Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
SX: US President Barack Obama has called for an end to discrimination, including inequality against gay people, in an address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last week.
In a speech mentioning the economy, health care, education and HIV/AIDS, Obama also addressed the issue of discrimination, calling for an end to prejudice against minority groups, specifically African-American women, Latinos, Muslim Americans and gays and lesbians.
“The first thing we need to do is make real the words of your charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States,” Obama said in the address. >>> Rachel Cook | Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: Discrimination, conflicts of interest, financial irregularities: allegations against Trevor Phillips and his commission are building.
It was not supposed to work like this. The Government's equality watchdog – which is charged with rooting out discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexuality, age or disability – was yesterday in the dock charged with discrimination by a member of its own staff. It only adds to the mound of political embarrassment being heaped upon the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, whose days in the job look increasingly limited.
The woman before an employment tribunal yesterday was Brid Johal, from Tipperary. (These things are important when it comes to equality). She was an aide to the aide of Mr Phillips. Even aides have aides in the wonderful world of quangos, until David Cameron gets his way at any rate. While she was on maternity leave the person who was covering for her – whom we might, unkindly perhaps, describe as the aide of the aide of the aide – was promoted over Ms Johal's head. It happened just as a commission bigwig was holding forth publicly about how unfortunate it was that women get penalised if they take a year off. Ms Johal told the tribunal that she had not been informed that there was a vacancy available despite her bosses' promises that she would be "kept in the loop" while she was away.
There is now muttering inside the EHRC about how it has not, after all, consigned to history a world in which some people are more equal than others. "There is something oddly old-fashioned going on in terms of plum jobs at the higher level," one insider said recently.
Some are beginning to think that the man at the top, Trevor Phillips, may have feet of clay. Indeed some are murmuring that the clay goes up to knee-level and beyond. The commission has been hit in recent months by a succession of internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. There is talk now that the former television executive, who wanted a second term in the job, will be forced to step down when his contract ends in the autumn. >>> Paul Vallely and Kevin Rawlinson | Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
DAILY EXPRESS: BRITAIN’S second largest police force has been accused of discriminating against white men by setting itself targets to recruit and promote more black and female officers.
West Midlands police chiefs have pledged to increase the proportion of new recruits from “black or minority ethnic” groups to 12 per cent and women to 42 per cent.
Under the new arrangements, agreed yesterday by the local police authority, the targets will grow by two per cent every year until 2012.
The force has been warned it is walking into a potentially illegal and costly minefield of political correctness.
Former West Midlands police superintendent and city councillor John Mellor described the move as a terrible mistake. >>> By Anil Dawar | Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
BBC: A Muslim chef who accused the Metropolitan Police of religious discrimination when told he must handle pork has lost his tribunal case.
Hasanali Khoja was told he would be expected to handle pork products at his new job at the Empress State Building in Earls Court, west London.
The 60-year-old from Edgware, north-west London, also said racist gestures were made to him when he complained.
The force was it was [sic] "pleased" at the tribunal's decision. Muslim Chef Loses Tribunal Case >>> | Friday, May 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
MAIL Online: A doctor who described her Asian colleagues as ‘orang-utans’ has been suspended by the General Medical Council.
Dr Silvia Baciu, 43, made the comments after claiming she had been subjected to insulting and threatening treatment because she was a white European.
But the NHS Trust she worked for accused her of racism and the GMC yesterday criticised her ‘unacceptable racial behaviour’.
Dr Baciu, who is originally from Romania, worked as a Senior House Officer in anaesthetics at Basildon Hospital, Essex, from June 2004 to November 2005.
After she left the department, she reuested a meeting with the Trust to discuss alleged discrimination at the hands of her colleagues. She prepared a 12-page document to support her claims.
The GMC heard that she had written: ‘It’s not my fault that in the heads of senior Asian colleagues, there’s no difference between an educated white woman and a donkey. It’s not my fault that I was born in Europe and not in South-East Asia, like other trainees. It’s not my fault that I’m white.
‘I dare to suggest to you, mon cher, that ( some doctors) are exempt from known immigration laws.
‘The brainy Asian males of this department can’t place themselves before the law.’
