Danish government wants to cap number of ‘non-western’ residents in neighborhoods at 30%
18 Mar, 2021 00:54
FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / Ritzau Scanpix / Mads Claus Rasmussen
Denmark is seeking to limit the number of “non-western” residents living in its neighborhoods to no more than 30 percent, part of a controversial bill aimed at fostering integration and preventing the rise of “parallel societies.”
Read, "No-Go Zones"!
High concentrations of foreigners living in residential areas increases the risk that distinct “religious and cultural parallel societies” will emerge in Denmark, Interior Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek said as he presented his government’s new initiative to combat the ghettoization of “vulnerable” areas.
While it has yet to receive the necessary backing in parliament, the measure is designed to ensure that, in ten years, non-western immigrants and their descendants will make up no more than 30 percent of the population in any given neighborhood or housing area.
If passed, the bill is expected to affect some 58 areas and more than 100,000 people, according to Denmark’s Berlingske newspaper. So far, no date has been set for the proposal to be debated in parliament.
The new bill would amend controversial “ghetto package” legislation introduced by the then-Conservative government and passed back in 2018. At the time, the cap on non-western populations in such vulnerable areas had been set at 50 percent.
With some of the strictest immigration policies in Europe, Denmark has also officially designated some of its residential areas as ‘ghettos’ each year since at least 2010. The government has set four criteria to define such areas: an unemployment rate above 40 percent; more than 60 percent of middle-aged residents lacking in secondary education; gross income levels 55-percent below average; and a crime rate three-times above the national average.
To qualify as a ghetto, an area must meet at least two of those criteria, and must also have an immigrant population of at least 50 percent. If a neighborhood remains on the ghetto list for more than four years, it is then declared a “severe ghetto.”
Currently, at least 15 neighborhoods fall into that category and 25 others are considered to be “in danger” of becoming ghettos. However, the interior minister said the term is “misleading” and plans to do away with it in the new legislative initiative.
“I think it contributes to eclipsing the large amount of work that needs doing in these neighborhoods,” Dybvad Bek said, adding that from now on, they should be designated ‘vulnerable’ or ‘disadvantaged’ areas rather than ‘ghettos.’
Danish authorities have tried to beat back ghettoization for some time now, imposing double penalties for misdemeanor offenses in those neighborhoods, while daycare is mandatory for all children over the age of one.
Some unconventional strategies have also been employed to reduce social pressures on vulnerable neighborhoods, such as a 2019 initiative by the city of Odense to offer financial compensation to local criminals if they moved out of troubled neighborhoods.
What? Are you serious?
Denmark has seen a rapid growth of its migrant population in recent decades. Of the country’s 5.7 million people, 11 percent have a migrant background, while over 6 percent are of “non-western” origin.
The nation’s immigration policies have been especially harsh as of late. Back in 2018, the government said it would send rejected asylum seekers to live on a remote island, with Immigration Minister Inger Stojberg stating the policy would send the message that they are “unwanted.” Now, a similarly strict approach to immigration has been adopted by the Social Democratic government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has called to reduce the flow of asylum-seekers to “zero.”
As the UK publishes its first census of women killed by men,
here’s a global look at the problem
More than half of women and girls killed by men are murdered by their current or previous partners.
Image: Unsplash/Charl Folscher
25 Nov 2020
Douglas Broom
Senior Writer, Formative Content
Six women are killed by men every hour in a “global pandemic of femicide” that is being partly hidden by COVID-19 – and the United Nations is calling for urgent action.
More than half of women and girls killed by men are murdered by their current or previous partners, according to UN data.
The latest UN figures show that 137 women across the world are killed every day by a partner or member of their own family – a total of 50,000 women a year murdered by people they know and should be able to trust.
Women are more likely to be killed by their current parents or relatives.
80% of murders were committed by men in 2017.
Image: Statista
“As the world grapples with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on women, a pandemic of femicide and gender-based violence against women is taking the lives of women and girls everywhere,” says Dubravka Šimonovic, a UN human rights expert.
Violence against women and girls is “still so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that it is almost invisible,” the UN says, describing it as “a construct of power and a means of maintaining the status-quo”.
Preventable deaths
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 found that between a fifth and nearly a half of women globally suffer physical or sexual abuse from their male partners. The Middle East and North Africa has the highest rate with 45% of women being harmed.
Of course, the Middle East and northern Africa are almost entirely Muslim
Share of women who suffered intimate partner physical and/or violence.
45% of Middle Eastern and Northern African women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence.
Image: World Economic Forum
But the problem persists across the world. In North America, the rate was 32% and in Western Europe 22%. And in the UK, a new first-of-its-kind report from the Femicide Census shows that a man kills a woman every three days in the country – a statistic unchanged across the 10 years studied.
“Men’s violence against women is a leading cause of the premature death for women globally but research in the UK and Europe is limited and unconnected,” said Karen Ingala Smith, co-founder of the Femicide Census.
“By providing detailed comparable data about femicides in the UK since 2009, including demographic and social factors and the methods men selected to kill women, we can see that these killings are not isolated incidents, and many follow repeated patterns.”
Speaking ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the UN’s Šimonovic called for countries to halt the problem by setting up “national multidisciplinary prevention bodies or femicide watches/observatories on violence against women”.
“Many of these femicides are preventable,” she adds, noting that although a growing number of states have begun to tackle the problem it has been mostly left to human rights and women’s groups to highlight the scale of the death toll.
It doesn't seem to me to be that difficult to teach high school kids that girls do not belong to boys, and women do not belong to men, even if they are married. However, I am sure this would not go down well in Islam as it contradicts Islamic scripture.
