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On Wednesday, the Chair of the Agriculture Committee and the rapporteur for revised rules on geographical indications for agricultural products will brief journalists about the new law.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Wednesday, the Chair of the Agriculture Committee and the rapporteur for revised rules on geographical indications for agricultural products will brief journalists about the new law.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Wednesday, the Chair of the Agriculture Committee and the rapporteur for revised rules on geographical indications for agricultural products will brief journalists about the new law.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Samedi (24 février), le Parti de la gauche européenne a élu son président, Walter Baier, en tant que candidat à la présidence de la Commission européenne pour les élections de juin et a adopté son manifeste, dans lequel elle s’engage à placer les classes ouvrières au cœur de la lutte contre la crise climatique.

Das EU-Parlament wird am Dienstag (27. Februar) über eine geänderte Fassung der Führerscheinrichtlinie diskutieren. Besonders kontrovers ist hierbei die Idee einer obligatorischen ärztlichen Untersuchung der Führerscheininhaber ab 70 Jahren.

Germany will change its CO2 storage law to facilitate gas transport and is eyeing carbon capture in industry and the power sector while taking steps to become an emission-negative country past 2050.

In Vorbereitung auf die Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament im Juni 2024 wird sich Meta auf die Bekämpfung von Fehlinformationen und die Abwehr von Risiken durch künstliche Intelligenz konzentrieren. Dies gab das Unternehmen am Montag (26. Februar) bekannt.

L'Égypte a construit plus de 3 km de mur au cours de la semaine écoulée, a découvert BBC Verify.

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 26 - 29 February plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 26 - 29 February plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 26 - 29 February plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 26 - 29 February plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Le ministre d'Etat Romuald Wadagni a jugé utile de retirer depuis plusieurs semaines, la plainte de ses conseils contre le jeune étudiant TAAA poursuivi à la Cour de répression contre les infractions économiques et le terrorisme pour des faits punis par le code du numérique.
Le jeune étudiant en second cycle universitaire peut enfin pousser un grand ouf de soulagement suite à ce geste magnanime de l'autorité qui pourra lui permettre de poursuivre sereinement ses études .

Suite à la lettre d'excuses de l'intéressé et aux instructions du ministre d'état, nous apprenons de sources judiciaires que ses conseils ont procédé au retrait de toute plainte ainsi qu'à un désistement des actions engagées.

Nous y reviendrons.

La Russie prépare une nouvelle offensive contre l’Ukraine qui devrait débuter à la fin du mois de mai ou au début de l’été, mais Kiev a déjà planifié sa contre-offensive, a déclaré le président ukrainien à la presse à Kiev dimanche (25 février).

By Magnus Lovold
GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb 26 2024 (IPS)

There are moments when international treaties, long forgotten by the general public, suddenly spring back to life. Moments when glimpses of reality shine through the thick-laden bureaucracies of the United Nations and catch the attention of the world outside.

The debate that unfolded in “sub-working group on current and emerging implementation issues” of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on Wednesday 21 February was such a moment.

The State of Palestine and Control Arms — a civil society coalition — had, in January, requested a debate about the impact of weapons transfers to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Never before, since the ATT’s entry into force in 2014, had there been a formal discussion about non-compliance under the treaty.

The debate would, in more ways than one, become a clash of two worlds. On the one hand, the uncompromising and bloody reality on the ground in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 civilians — including more than 10,000 children — have been killed by Israeli bombs over the past four months.

On the other, the hushed and self-possessed world of multilateral diplomacy, where drama rarely elevates beyond the occasional request for points of order.

The stakes surrounding the debate had broken through the roof when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded, on 26 January, that there is a plausible risk that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating the Genocide Convention, placing the countries that are supplying Israel with weapons — most of which are parties to the ATT, with the exception of the United States — under significant pressure.

The foreign ministers of Italy and Spain had already announced that they will no longer export weapons to Israel. Citing the ATT and the EU common position on the export of military technology and equipment, a Dutch court had ordered, on 12 February, the government of the Netherlands to stop the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel.

While the Dutch government announced that they would appeal the order, the ruling had, in the following weeks, taken on a life of its own, leading parliamentarians and civil society groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Denmark to urge their governments to stop arms transfers to Israel.

