27 Jan in 12:20
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis to the post of Secretary General of the Assembly, the first woman to hold the post in the Assembly’s 72-year history, according to the Organization.
She will serve for a five-year term starting on 1 March 2021. The election took place by electronic voting, with a very large participation rate of 96.46%.
Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis has been working for 21 years with and for parliamentarians from all over Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly, leading, in turn, its Monitoring and Political Affairs Committees. She started her career at the Council of Europe in 1993 at the European Commission of Human Rights.
A summer sunset in Bergen, Norway. (Courthouse News photo / Kelsey Jukam)
STRASBOURG, France (CN) The European Court of Human Rights heard arguments Wednesday over whether Norway violated the religious rights of a Muslim woman whose child was forcibly adopted by Christians.
During a remote hearing before the ECHR, lawyers for Mariya Ibrahim argued the country not only violated her right to family life but also her right to religious freedom when it allowed her son to be adopted by an evangelical Christian couple against her wishes.
“For any parent, to raise a child in accordance with their religious or belief is a direct manifestation of their right to religious belief,” lawyer Anna Lutina told the 13-judge panel. She sat next to her client during the hearing.
Quarantine hotels could contravene our human rights, says lawyer
Forcing people into quarantine hotels, at their own expense, could amount to illegal detention
An international law firm has suggested that quarantine hotels could contravene our basic human rights, under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Other countries, including Australia, Thailand and New Zealand, have already brought in similar measures to stop the spread of Covid-19.
However, international law firm PGMBM has suggested that enforced quarantine constitutes a breach of our human rights.
Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) states that everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person, except in very specific circumstances.
Can no shot get you fired? The risks of a compulsory vaccine policy
26 January 2021
A legal minefield awaits employers considering Covid-19 jab programmes, argue Jules Quinn and Marie Hoolihan
By BaLL LunLa; Shutterstock The UK government has undoubtedly established vaccines as the way out of the current Covid-19 restrictions. With the grim, ever-rising daily death tolls and the devastating economic, social and emotional impact of lockdowns, there is an understandable desire to get as many people vaccinated, and protected, as possible in order to finally open-up society for good. However, with such prominence given to the vaccines, this has resulted in an increasingly noticeable call for jabs to be made mandatory. Following confirmation that vaccines will not be compulsory at a national level, employers have been left wondering whether they can (or should) make it compulsory for their workforce. A mandatory jabs policy may appear to be immaterial and a safe way of reintr