GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An independent report into the deaths of 115 children in state care in Ireland, was described as “very harrowing” by the country’s Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald. She spoke on RTE’s Morning Ireland Thursday 22 March.
The account, compiled by the children’s charity Barnardos reports on the deaths of children from unnatural causes between 2000 and 2010 while in care. The minister said that she expected it to be made public “within several weeks”, following a review by the attorney general’s office.
On Tuesday a report into the abuse of children within Catholic dioceses in Ireland was published by the Vatican, the Irish Times notes.
Fitzgerald said that the government was committed to call a referendum of children’s rights this year.
Biggest impact may be on other social media: “sitting on a ton of personal information…doesn’t mean you can monetize it in any way you like”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Facebook has indeed shared private information with advertisers, a practice it has staunchly denied, according to the US Federal Trade Commission, which has ended a long investigation into reported privacy abuses by the social network. The information came out Tuesday 29 November when the FTC published details of the settlement the two have reached. Facebook has agreed to an external audit of its privacy controls every two years for the next 20 years and in future it will not ask users to simply “opt out” of changes to settings, but will instead be required to first ask their permission to make the changes.
The settlement also has more far-ranging implications, particularly for other social media, notes industry media Mashable: “The effects of the settlement will likely have more to do with other social networks than the original one. The message from the FTC to social media is now clear: if you put the desires of advertisers before the privacy of users, you will be stopped. Just because you’re sitting on a ton of personal information that would make marketers drool, it doesn’t mean you can monetize it in any way you like.”
The settlement lists 7 complaints by the FTC against Facebook, but the US government body also salutes in its findings the social media group’s impact on society.
The impact on Facebook itself is widely expected by industry observers to be minimal, with the focus now turning to Facebook’s upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO), as BrandChannel points out: “It’s only fitting that the world’s dominant social network will reportedly go public in the second quarter of 2012 in what could be the largest IPO by any technology or Internet company in history. Facebook hopes to raise $10 billion through a limited IPO that would value the company at an astounding $100 billion.”
Links to other sites: CTV Canada/AP, Economist, Guardian tech, HuffPost tech, Mashable
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Australia’s minister for agriculture, Joe Ludwig, has suspended shipments of live cattle to 11 abattoirs in Indonesia after disturbing film footage surfaced showing severe mistreatment of the animals. He has also opened an investigation into the supply chain, from shipment to slaughter and demanded an immediate end to the use of Indonesia is Australia’s biggest market for shipping live animals.
Austrlia’s public reaction was swift, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, with web sites for two animal protection agencies crashing due to an overload of traffic, and 35,000 signatures gathered in just five hours for a total ban on the trade. Indonesia is Australia’s largest market for live cattle shipments. The value of the trade, according to the Jakarta Globe, is A$320 million ($342 million).
Indonesia’ vice-minister of agriculture, Bayu Krisnamurthi, asked “Please respond to the video proportionally”, reminding Australians that the two countries are not at the same level of development. He “stopped short of calling for the immediate punishment of any abattoirs found guilty of mistreatment of cattle, reportedly saying the first step would be to provide them with guidance”, reports the Australian newspaper.
Links to other sites: ABC Australia programme on cattle shipments (alert: disturbing graphic images), BBC, Jakarta Globe, Sydney Morning Herald
Police have hotline for the many people affected, open 07:30-19:00, at +41 31 634 34 34
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Mr X, whose names will not be released under strict Swiss privacy laws, sexually abused at least 114 persons during the 29 years he worked in nine institutions and residential homes for the mentally and/or physically handicapped, in Switzerland and Germany.
The 54-year-old man, who worked as an assistant in homes, was arrested in April. He has admitted to abusing 114 adults and children.
Another eight cases are being considered by police as attempted abuse. The case is referred to by canton Bern authorities as “unprecedented” and a team of 100 people have been assigned to the case, from investigators to counselors for the victims and their families.
Switzerland has more than 22,000 residents of homes for the handicapped, and another 20,000 people have daycare places in residential homes, of which there are 554.
Abuse occurred mainly at night or when providing intimate care
Most of the abuse occurred during the night, according to police, or when the worker, who has cooperated with investigators, was providing intimate physical care for his victims, who were mostly young men.
The abuse, say police, involved “touching the private parts of his victims. Sexual relations took place several times as well as anal touching. The abuse was sometimes carried out on the same victim several times during one day. In order to avoid anyone suspecting what he was doing the man often had a change of clothes with him. In 18 cases, he took photographs and made films. The inquiry has not turned up any evidence that any of the material was posted on the Internet.”