The big question, when the parties to the ATT met in Geneva last week, was how these countries would respond to allegations that they, by supplying Israel with weapons, risk complicity in genocide and other international crimes.

The ATT seeks to prevent and reduce human suffering by establishing common international standards for the transfer of conventional weapons. Specifically, the treaty prohibits countries from transferring weapons if they know, at the time of transfer, that the weapons could be used to commit international crimes.

According to Hurini Alwishewa, a legal expert at the Graduate Institute, countries involved in supplying Israel with weapons can no longer claim ignorance: “With the ICJ finding that there is a plausible claim of genocide, the knowledge requirement is clearly fulfilled, and therefore exports of arms to Israel must not be authorised”, she said at Wednesday’s meeting.
In the run-up to the meeting, there had been rumours that the arms exporting countries would simply refuse to engage on the matter. There was even speculation that some countries would seek to dodge the debate altogether by filibustering the preceding agenda items.

But ultimately, the exporting countries realised that they had no other choice than to at least try to explain themselves. A few minutes before the debate was about to start, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands could be observed wheeling their ambassadors in to the brutalist conference room at the CICG in Geneva.

Speaking from the podium, Nada Tarbush, a counsellor of Palestine’s mission to the UN who rose to prominence after a widely published speech delivered in November, was determined not to let the ambassadors’ off the hook.

“We are once again reaching out to exporting states to urge and urge them to explain their respective policies on arms exports to Israel. Particularly the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Czech Republic, Norway, and other states that may be involved as transit states including Greece, Cyprus and Belgium“, Tarbush said, when laying out her case.

“We would be grateful to receive details of all extant arms export, transit, and brokering licenses of the supply of military and dual use items to Israel”.

The arms exporters were, however, not prepared to engage in specifics. Instead, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands both downplayed its role in supplying Israel with weapons.

“UK defence exports to Israel represent a small portion of UK arms exports”, Aiden Liddle, the ambassador of the United Kingdom, said. While he made it clear that the ICJ’s January ruling “is binding on Israel” and suggested that the United Kingdom’s export licences to Israel may be revoked “if circumstances change and we reach a different view”, Liddle did not explain how his country had initially concluded that weapons exports to Israel was in line with the ATT.

More evasively still, the Netherlands explained that “individual licenses can be granted, as long as there is no overriding risk that military goods may be misused by the end user” and stated that “applications requests for Israel have been granted in certain cases and denied in other cases”.

Like the United Kingdom, however, the Netherlands failed to lay out the details of its export licensing decisions. Nor did they explain how they had concluded that the export of F-35 fighter jet parts comes with “no overriding risk” of misuse by Israel.

Germany, in a significantly more aggressive move, took issue with the debate as such, criticising Palestine and Control Arms for attempting “to politicise the ATT process”. Instead of explaining how Germany’s export licences to Israel could be in line with international law, Ambassador Thomas Göbel offered what seemed like a full-fledged support of the manner in which Israel conducts its military operations in Gaza.

Echoing points made earlier in the debate by a representative of Israel — a signatory but not a party to the ATT — Göbel stated that “Hamas must stop its rocket attacks and refrain from using civilians as human shields and civilian infrastructure for military purposes […] For Germany, Israel’s security is not negotiable”.

The exporting countries’ attempts to justify their involvement in Israel’s military operations in Gaza were, ultimately, found wanting. Tarbush made no secret of her disappointment, accusing the exporting countries for putting “themselves in a situation of criminal liability, of immorality in a situation where double standards risk irreversibly eroding the credibility of international law and the international system built since the Second World War”.

But however incomplete, the mere fact that a debate about arms transfers to Israel could take place in the ATT is a positive step for the treaty. Too often, international treaties get caught up in their own institutional bureaucracies, resulting in a detachment from the realities that the treaties are set up to address. Since its entry into force ten years ago, the ATT has, sadly, been no exception.

Instead of criticising the State of Palestine and Control Arms for attempts to “politicise” the process, Germany and other countries supplying Israel with weapons, should see the debate as an opportunity to set a new, more reality-oriented, standard for ATT implementation.

Despite its imperfections, international law can play a key role in exposing double-standards. By offering specifics now, western states will come in a much stronger position to demand transparency from others in the future.

More importantly, history shows that countries supplying other countries with weapons have significant power to shape the conduct — and even outcomes — of military operations; to ensure that civilians are protected or, to put it bluntly, left for slaughter. Indeed, that realisation was one of the factors driving the development of the ATT in the first place.

