'human rights' - tagged features

The Olympic torch has begun its long journey from its spiritual home in Southern Greece to Beijing for this summer's Olympic games. Tibetan activists have however threatened to harry and harrass the torch as it's carried around the world. This week they disrupted the ceremony to light the flame at Ancient Olympia causing huge embarrassment both to Greece and China. 

More and more European leaders have sharpened their tone over Tibet this week. Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders, said he would not rule out a boycott if the situation in Tibet worsens. And French President Nicolas Sarkozy did the same. Meanwhile the head of the European Parliament invited the Dalai Lama to address EU lawmakers on the situation in Tibet. And, he also raised the option of boycotting the opening ceremony. But what would a boycott achieve? Marco Cappato is an Italian liberal democrat member of the European Parliament. 

The French media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, sent three people to Olympia, in Greece, to disrupt the torch lighting ceremony. Vincent Brossel was one of the Reporters Without Borders activists who disrupted the ceremony and was later arrested. He was released on parole, and returned to France where he spoke with Jan van der Made. 

Since 1908, International Women’s Day on March 8th has been a day to recognize the achievements of women around the world -- regardless of nationality, ethnic background, culture, economic status or political beliefs. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century. Rapid industrialization and economic expansion had led to protests over working conditions. 100 years ago, on March 8th 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay and voting rights. A century on, women around the world are still fighting for more rights. In Stockholm, Iranian, Iraqi, Swedish and other women - as well as supportive men - have now gathered to put forward their demands. Radio Sweden's Bill Schiller reports on a special appeal to mark the 100th anniversary of Women's Day. 

Is Big Brother watching you? Following the 9/11 attacks in the US, governments across the globe have been tightening security laws, in an effort to better track potential terrorists. Sweden was one of the keener EU member states behind a push to give the police extra powers to gather information on the general public. For many, this isn't a problem. But some worry that our liberty is being eroded too far. 

If you exercise your freedom of speech and in turn inspire extremists to threaten you, should the taxpayer fund your protection? Former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been living under police protection since the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. They made a film together that was critical of Islam's treatment of women. An Islamic extremist murdered Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street 3 years ago – he pinned a note to his body targeting Hirsi Ali by name. She’s now back in Europe after a spell in the US and is faced again with the fear of being targeted by extremists. French Socialists are calling for a special EU fund, saying it’s wrong for critics of Islam to pay for their own protection. 

Back in November Network Europe reported on the case of 6 convicted French aid workers from the Zoe’s Ark group. Zoe’s Ark is a French charity that tried to evacuate orphaned children from the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan. In the middle of this so-called rescue attempt in October they got caught in Chad with 103 children. At the end of December, a Chadian judge sentenced them to 8 years in jail with hard labor. Thanks to an agreement between France and Chad, the six were transferred to France to serve out their sentences, and a couple of weeks ago, a French judge held a hearing to figure out how to convert the sentences—as hard labor doesn’t exist in France. He’s now decided they’ll spend eight years in prison in France. 

While Poland and Germany try to get to grips with their pasts, the United States seems intent on creating its own present-day controversy. The concept of rendition flights has appeared in our headlines in the last couple of years – terror suspects flown secretly, through different countries’ airspaces and interrogated in secret locations. Human Rights groups have complained bitterly that the practice is illegal on a number of levels. Sweden has produced its own negative headlines in relation to the alleged CIA-flights … but as Radio Sweden's Bill Schiller now reports there are some Swedish teenagers currently trying to draw attention to the problem - in their very own way. 

Each December, on the day after the International Day of Human Rights – the European Parliament awards its Sakharov prize for freedom of thought. It’s the Parliament’s top human rights award, named after Andrei Sakharov, a Russian physicist who spoke out against nuclear proliferation and worked against human rights abuses in the former Soviet Union. Radio France International’s Sarah Elzas was in Strasbourg this week to meet the 2007 winner. 

A few weeks ago a group of French aid workers were arrested in Chad as they attempted to take just over a hundred local children to France. They were members of l’Arche de Zoe, a charity that had been planning to evacuate children from the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan. The question on many people’s lips is what were these charity workers doing? They’re now under investigation in Chad. They’d spent all summer recruiting French families to be hosts to what they said would be orphans from Darfur. UNICEF has since confirmed that most of the children on the plane to france were not orphans, and most are probably from Chad, not Sudan. 

Sweden’s the poster boy of social progress. It enjoys one the world’s most advanced welfare systems, Swedes live longer than almost anyone else and Swedish prison-cells are nicer than the average European budget hotel room. But has progress gone too far when it comes to the emancipation of women? A new book suggests Swedish women are conducting their campaign for equal opportunities at the expense of men. And the book even claims that Swedish men are the victims of outright discrimination. 

This week the European Union stepped up pressure on the military regime in Myanmar, which is called Burma by the democratic opposition. For a decade now the EU has imposed sanctions on Burma including a travel ban on leading politicians, a freeze on their assets and a trade ban with large state companies. Now, EU foreign ministers have ramped up sanctions to stop the import of Burmese wood products, timber, minerals and precious stones. But not petrol and gas, an important source of revenue. One of the main foreign companies doing business in the country is the French oil company Total. 

Earlier this week Europe marked the world anti-death penalty day. However, Poland was the only EU member state to oppose this Day Against the Death Penalty arguing that the subject should be approached in a broader way to also condemn abortion and euthanasia. At a conference in Lisbon, EU representatives and members of the much broader Council of Europe joined forces to abolish the death penalty and called for a universal moratorium on executions. 

Some European leaders talk of a “strategic partnership” between China and the EU, yet some major stumbling blocks in what some describe as a marriage, if not, at least an engagement, are standing in the way. One of them is the Weapons Embargo, imposed by the EU after the massacre by the People’s Liberation Army of unarmed civilians, around Tiananmen Square in June 1989. It’s now 18 years later, and the embargo is still in place. I asked RFI’s Brussels’ correspondent if the embargo isn’t a bit outdated by now? 

For the first time, a court in Sweden has decided that a girl or woman can be granted asylum if she can prove she’s at risk of being forced into an arranged marriage abroad. A 15 year old girl has won her case in Sweden and lawyers say it could open the way for many other similar claims. But is Sweden really now a haven for girls facing forced arranged marriages? 

Countries around Europe marked the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture this week. This year it comes as in Greece, human rights groups are calling on the police to root out what they call a subculture of violence. This follows the broadcasting of a video on the internet of what prosecutors allege is torture. More allegations of police brutality have since emerged as our Athens correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports. 

Turkey's chances of joining the exclusive EU club took another downturn this week. The issue of whether Turkey joins the EU has become one of the most divisive issues in european political life. The question many want answered is if it were to become a member, would Turkey become more European or would, as some western Europeans fear, Europe become less secular? The European commission released a much anticpated report on Turkey's accession progress on Wednesday and it didn't make for cosey bed-time reading for Ankara. Turkey was attacked on its human rights, religious freedoms and its attitude towards the divided island of Cyprus. There wasn't a call for a suspension of talks but the report's bound to fuel speculation that Turkey's whole bid is going off the rails.