Council of Europe welcomes moratorium on death penalty in Pennsylvania
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers today welcomed the announcement by the newly elected Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania (United States of America) of a moratorium on the death penalty.
The Governor of Pennsylvania has joined the governors of Oregon, Washington and Colorado in placing a hold on executions because of concerns about the death penalty system.
In a Declaration, the Committee of Ministers, however takes note of the temporary nature of this measure, and recalls its position that there is no such thing as a just and fair system to apply capital punishment.
The Committee of Ministers also reiterates its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances.
Извор: Совет на Европа – 18.02.2015
A group of human rights and climate change experts discussed how human rights should be a part of any approach to take effective action to mitigate climate change.
The “Climate Justice Dialogue” was sponsored by the UN Human Rights Office and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. The event, earlier this month, brought together more than 50 representatives from the climate change and human rights communities to discuss ways to strengthen the links between the two.
“A human-rights-based approach allows us to identify the most pressing needs of individuals in a highly inequitable global society, with greatly differing social, environmental and economic levels of development,” said Flavia Pansieri, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Apart from being a human rights obligation, ensuring effective participation of those concerned in conceiving the response to climate change also ensures that it is effective.”
The Dialogue took place on the eve of the meeting of the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Advanced Action (ADP). The ADP is tasked with formulating the draft climate agreement to be presented during the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris in December.
The Human Rights Council has recognized that climate change has a significant effect on the full enjoyment of human rights. It has made it clear that the effect of climate change “poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world.” Human rights such as the right to safe and adequate water and food, the right to health and adequate housing are threatened by climate change, the Council stated. This is why a human rights lens is important when looking at the issue.
By Pam Belluck
Conventional wisdom has it that hot flashes, which afflict up to 80 percent of middle-aged women, usually persist for just a few years. But hot flashes can continue for as long as 14 years, and the earlier they begin the longer a woman is likely to suffer, a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found.
In a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse group of 1,449 women with frequent hot flashes or night sweats — the largest study to date — the median length of time women endured symptoms was 7.4 years. So while half of the women were affected for less than that time, half had symptoms longer — some for 14 years, researchers reported.
“It’s miserable, I’ll tell you what,” said Sharon Brown, 57, of Winston-Salem, N.C., who has endured hot flashes for six years. At her job at a tax and accounting office, she has had to stop wearing silk.
“I keep one of the little fans with me at all times — one in my purse, a couple in my desk, some in just random places in the office,” she said. “I’ll be so glad when they stop — if they ever stop.”
Over all, black and Hispanic women experienced hot flashes for significantly longer periods than white or Asian women. And in a particularly unfair hormonal twist, the researchers found that the earlier hot flashes started, the longer they were likely to continue.
Among women who got hot flashes before they stopped menstruating, the hot flashes were likely to continue for years after menopause, longer than for women whose symptoms began only when their periods had stopped.
Protesters Took to the Streets in Ankara, Istanbul, and Mersin
By Jon Stone – 15 February 2015
Thousands of women’s rights activists have taken to the streets in cities across Turkey after a woman was allegedly killed for resisting an attempt to rape her.
The burnt body of Ozgecan Aslan, 20, was found in a riverbed in the city of Mersin in the south of the country on Friday.