As Israel is preparing its ground invasion of Rafah, arms exporting countries are bound to be placed under increasing pressure. On Friday 23 February, a group of 41 UN experts, citing the ATT, called for any transfer of weapons to Israel to “cease immediately”. If arms exporting countries are serious about their commitments to international law and a rules-based order, they should heed this call.

Otherwise, the Munich Security Conference’s recent assessment of world politics as a steady trajectory towards a zero-sum game could well become reality.

Source: Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert provides breaking news and analysis about international law and treaty-making, revealing the hidden diplomatic moves that shape the world.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A selection of mostly simple food items put together in Myanmar in parcels for political prisoners, using funds raised by activists and the Burmese diaspora. Credit: Supplied to William Webb/IPS

By William Webb
CHIANGMAI, Thailand, Feb 26 2024 (IPS)

Rangoon Nights is rocking. The bar is on its feet and the cocktail shaker is shaking in abandon as the band Born In Burma starts pumping out its beat.

Except we’re not in Rangoon or Burma (officially called Myanmar), but in the northern Thai town of Chiangmai which has evolved into a hub for activists, fugitives, and those taking a break from the war tearing their country apart.

Dancing among them with a wraith-like grace is Sakura—her nom de guerre—who, like others in the bar popular with Myanmar exiles, is there both to let her hair down and to raise funds for the revolutionary movement fighting the military junta that seized power three years ago.

Sakura’s personal operation—run by a small, close-knit team—is to deliver food parcels to a few dozen political prisoners held by the regime in appalling conditions across Myanmar. More than 1,500 are documented to have died in detention by force or by neglect since the coup. Over 20,000 are known to be behind bars.

“The parcels are a message for them—that we still support you and don’t forget you,” says Sakura.

Her project evolved by accident. Sakura was in Yangon in early 2021, joining vast crowds of anti-coup protesters, when her cousin was arrested and disappeared into the prison system. Suspecting she was held in Yangon’s notorious Insein jail (built by British colonisers in the 1800s), lawyers told Sakura that if she delivered a food parcel with her cousin’s name and it was accepted at the prison, then it would signal she was indeed inside.

It worked. Sakura shared this piece of useful information on Facebook, the social media outlet favoured by the resistance, while the junta uses Telegram. Soon, she started receiving pleas for help from families of other prisoners.

Sakura’s food parcel project was born. It moved with her to Thailand in 2022 after she fled police raids on her Yangon home. “I can’t go back,” she says.

Her small but effective operation speaks volumes about the war in Myanmar—largely forgotten beyond its borders; ineffectual international institutions and humanitarian organisations; little outside aid. But juxtaposed with domestic and vibrant civil society organisations like Sakura’s that strive to make a difference, work efficiently, and give a chance for a better future.

Sakura’s parcels—assembled inside Myanmar—contain soup powder to flavour bland prison mush, instant noodles, cookies, ingredients for much-loved tea-leaf salad, anti-bacterial soap for skin diseases, soap powder for clothes, shampoo, and toothbrush and paste. Plus the all-important Premier brand of coffee mix, which acts as a form of currency among prisoners.

The team presently delivers to about 35 prisoners a month, a tiny fraction of the growing numbers that the junta is incarcerating in a prison construction boom, one of the few sectors of the economy benefiting from the civil war.

Faces of the dead. Myanmar’s non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has a museum in the Thai border town of Mae Sot documenting the identities of over 3,000 civilians killed by the military since it seized power in 2021, as well as those killed since the first post-independence coup in 1962.

Working with a total monthly budget of some 3.0 million kyat (about USD 850 at the street rate), Sakura also sends money to sustain poor families whose main breadwinners are now behind bars. One is the mother of a Yangon hotel receptionist in her 20s who was sentenced to 15 years.

“Her crime was to have donated about USD 10 to the resistance. Police seized her phone and found the payment on the app. Her mother is ill and cannot work,” explains Sakura, who learned English in a Buddhist monastery and comes from a family of farmers.

Delivering the parcels is not a typical Deliveroo operation. Funds are sent from Thailand by various means to her small team in Myanmar, who, at the risk of arrest for ‘supporting terrorism’, buy the items and pack the parcels. They are then discreetly passed to lawyers representing the prisoners, who pass them on to family members who take them on their prison visits.