Dr Baciu, who lives in Northampton, added in the document that she feared that European science would ‘disappear’ because there were so many Asian doctors.
She added: ‘The orang-utan section of the department is ready for action and I assure you of their effectiveness.’
Later in the document, Dr Baciu claimed she had been threatened and harassed and found attitudes towards her ‘very hard to endure’.
The GMC was told that Dr Baciu had problems adjusting to working in the UK. Craig Ferguson, for the GMC, also said there were concerns over her communication skills and her ability to complete written assessments.
Dr Baciu said that the word ‘orang-utan’ did not refer to the doctors’ appearance, but their aggressive and threatening behaviour, both in public and private. >>> By Daily Mail Reporter | Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: European judges have backed Britain's compulsory retirement age of 65.
The verdict in Luxembourg amounts to a defeat for Age Concern's legal battle to banish enforced retirement at 65, but the final decision still rests with the UK High Court.
The European Court of Justice acknowledged that EU rules do ban employment discrimination on grounds of age but ruled the age could be enforced if it was related to employment policy or if it would help the labour market.
The High Court, which sent the case to Luxembourg for clarification of the law, will now have to make a final ruling on whether the aims of the Government's 65 retirement age are "legitimate".
The UK's Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, introduced in 2006, ban age discrimination but exclude pensioners, who can be dismissed at 65 without redundancy payments, or at the employer's mandatory retirement age if it is above 65. >>> | Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Monday, March 02, 2009
MAIL Online: The Roman Catholic Church has severely criticised a proposed new code of conduct for teachers which it says will force Christian schools to actively promote Islam and gay rights.
The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has warned the General Teaching Council, by the professional regulatory body, that many teachers will quit the profession because they will not be able to accept the revised code of conduct in good conscience.
Their advisers say the code would also seriously undermine the religious character of church schools by imposing on them a hostile form of secular morality.
The legally-binding code would discriminate against Christian teachers in recruitment and in the classroom, they say.
Principle 4 of the code demands that teachers ‘proactively challenge discrimination’ and ‘promote equality and value diversity in all their professional relationships and interactions’ before they can be registered.
It means that campaigners can complain if teachers fail to observe the new demands and that teachers and schools can be punished if a complaint is upheld.
Oona Stannard, head of the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the bishops’ conference, told the GTC in a written submission that ‘there was an understandable fear that the call to “proactively challenge discrimination” could be used to oppose faith schools per se, and the rights that they have in law, for example, to select leaders who are of the faith’.
‘This anxiety extends similarly to the direction to “promote equality”,’ Miss Stannard said.
‘It would be unacceptable to expect anyone to be required to promote something contrary to their own faith beliefs and, indeed, it would not be possible for a person of faith to promote another faith – this is a matter of conscience.’ Catholic Church Slams New Code of Conduct Forcing Teachers to Promote Islam and Gay Rights >>> By Simon Caldwell | Monday, March 2, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Almost two thirds of the Church of England General Synod believe Christians are the victims of discrimination in the workplace.
A survey of members of the Church's parliament found that 63 per cent of them felt that Christians faced discrimination at work.
The majority also consider that freedom of belief has been eroded under the Labour government.
While 59 per cent agreed that they have seen a decline in religious liberty over the last decade; 38 per cent of members disagreed.
The findings follow a series of high profile legal battles fought by Christians who claim to have suffered as a result of their beliefs. >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Saturday, January 24, 2009
NRC HANDELSBLAD: Geert Wilders was “completely surprised” when he heard on Wednesday that the appeals court of Amsterdam ruled he shall be prosecuted for hate speech and inciting discrimination. Last year the public prosecutor had decided not to try the controversial Dutch member of parliament for his remarks about Islam. In an interview with NRC Handelsblad Wilders says he is "shaken, but also very angry and ready to fight."
