by viewers watching from events organised by Parliament’s Liaison Offices in EU member states, submitted via social media, and by the two moderators. Candidates will also face one-on-one questioning by the moderators in so-called “Spotlight” segments, a new feature in the Eurovision Debate 2024.
Special events to watch the debate live will be organised across the EU by public service media in cooperation with European Parliament Liaison Offices in member states.
On 16 May, media are also invited to attend a draw organised by EBU in the European Parliament in Brussels (Agora TV studio, next to 3rd floor VoxBox, Spinelli building, 16.00). The draw will determine the position of the candidates on the stage for the debate, the first speaker on each topic, and the order of the ‘spotlight’ interviews.
The topics for the debate and an explanation of the rules will also be announced by EBU on 16 May.
How to follow the Eurovision Debate
The programme on 23 May will be broadcast on EbS and EBU with the on-screen nametags of the participants and other essential graphic elements. A clean version of the debate will be available on EbS+ but only for news edits, not for full live broadcast. It will also be streamed on Parliament’s website (Multimedia Centre) and accessible from the EBU distribution platforms. No independent filming of the debate from the chamber will be allowed.
Parliament’s Multimedia Centre will also provide a feed with International Sign Language and velotype (live transcript in English), as well as subtitled versions in the official EU languages on demand once the debate is over. These files will be delivered before 19:00 CET. If you are interested in this format please write to [email protected].
The candidates will arrive at the protocol entrance of the European Parliament at approximately 12:45, when the media can record their doorsteps. Press points will be organised close to the Hemicycle after the event. Both the doorsteps and the press points will be live on EbS and the Multimedia Centre.
Accreditation and access for the Eurovision Debate
All EU inter-institutional accredited media and EP annual media badge holders will have access to Parliament for the debate upon presentation of their badges, without having to request separate accreditation.
All other journalists wishing to attend the debate will have to submit a request for short-term media access via the online accreditation system (JOUREG). If they already have an EP media badge, it will be activated remotely once approved in the registrations portal. If they are not in possession of an EP media badge, once their request is approved in JOUREG, journalists will be able to collect it from the Accreditation Centre in front of Parliament (Esplanade Solidarność, office 01F035).
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More than 4000 attended the European Psychiatric Congress 2024 in Budapest. New research was presented and discussed. Photo: THIX Photo.
Tens of thousands of Europeans are every month seeking advice on how to discontinue or get off antidepressants outside their regular health services. That’s because doctors are not trained in how to deprescribe antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs research has found. The research suggest that tapering (slowly stopping) has to be done gradually, and at a rate that the individual user can tolerate, and reductions should be made by smaller and smaller amounts. It can take months and even years to get fully off the drugs.
At large international psychiatric congresses it for years has been common to present new studies on psychiatric drugs and discuss why and when to prescribe medications. At this year’s European Psychiatric Congress that was recently held in Budapest, Hungary a so-called State of the Art lecture set a new trend looking at how to properly discontinue or deprescribe psychotropic drugs.
An expert, Dr. Mark Horowitz a Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry at the National Health Service (NHS) in England had been given the task to address the necessary skills and guidelines to supported reduction or discontinuation of psychopharmacological treatment.
The backdrop to this is a scene in which many people cannot come off common antidepressants in the way the official medical guidelines recommend. Studies in Holland found that only some 7% of people could stop in this way and in England they found that 40% of people could stop in this way however with quite pronounced withdrawal effects.
Part of the problem is that doctors often believe that the withdrawal effects are “brief and mild”. And they do not know that withdrawal symptoms may include anxiety, depressed mood, and insomnia. The result is that they often tell their patients using antidepressants that there shouldn’t be a problem with coming off the antidepressant drug, and when the patients do report withdrawal effects they believe these to be the original underlying condition. A very large number of persons are due to this problem diagnosed as having a relapse (a return of someone’s underlying condition) and are being put back on antidepressants, sometimes for years or decades, or even lifelong.
Doctor’s advice unhelpful
The consequence of this is that many people who really want to get off the antidepressants leave their regular healthcare system and seek advice on peer support forums on how to come off their medications. Two peer support websites in English alone has some 900.000 hits a month, and almost half of them are from Europe.
There’s 180,000 people on these sort of websites. The research team of Dr Mark Horowitz surveyed 1,300 of them and found that three quarters of them considered their doctor’s advice was unhelpful. The story of many of them was similar. The most common tapering period that they had been recommended was 2 weeks and 4 weeks exactly like the guidelines of the public agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England responsible for guidance, NICE, recommended, until it was updated recently.
Getting off antidepressants despite the doctors’ reassurances was a nightmare for many. Stories echo each other that the effects were so horrendous that the user had to get back on the antidepressant or otherwise would end up in a terrible state. The result is as many users expressed that “I’ve lost faith in my doctor.”