Sanitary products are included for some female detainees. “Sometimes we also get special requests for clothes and underwear. My budget doesn’t always stretch,“ she says.

On the other side of Chiangmai, Sonny Swe, a well-known Myanmar entrepreneur and publisher formerly based in Yangon, reflects on the trauma of over eight years of solitary confinement in prison, from 2004 to 2013, and the importance then of family visits bringing food parcels.

“Meditation, exercise, reading” were the bedrock of his survival, he says over a hearty Burmese breakfast of mohinga fish soup in his café, Gatone’s (Baldy’s). He was held in five different prisons and the long distances from home prevented regular family visits.

“I kept telling myself, ‘I am strong, strong. I will survive. They will not break me. I will defeat them.’ But once you come out of prison, you understand the toll, the trauma. You think you are fine and strong but you are not.”

Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of the non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), was a political prisoner for seven years and knows well the succour provided by family and friends to those incarcerated.

“Family support is very important for a political prisoner,” he says. Now 59, he was jailed from 1990–93 for demonstrating and calling for release of all political prisoners, and arrested again in 1994 for four more years. He says military intelligence tried to recruit him as an informer but he refused and, in turn, demanded freedom for all political prisoners and for the regime to enter into dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi who was then under house arrest. Leader of the elected government overthrown in the coup, she is back in prison.

Bo Kyi co-founded AAPP in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in March 2000. The organisation meticulously documents identities of political prisoners and tracks their fate, as well as civilians killed by the regime. AAPP, deemed an illegal organisation by the regime, also offers training in dealing with trauma and counselling services, assisted by Johns Hopkins University, Maryland.

As of late February, AAPP has documented the names and identities of 20,147 people it defines as political prisoners, including over 4,000 women and 300 children. Sentenced to death, so far, are 15 women and 136 men. Four were executed on July 23, 2022, including well known activist Ko Jimmy.

As of January 31 this year, it had documented 1,588 people who were “killed through force or neglect” during detention by the regime and its supporters since the coup. The actual number may be much higher. “Torture is endemic,” AAPP says. A large number of those killed in detention are in Sagaing Region, “where resistance by the people is fiercest,”  says AAPP.

They are not just statistics. Speaking of the bravery of those inside Myanmar who try to alleviate the plight of prisoners, Sakura shares the latest shocking news.

Noble Aye, a prominent human rights activist, was reportedly killed in detention along with a companion, apparently after a court hearing on February 8 in Bago Region. They had been detained at a checkpoint in Waw Township on January 20, allegedly carrying weapons and ammunition, charges that the resistance say were false.

She had been jailed twice before as a political prisoner and shared a cell with Zin Mar Aung, the current foreign affairs minister in the shadow National Unity Government set up after the coup.

As it does regularly, the regime was reported to have blamed her death in detention on an escape attempt. The family says they received information that her body was secretly cremated. Noble Aye was 49 and in bad health.

William Webb is an independent travel writer

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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• Last Chance Saloon? Myanmar Junta Imposes Military Conscription
• Yangon—A Junta-Ruled Bubble in a Fragmenting Myanmar

As the European Parliament works on a revision of the regulation on microplastics, EU lawmakers and NGOs travelled outside Brussels to see for themselves the scale and impact of plastic pellet pollution on site.

De faux profils de personnalités naissent régulièrement sur les réseaux sociaux (Facebook, X, Instagram et LinkedIn), avec derrière l'écran, des escrocs qui tentent d'extorquer de l'argent à leurs victimes.

On le sait, il existe bon nombre de techniques d'hameçonnage sur Internet mais l'usurpation d'identité de personnalités semble être récurrente dans les tentatives d'arnaques d'internautes.
Parmi les personnalités qui dénoncent ces faux profils, on retrouve principalement des artistes, des chefs d'entreprises, des autorités administratives ou des personnalités politiques très connus.