"The public prosecutor agreed with me, that I can say what I said. The attorney general at the appeals court has argued the same. I never thought that things would turn out this way," Wilders says. Because of the appeals court ruling, the public prosecutor is forced to prosecute Wilders for statements such as "ban the Koran" and "the core of the problem is fascist Islam", statements Wilders has made in the media and his own film Fitna. >>> By Herman Staal | Friday, January 23, 2009
NRC HANDELSBLAD – Editorial: Wilders' Never-ending Story
The appeals court in Amsterdam on Thursday issued a ruling which will echo for years and have major political implications. The court takes a hard line against the radical politician Geert Wilders and issued an extensively outlined order to charge Wilders with hate speech and inciting discrimination. That a lower court is now at liberty to give a dissenting verdict, after the appeals court has already ruled in such strong wording, is an illusion. The limits on freedom of speech for politicians have hereby been set.
So for years to come, the courtroom will be the most important arena of debate about Muslims in the Netherlands. The focus will be on the criminal nature of Wilders' statements first, and only second on their validity - or lack thereof. That is not anything to look forward to. Further escalation and polarisation are on the horizon.
NRC Handelsblad has stated before that the position of Muslims in the Netherlands is not so weak that the criminal justice system needs to protect them against Wilders. The open political debate offers enough space to put him in his place. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has approved curtailing offensive political statements in several European member states. But only if sanctions against such statements are proportional - usually very limited. If the Dutch penal code is to come into play here at any point, sanctions can therefor only be restricted. Otherwise they are deemed by Strasbourg to be illegal. >>> Editorial, NRC Handelsblad | Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>
Friday, September 26, 2008
LE FIGARO: Un rapport préconise la supression d'une clause de la Constitution interdisant l'accès du trône aux Catholiques. Actuellement à l'étude, ce projet de réforme qui divise les Britanniques.
Le premier ministre, Gordon Brown, a reçu sur son bureau un rapport bien embarrassant lui recommandant de modifier la Constitution pour retirer la clause qui exclut les catholiques dans la succession au trône d'Angleterre. La loi en question, considérée aujourd'hui comme discriminatoire, date de 1701 et exige que le prétendant à la couronne soit anglican et interdit même qu'il soit marié à une catholique. Récemment, le prince du Kent et le comte de St Andrews ont été exclus de la succession au trône d'Angleterre après avoir épousé des catholiques. Un roi catholique à Buckingham ? >>> Cy. V. (à Londres) | 26.09.2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
EXPATICA: AMSTERDAM – The reports against politician Geert Wilders are piling up. The foundation Nederland Bekent Kleur has once again gone to the public prosecution department in Amsterdam to lodge a complaint about 20 violations of antidiscrimination legislation of which Wilders and his party, the PVV, are reportedly guilty. Complaints against Geert Wilders pile up: Antidiscrimination organisation files report against Wilders >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Friday, December 21, 2007
BBC: A leading British Asian organisation is warning that men, women and children are being abused, attacked and spat at, because they are low caste Hindus regarded as impure and untouchable.
They are the victims of the 2,000-year-old Indian caste system which activists say is flourishing on the streets of Britain, even though it is banned in India.
It is a form of social hierarchy and divided Hindus into four main categories; priests, warriors or ruling class, the merchants and then the unskilled labourers.
Below them were the untouchables, those people deemed so low that they could not be included in the system.
Two thousand years on, caste is an integral part of the Asian community, according to activists.
The country's first ever support group has been set up in Southall in West London to help victims of caste discrimination. British Hindus divided by caste >>> By Naresh Puri
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
YAHOO NEWS (UK): Children could be denied a foster family if one of their prospective carers smokes under new guidelines to come into force on the day England goes smoke free.
The UK's leading fostering charity, the Fostering Network, has drawn up new guidance for local authorities and agencies recommending smokers do not foster children under five. Smokers ‘to be stopped from fostering’ (more)
THE GUARDIAN:
Smokers to be prevented from fostering young children
Mark Alexander
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Photo grâce à Google Images
"L'égalité au travail: relever les défis". Dans son rapport publié jeudi, le Bureau international du travail (BIT) pointe surtout un défi de taille : celui de la diversification des discriminations. Dans son analyse, l’organisation internationale relève que les femmes, les jeunes, les vieux, les minorités ethniques, les handicapés, les malades du sida ou encore les homosexuels, ne sont plus les seuls groupes à être victimes de discrimination au travail. Que ce soit en termes de restrictions d’embauches, de brimades ou de salaires moindres. Les fumeurs, nouvelles cibles des employeurs (encore)
Mark Alexander
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