By Liesbet Debecker When, on Saturday evening, the so-called ‘Swedish coalition’ that formed the Belgian government finally crumbled, no one who has followed Belgian politics over the past few weeks was surprised. What exactly happened in this chronicle of a death foretold? What led the Belgian government to collapse over a non-binding international treaty?
By Tarek Bashour Ghazal is her name; she was nearly six years old when she was rescued from drowning in front of the camp of displaced people where she and her mother share a tent with six others. Ghazal’s father fell during the war whilst fighting against the regime. She was told that her father was swimming in the sea with the nice colourful fish, and so she ran to the water in front of her camp and searched for him until the air left her lungs. Now she is 12 years old and she knows that he is dead. She hates the regime for killing her father but does not realise how many fathers he killed on the other side.
By Cassandra Bockstael Everyone loves chocolate. Europeans consume half of the three million tons produced yearly. But the success of chocolate has a dark side. While western kids and adults are enjoying its sweet taste, the reality is different for the children in Africa who harvest the cocoa.
By Arwa Hleihel “Parallel time” became a well-known phrase in the Palestinian political prisoners’ culture, following the prisoner Walid Daka’s play based on his experience in jail. The play is about their time parallel to the time of people at liberty:in jail nothing moves and there is no meaning to time unless it intersects with real time, such as the few occasions when family or lawyers visit.
By Liesbet Debecker A little over a year ago, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgement in the case of Alexandru Enache v Romania. Despite this, it is hard to find analyses of the decision in legal literature. This is remarkable, because the court seems to be, to some extent, deviating from previous case law. But is this deviation justified?
By Mustapha Hadji On 5 August 2015 my father passed away after twelve years of chronic illness. His passing was devastating to the whole family, but it would have been even more devastating for my sisters and my mother had we followed Moroccan inheritance law. This law is based on Sharia law, and according to it would have been my brother and I that would have taken most of what my father had left us. Legally speaking, two men would have taken more than the share of four women. Luckily, my family cares more for fairness than the law.
by Cassandra Bockstael “Children in ISIL controlled territory are the responsibility of their parents, we will not put ourselves at risk for people who decided to leave for this region”. This citation comes from Peter de Roover, head of N-VA at the Belgian Parliament. Currently, 162 minors residing in Syria and Iraq have at least one parent of Belgian nationality. According to Belgian law, even if these children are not born on Belgian territory, they have Belgian nationality and are Belgian citizens.
By Cristiana Marques “The crimes in Rakhine State, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts” UN panel – Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.
By Emilien MinerThe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention, was adopted on 7 April 2011 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and entered into force on 1 August 2014. It sets the minimum standards for the prevention of gender-based violence.
By Marwa Azelmat The world today is home to the largest generation of young people in history. Almost 90 percent of youths live in developing countries, where they constitute a large proportion of the population.