C'est sur Facebook et LinkedIn notamment, que des usurpateurs d'identité se sont faits passer pour ces autorités ou leurs proches collaborateurs. « Ils se permettent de promettre aux victimes l'octroi d'un emploi ou de diverses autres opportunités financières en leur nom contre le paiement d'un quelconque frais » nous renseigne une source judiciaire.
Une source policière nous rappelle d'ailleurs les cas récents de la première dame du Bénin, son fils Lionel ; des Ministres R.Wadagni, Shadiya Assouma, Benoit Dato ; de Joseph Djogbenou, Pdt du parti Union Progressiste le Renouveau, de députés dont Armand Gansè mais aussi des maires Luc Atrokpo, William Fangbedji et bien d'autres autres. Certains ont recouru dans différents communiqués à denoncer ces attitudes et et promis des faire engager des poursuites. « Certains sites web et pages officielles de Ministères ou Institutions de la République sont mêmes dupliqués et sponsorisés » nous précise une autre source à l'ASIN.

Même mode opératoire

Cela est devenu une habitude. Plusieurs comptes sont créés à l'insu des titulaires. Des individus mal intentionnés utilisent leur nom ou attributs pour créer des faux profils. En guise de réponse, par le biais de leur page Facebook, ou de communiqués, certains dénoncent ces abus et recommandent à leurs abonnés et la population de faire attention.

Plaintes de victimes, enquêtes et poursuites judiciaires

Nos sources nous renseignent que ces derniers mois, l'ex OCRC et le Centre National d'Investigations Numériques, nouveau dispositif gouvernemental contre la cybercriminalité, ont enregistré plusieurs plaintes de victimes . De faux comptes créés au nom des ministres à partir desquels certains se font passer pour eux ou leurs proches collaborateurs, afin d'arnaquer des concitoyens ou des investisseurs étrangers sur la base de faux documents qui portent l'imitation de la signature de ces derniers. Toute chose punie par la loi mais aussi qui entache l'image et la réputation de notre pays.
Des sources proches des enquêtes en cours nous informent ,qu'elles ont permis de démenteler, un vaste réseau de personnes de profils divers. On y dénombre des antionaux commes des personnes d'origines étrangères qui dont certains ont déjá été présentées au procureur spécial de la Cour de répression des infractions économiques et du terrorisme (CRIET).

Ces dernières semaines, la CRIET a connu le cas des auteurs de faux communiqués rendu public par la direction générale de la douane dans le cadre d'une pseudo vente aux enchères, des personnes ayant utilisé le nom de Monsieur Lionel Talon ou des individus ayant répandu de fausses nouvelles sur le chef d'état major général des armées

Multiplication des cas sur les usurpations de noms et titres de ministres de la République

Peut-être en lien avec leurs charges ministérielles ,on note la multiplication de faux documents portant leur identité et leur signature, ou l'usage des numéros de téléphone avec leur photo en profil pour se faire passer pour eux auprès de tiers est récurrente.

Il faut rappeler une récente cette affaire impliquant un jeune parakois T.A.A.A et consorts que l'attitude clémente du ministre béninois des finances avait évité une mise en détention des intéressés ( ndlr, ils étaient restés libres de mouvements et juste sous convocation) , mais aussi le retrait de la plainte contre X des conseils du ministre qui avaient agi spontanément pour préserver son image.

Dès lors qu'il a su à lissue de l'action judiciaire qui était engagée, que c'était des jeunes personnes dont des étudiants, il a ordonné le retrait de la plainte suite aux lettres d'excuses reçues de leur part. Acte magnanime qui leur évitera certainement une condamnation nous renseigne une de nos sources.

Mais devrait-on toujours procéder ainsi face à des personnes qui décident de se mettre en retrait des lois de la République ?

Notre rédaction vous reviendra sur les dispositions de l'article 562 du code du numérique au sujet de l'usurpation de l'identité de tiers, passible d'une peine d'un an à cinq (05) ans et d'une amende de cinq millions (5 000 000) à cent millions (100 000 000) de francs CFA ou de l'une de ces peines seulement suivant

Paul Tonon

Justizminister der Slowakei, Boris Susko, hat die Ausschreibung für einen Zuschuss in Höhe von 769.500 Euro im Rahmen des Programms "Menschenrechte 2024" ohne Angabe von Gründen abgesagt. NGOs fordern ihn auf, seine Entscheidung zu überdenken.

Depuis le début de la guerre en Ukraine, les programmes et fonds de défense mis en place par l’UE se sont multipliés, avec pour objectif de stimuler la collaboration à différentes étapes du cycle de vie des équipements : recherche, développement, production, achats et livraisons vers des pays tiers.