Category: GLOBAL ISSUES

By Reinhardt Jacobsen | IDN-InDepthNews Report

AMSTERDAM (IDN) – A Court in Amsterdam struck down Meseret Bahlbi lawsuit against Mirjam van Reisen, Dutch professor and human rights advocate. The judge found that she was not guilty of libel and slander and that the youth party of the Eritrean regime can be seen as a means of collecting intelligence abroad. The decision comes as a huge relief not only for the Dutch professor, but also for the Eritrean diaspora across Europe.

When the case was heard on January 27, 2016 in Amsterdam the focus was more about the nature of the regime in Eritrea, and the role played by its supporters in Europe. The court room was packed to overflowing, mostly by Eritreans from the diaspora in Europe. The majority came to support Mirjam van Reisen. She was being sued for libel and slander by Bahlbi, an Eritrean residing in the Netherlands, who according to the judgment “is linked to the regime of Eritrea and actively supports the ideas of this regime”. Bahlbi himself, however, “stated in the summons that this [Eritrea] is a dictatorship and that torture takes place”.

By Reinhardt Jacobsen | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

AMSTERDAM (IDN) – The reach of an allegedly long arm of the Eritrean regime abroad has been the subject of a series of high profile articles in the media. Latest reports say that it is not only targeting Eritrean refugees but also Dutch citizens.

At the core of the debate is a series of articles by OneWorld journalist Sanne Terlingen who revealed that members suspected to have links to the Eritrean regime were serving as interpreters in asylum cases. Two siblings of the chair of the YPFDJ, the youth wing of the only party of Eritrea, were still employed by the interpretation service, even though the rules of the Dutch government agency would not allow this.

By Jennifer Sun* | IDN-InDepthNews Essay

“America’s once shining beacon has somehow dimmed a bit, and the Red China I left 30 years ago is not as bloody red as it used to be. The two countries, capitalist and communist, actually have a lot in common: the rich and powerful could be greedy, hypocritical and morally corrupt,” writes Jennifer Sun, author of the recently published novel ‘Two Tales of the Moon’.

By Ronald Joshua | IDN-InDepthNews Report

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The African Union Commission (AUC) has bestowed two distinguished African Scientists with the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Awards 2015, sponsored by the European Union since 2009 as a sign of recognition for top African scientists at national, regional and continental levels.

The award is named after Ghanaian nationalist leader and a pan-African who led the Gold Coast’s drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in 1966. An influential 20th-century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), predecessor of today’s AU.

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepthNews Report

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – The 79-nation ACP Group’s secretariat is joining hands with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN to focus on South-South and Triangular Cooperation to achieve development goals that were adopted by the international community in September 2015 in Agenda 2030.

One such critical goal is rural development that reinforces women and youth empowerment by way of creating jobs and encouraging entrepreneurship. With this in view, the African, Caribbean and Pacific group’s secretariat is organising a symposium in Brussels on February 11-12, under the theme: Integrated Rural Development: Strengthening Women and Youth Empowerment through Jobs and Entrepreneurship.

By Kalinga Seneviratne*

This article is the first in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Feature and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN | Lotus News Features) – A Buddhist revival in China is fuelling a growing animal welfare movement across the country with the Chinese government poised to revise the decades-old animal welfare act. In January, the National People’s Congress (NPC) started soliciting public comments on four draft laws. One is the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law, which came into effect in 1989.