Police in canton Bern called a press conference Tuesday 1 February to make public the information.
The case came to light when two men, adults living in care homes, told their parents they had had sexual relations with a member of the staff. The parents took the matter up with the administrators of the home, who contacted the police.
The man was arrested at his home in canton Bern, but the investigation began in Aargau, where he worked.
Old case to be re-opened, with another assistant jailed in 2003
The case was kept quiet by police to allow them to investigate the case, which posed special problems because many of the possible victims do not speak. The man had been investigated earlier, in 2003, for a likely case of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl, but there were doubts about the reliability of her testimony. She had accused the man now under arrest, but another assistant fell under suspicion and was eventually sent to prison for sexually abusing the girl, who had limited speech.
Swiss aid group calls for Zimbabwe to be barred from Kimberly Process diamonds, cites State torture, child and forced labour
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Indian ministry of commerce is the latest to move against the Zimbabwe diamond trade, asking the country’s traders and jewelry exporters Thursday 9 December to “bide their time” until the Kimberly Process (KP), which certifies diamonds, clarifies Zimbabwe’s compliance, according to SouthWest Radio Africa. Monday the Swiss group Bread for All, a humanitarian alliance of the country’s Protestant churches, called for the Swiss market not to accept Zimbabwe diamonds, citing continued human rights abuse in the Marange diamond area. Switzerland imports $676 million in rough diamonds a year and exports close to $1 billion, in addition to its finished diamonds market.
India imports more diamonds than any other country in the world, based on 2009 KP statistics.
Zimbabwe was barred from KP trading in November 2009 because of alleged human rights abuses at its Chiadzwe mines in the east of the country. The KP’s 49-member group, of which Switzerland and India as well as Zimbabwe are members, ruled in July 2010 that Zimbabwe could resume limited exports, following a visit by a monitor in September. The Indian government’s call to its diamond business is reportedly based on ongoing negotiations between Zimbabwe, which threatens to ignore the KP certification process, and the KP, which wants Zimbabwe to limit exports to better monitor the trade there.
The Kimberly Process describes itself as “a joint governments, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds–rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments. The trade in these illicit stones has fuelled decades of devastating conflicts in countries such as Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.”
Bread for All has appealed to the Swiss government to insist as a member of the KP not only that Zimbabwe be barred from certification by the Kimberly Process but also to push for a change to the KP rules, which currently define “blood diamonds” only as those handled by rebel groups to finance their wars against governments.
The Swiss organization says it has evidence from its Geneva-based partner, Zimbabwe Advocate, of daily instances of human rights abuse since 2008 by the Zimbabwe government’s army in mines in the east of the country, around Marange. The “human rights violations include forced labour, child labour, torture, beatings and rape. In addition, soldiers are forcing minors to work for them and they are organizing illegal trafficking in diamonds,” according to Bread for All.
Zimbabwe minister berates visiting Norwegians for questions over abuse
Geneva-Servette Hockey Club players, here training, are more fit than the average person in Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland takes the country’s health pulse once every five years, and the 2010 results, published 2 November, show too many Swiss remain overweight, at 34 percent of the population, with 8 percent considered obese. Only two in five persons has an adequate level of exercise. That said, the Swiss generally consider themselves to be in good health, 87 percent. The weight and exercise figures might be higher than health authorities would like, but the reassuring news is that the Swiss national waistline has stopped expanding.
The number of overweight people in Switzerland grew steadily from 1990 to 2002, up from 30 percent of the population, but since 2002 it has remained stable at 37 percent.
Other key findings of the survey, based on questionnaires given to 18,760 individuals residing in Switzerland:
Geneva exempt: has its own minimum wage
First Swiss minimum wage: domestic workers
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss domestic workers will have a minimum wage starting 1 January, the Swiss Federal Council said 20 October.
The new federal ordinance is in effect until 31 December 2013 and is largely designed to protect the domestic workers who have flocked to Switzerland, since 2007, from low-wage countries that are part of the enlarged European Union. Technically, the new ordinance makes domestic workers part of a CTT, or “type travail” contract.
Switzerland has had no minimum wage in the past and this is the first time one has been mandated because the law allows minimum wages to be set only under exceptional circumstances: repeated salary abuse in a sector, with workers regularly paid less than the professional salary for that industry.
The federal government undertook a study in 2008, recently completed, and it consulted with the cantons, who have also studied wages for domestic workers.
It concluded that domestic worker salary abuse is widespread and routine. The new ordinance calls for a minimum wage of CHF18.50 an hour for workers with no experience, CHF20 for those with five years experience but no professional training and CHF22 for those with Swiss-approved professional training.