The underlying problem that has often been neglected is that years of use causes adaptation to the antidepressant drug and this adaptation persists for longer than it takes the drug to be eliminated from the body. That’s what causes withdrawal effects.
“When you stop the drug, let’s say months or years after the patient had been started on drug treatment following a stressful period in their life, the antidepressant is metabolized by the liver and kidneys in a few days or weeks. But what doesn’t change in a few days or weeks is the residual changes to the serotonin receptors and other systems downstream of this,” Dr. Horowitz explains.
In studies on humans, there are changes to the serotonergic system that persists for up to four years after the antidepressants are stopped.
The longer the harder
And the research indicates that the longer people are on the antidepressants, the harder it is to stop and the more severe the withdrawal effects.
For people who are on antidepressants for more than three years, in surveys two thirds are reporting withdrawal symptoms and half of those people are reporting symptoms that are moderately severe or severe.
“You can see clearly the more you’re adapted to a drug, the more difficult it is to stop it,” Dr Mark Horowitz explains.
And it is common as Dr Horowitz noted, “We have conducted a survey, of a group of people who are accessing therapy in the National Health Service (NHS) of England, two-fifths of them who have been on antidepressants have tried to stop and been unable to do so, and that correlated strongly with withdrawal effects.”
To minimize the risk of withdrawal effects, which more than half will experience using the commonly recommended procedures, certain principles about tapering antidepressants have to be known. The research indicates that the best approach to tapering is to perform it gradually (over months or sometimes years), and at a rate that the individual user can tolerate. Furthermore, it has to be done in smaller and smaller amounts.
Why tapering gradually
Dr Horowitz explained how to taper psychiatric drugs properly. Photo: THIX Photo.
Research using PET scanning on persons using different doses of antidepressants showed that the inhibition of the serotonin transporter doesn’t occur as a linear line, but according to a hyperbolic curve. This follows a pharmacological principle known as the law of mass action.
In more regular language, it means that as one adds more and more drug to the body’s system, more and more neurotransmitter receptors are saturated. And so, by the time one reaches a high dose, every extra milligram of drug has less and less incremental effect. And that’s why one get this hyperbola pattern. This pattern is true for all psychiatric drugs.
This explains why users experience problems in the last stages of withdrawing from a drug. Doctors in general practice have come to use an approach of linear decrease, like 20, 15, 10, 5, 0 mg.
Dr Mark Horowitz explains the findings not only from a neurobiological viewpoint, but very much how users have explained it, “going from 20 to 15 milligrams has a very small effect on the brain, 15 to 10 a little bit larger, 10 to 5 larger again, and going from 5 to 0 is like jumping off a cliff. You think you’re down near the bottom, but actually you’ve walked out the eighth story window, in my view.”
The first few milligrams are easy to come off, and the last few milligrams are much harder.
“When doctors don’t understand this relationship, they think people must need the drug because they’ve had huge trouble and they’re pushing people back on it,” Dr Mark Horowitz added.
Based on both neurobiological research and clinical observations it thus makes more pharmacological sense to not reduce drugs by a linear amount of dose, but to reduce drugs by a linear amount of effect on the brain.
The approach of reducing the drug rate so it causes an ‘even effect’ on the brain requires decreasing by smaller and smaller amounts down to tiny final doses. So final reduction from this tiny dose to zero doesn’t cause a bigger change in effect on the brain as previous reductions.
One could approximate this by talking about proportional reduction. So, for example, reducing by about 50 percent at every step, going down from 20 to 10 to 5 to 2.5 to 1.25 to 0.6 approximately causes even changes of effect on the brain. Some people will need even more gradual dose reductions – for example, reducing by 10% of the most recent dose every month, so that the size of the reduction gets smaller as the total dose gets smaller.
Caution on withdrawing from psychiatric drugs
In noting this Dr Mark Horowitz cautions, “It is important to say it’s very hard to guess what rate an individual can tolerate. As it’s something that can take two weeks or four years. That’s why it’s very important to take the approach of adjusting to the individual, making small reductions and seeing how they respond before deciding on further steps.”
If withdrawal symptoms become too severe, then the reduction should be halted or the dose increased until symptoms resolve and the reduction should then proceed to a slower pace.
In England the new NICE guidelines, which is not just for psychiatrists, but for GPs, recommends to slowly reduce the dose in a stepwise fashion, at each step prescribing a proportion of the previous dose.
For clinicians not only in England but everywhere there is now extensive guidance available. Dr Mark Horowitz has co-authored the recently published “Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines”. It describes how to safely reduce every antidepressant, benzodiazepine, z-drug and gabapentanoid that’s licensed in Europe and America. The “Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines” can be bought through the medical publisher Wiley and even through Amazon. A forthcoming version of the Guidelines due in 2025 will also include antipsychotic drugs and other psychiatric drug classes.
