BRUSSELS (29 January 2021) – The European Union must boldly rethink its socio-economic governance if it is to live up to its commitment to eradicate poverty, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights said at the end of an official visit to the EU’s institutions on Friday.
“While the EU has made recent progress in the eradication of poverty, it should not fall into complacency,” saidOlivier De Schutter. “Its own commitment to lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2020 was largely missed. Since the EU has experienced steady economic and employment growth until very recently, the only explanation for this failure is that the benefits have not been evenly distributed. This is a defeat for social rights.”
One in five people, or 21.1 percent of the population, was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019: this represents a total of 92.4 million people. A total of 19.4 million children, representing 23.1 percent, live in poverty across the Union, and 20.4 million workers live at risk of poverty. Women are disproportionately represented among the poor. Eight-five percent of lone-parent families are led by women, and 40.3 percent of them are at risk of poverty.
Inequities in nonprofit pay and leadership opportunities are subtle and entrenched. The pandemic could make things worse — or be a chance for real change
By Jim Rendon
JANUARY 12, 2021 - Karen had been working at a human-services nonprofit for a decade when she accidentally stumbled on a co-worker’s personal data stored on the group’s shared server. There were pay stubs, mortgage and retirement-account statements, his entire financial picture was laid out before her. And she says it was nothing like her own.
At the time, Karen, who asked that we use only her first name and not identify her employer so she could speak freely, was a director overseeing employees who brought in half the group’s revenue. She was earning roughly $50,000 a year and had to work nights and weekends as a tutor and consultant to pay the tuition for the master’s degree she was pursuing.
According to the pay stubs she found, her male co-worker, who was also a director but had less oversight responsibility, made $10,000 a year more than she did — about a 20 percent difference. “Once I started looking at the numbers, it was heartbreaking,” she says. “At the end of the day, they didn’t treat us equally.”
She thought back to all the times that their shared supervisor had made her feel guilty about what he claimed was her high salary. All the feelings she had that the workplace run by a man for 20 years was a boys club, that she was not taken seriously, were suddenly confirmed. When she talked to another supervisor about the huge salary discrepancy, she was told that the man had a family to support.
https://www.uscirf.gov/publication/violating-rights-enforcing-worlds-blasphemy-laws
Direct Link to Full 100-Page 2020 Report:
Violating Rights: Enforcing the World’s Blasphemy Laws (uscirf.gov)
http://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-under-pressure-to-repeal-blasphemy-laws/av-43052434
Pakistan Under Pressure to Repeal Blasphemy Laws
March 20, 2018 - At least 1,472 people — both non-Muslims and secular Muslims — have been charged under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws since 1987. Despite international pressure, Pakistani authorities are unwilling to amend or repeal the laws.