Update 17 June / ACA is seeking testimonials for a proposed hearing before the US House financial services committee, from people who “have been denied banking services or have had difficulty in maintaining banking services either back in the US while residing overseas or by foreign financial institutions due to your American nationality.” They are asked to visit the ACA web site and leave their testimonial here.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – American Citizens Abroad (ACA), a Geneva-based international organization that represents the interests of US citizens who reside overseas, has sent a strong message to the US Treasury Department and the IRS tax authority, to say new US legislation discriminates against Americans abroad.
The letter points out “the extremely negative effect” of Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) legislation. The group has been gathering examples of US citizens faced with banks refusing to provide accounts and services to them “because of the overwhelming reporting and compliance requirements,” the group notes in a news release issued Wednesday 16 June.
The ACA letter calls for the exclusion of US citizens who are long-term overseas residents from Fatca reporting, “to encourage foreign banks to maintain banking relationships with the hard-working community of US citizens abroad, who contribute so much to the United States in terms of trade, investments and image.” The group also calls for the complete abolition of US citizenship-based taxation.
The United States is the only country in the developed world which has a system of taxation based on citizenship rather than residence, which ACA argues “systematically penalizes US citizens residing abroad.”
The new regulations, currently being drafted, are part of a larger series of actions by the US Treasury, designed to catch tax evaders. These include the request for judicial assistance from Switzerland in the case of 4,450 UBS bank accounts suspected of being used for tax fraud purposes, which led to the Swiss-US treaty whose fate will be decided in Bern Thursday morning.
Gerry Adams, the longtime leader of Ireland’s Sinn Fein party, told media 20 December that his father had abused, including sexually abusing, several members of his family. He said the family had taken a long time to come to terms with the abuse, which has left them scarred. His father died six years ago. Adams made the announcement after his niece went on British television to talk about her father, Liam Adams, who is Gerry’s brother, sexually abusing her. Gerry Adams called on his brother to turn himself in. An arrest warrant was issued for him a year ago.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two shelters for abused men are opening this week in German-speaking Switzerland, one near Aarau and the other near Zurich. The shelters are not connected in any way but both are primarily designed for men who have lost their homes and families after separations, says swissinfo, which carries a feature on the two new shelters. It focuses on the little-discussed problem of violence towards men, at home.
Four successive archbishops of Dublin, over a period of 30 years, “routinely” covered up child sexual abuse by priests in their diocese, an Irish government report published Thursday 26 November shows. Dermot Ahern, the Irish justice minister responsible for the “Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin”, said it documented “a scandal on an astonishing scale.” The Irish state is also blamed for not ensuring that all were treated equally under the law and “allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.” Police are accused of actively colluding with Church officials and priests on a regular basis to cover up crimes from 1974-2004, the period covered by the study. This is the third major Irish investigative report in 10 years into abuse by Church clergy.
Links to other sites: Boston Globe, Guardian, UK, Irish Times and Irish Department of Justice statement
Swiss Federal Tribunal, Bern
Updated 14:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss cabinet has agreed to allow up to five additional but temporary posts for Federal Administrative Tribunal judges, to allow the high court to handle a sudden increase in legal cases likely to arise in relation to UBS client names requested by US tax authorities.
Bern said Friday 18 September that it expects some 500 appeals by the end of the year in cases where the Swiss finance ministry agrees to provide judicial assistance to the IRS, the US tax authority. The request for assistance are being made by the IRS as par of a 31 August agreement between Switzerland and the US.
A ban on advertising for alcohol in the UK, called for by Britain’s doctors, focuses on eliminating happy hours and sponsorship for music and sports events, in an effort to bring the country’s spiraling medical and social problems related to alcohol consumption under control. The British Medical Association has called for the ban, noting that 37 percent of the population drinks more than the recommended limit (21 units a week for men and 14 for women) and that abuse is a problem for all ages. It points to the increasing use of viral advertising on the Internet and using mobile devices, which particularly target young customers. There appears to be little disagreement that alcohol abuse is a significant problem, reports the Independent, but support for a ban on advertising is weak. Times, UK
US President Barack Obama has provoked the ire of Amnesty International and civil liberties groups by saying he has stopped the planned 28 May release of photos showing US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama said (BBC video) that the photos are not as sensational as those seen at Abu Ghraib in Iraq but they do not conform to acceptable behaviour in the army manual. However, he noted, the cases of abuse have been dealt with by the military and there is “no benefit” to be gained by releasing them, a change from his earlier stance.