=========================================================================================
Turkey exits Istanbul treaty designed to protect women from violence
The Associated Press ·
Posted: Mar 20, 2021 1:13 PM ET
Hundreds of women gather in Istanbul on Saturday to oppose a move by the Turkish government to exit the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty designed to protect women from violence. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)
Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first to sign 10 years ago and that bears the name of its largest city.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's overnight decree annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women's rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence.
Hundreds of women gathered at demonstrations across Turkey on Saturday to protest the move.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the Council of Europe's secretary general, called the decision "devastating."
"This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond," she said.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the Council of Europe's secretary-general, calls the decision by Turkey to leave the Istanbul Convention 'devastating.' (Lehtikuva/Mesut Turan via Reuters)
The Istanbul Convention states that men and women have equal rights and obliges state authorities to take steps to prevent gender-based violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.
"Shame on this bigotry, patriarchy, heartlessness that protects bullies and murderers instead of women," Turkish author Elif Safak said on Twitter of the withdrawal.
Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, said ditching the pact was "painful" and disregarded women's struggle over years.
Some officials from Erdogan's Islam-oriented party had advocated for a review of the agreement, arguing it is inconsistent with Turkey's conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining the traditional family unit.
Critics also claim the treaty promotes homosexuality through the use of categories such as gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. They see that as a threat to Turkish families. Hate speech has been on the rise in Turkey, including from Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who described LGBT people as "perverts" in a tweet. Erdogan has rejected their existence altogether.
Exit prompts protests
Women's groups and their allies who have been protesting to keep the convention intact immediately called for demonstrations across the country on Saturday under the slogan, "Withdraw the decision, implement the treaty." They said their years-long struggle would not be erased in one night.
"We were struggling every day so the Istanbul Convention would be implemented and women would live. We now hear that the Istanbul Convention has been completely repealed," said Dilan Akyuz, 30, who joined other women demonstrating in Istanbul. "We are very angry today. We can no longer bear even one death of a woman. We do not have any tolerance for this."
Rights groups say violence against and killing of women are on the rise in Turkey, but the interior minister called that a "complete lie" on Saturday.
Police officers scuffle with protesters during a rally in Istanbul on Saturday. (Emrah Gurel/The Associated Press)
A total of 77 women have been killed since the start of the year, according to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform. Some 409 women were killed in 2020, with dozens found dead under suspicious circumstances, according to the group.
Numerous women's rights groups slammed the decision. Advocacy group Women's Coalition Turkey said the withdrawal from a human rights agreement was a first in Turkey. "It is clear that this decision will further encourage the murderers of women, harassers, rapists," their statement said.
Government claims commitment to issue
Turkey's justice minister said the government was committed to combating violence against women.
"We continue to protect our people's honour, the family and our social fabric with determination," Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul tweeted.
Erdogan has repeatedly stressed the "holiness" of the family and called on women to have three children. His communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said the government's motto is "Powerful Families, Powerful Society."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shown in February, issued a decree annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)
Many women suffer physical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands or partners, but up-to-date official statistics are unavailable. The Istanbul Convention requires states to collect data.
More than 1,000 women and allies gathered in Istanbul, wearing masks and holding banners. There was a heavy police presence in the area, and the demonstration ended without serious skirmishes.
They shouted pro-LGBT slogans and called for Erdogan's resignation. They cheered as a woman speaking through a megaphone said, "You cannot close up millions of women in their homes. You cannot erase them from the streets and the squares."
"As women, we now think that the withdrawal is a direct attack on women's rights and a direct attack on the rights of modern young women, in particular," Ebru Batur, 21-year-old demonstrator, said. "This of course makes us feel insecure and like our rights are appropriated."
Turkey signed on first
Turkey — which applied to join the European Union in 1987 but is not yet a member — was the first country to sign the Council of Europe's "Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence" at a committee of ministers meeting in Istanbul in 2011. The law came into force in 2014, and Turkey's constitution says international agreements have the force of law.
Some lawyers claimed Saturday that the treaty is still active, arguing the president cannot withdraw from it without the approval of parliament, which ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2012.
But Erdogan gained sweeping powers with his re-election in 2018, setting in motion Turkey changing from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency.
The justice minister wrote on Twitter that while parliament approves treaties that the executive branch puts into effect, the executive also has the authority to withdraw from them.
Women lawmakers from Turkey's main opposition party said they will not recognize the decree and called it another "coup" on parliament, which had unanimously accepted the treaty, and a usurpation of the rights of 42 million women.
Women's rights, as well as rights for gays, lesbians transgenders, etc., are a movement in the opposite direction from an Islamic state. Erdogan's dream of being the next Sultan of the old Ottoman Empire, leaves no room for such rights. They counter Sharia.
Germany, France criticize withdrawal
Germany's Foreign Ministry joined the criticism, saying "withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention is a wrong signal for Europe, but especially for the women of Turkey."
"Only a few weeks ago, President Erdogan introduced an action plan for human rights which also includes the fight against domestic violence and violence against women," the German ministry said in a statement. "Quitting an important convention of the Council of Europe questions how serious Turkey is when it comes to the goals mentioned in that action plan."
"It is clear that neither cultural, nor religious or other national traditions can serve as a disguise in order to ignore violence against women," Germany said.
France's foreign affairs ministry said on Saturday it deeply regretted Turkey's decision and that the move marked a new regression in terms of respect for human rights.
"This decision will primarily affect Turkish women, to whom France expresses all its solidarity," the French ministry said in a statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment