Full Coverage: Europe

28.02.2007 The Centre for Peace Studies sent an open letter to the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, protesting the fact that 13-year old boy of Croatian-Liberian origin was expelled by his elementary school in Split on petition by the parents of the other students from his class. One of the reasons used to “justify” the request was that he was “Bantu”.

28.02.2007 “Novi list” daily reports that the Croatian Health Insurance Bureau decided to allocate about 13 percent higher support for annual needs for medicines to boys up to seven years of age than to girls of the same age group. According to the Bureau, the decision was based on actual data on use of medicines for 2006, which shows that boys simply use more medicines than girls.

27.02.2007 The Success Grants will help NGOs inform citizens about the good work they have done in the R. Macedonia. They will offer opportunities for NGOs to promote the impact of their individual organizations, thereby attracting new members and supporters, gaining legitimacy and influencing public opinion about the positive benefit of NGOs.

27.02.2007 Equipment used for torture - including wall handcuffs and spiked batons known as "sting sticks" - could still be traded out of the EU, according to a new report that condemns new EU regulations as weak and full of loopholes.

27.02.2007 Zelena Akcija environmental organization presented last week its paper 10 Measures to Secure Sustainable Traffic in the City of Zagreb.

27.02.2007 After the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Serbia can not be held responsible for the genocide that took place in B&H, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights demands from state officials to present all the facts as determined by the judgment and to not bring into question the victims of genocide.

26.02.2007 The GONG and the Croatian Journalist Association (HND) express their opposition to the draft-Law on Classification and Confidentiality of Information, which they claim will further close the state administration and other bodies with public competences to citizens overview and scrutiny.

26.02.2007 Norway has withdrawn from a controversial scheme that funds consultants to advise poor countries on the privatisation of public services including water, after a damning report by two NGOs.

26.02.2007 Fairtrade is beginning to move from an "optional extra" to a "must-do", Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, will say at the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight in London today, as UK sales of Fairtrade products hit a record £300m a year.

26.02.2007 Britain’s new Freedom of Information Act is facing a double threat, only two years after coming into effect, say journalists and press freedom campaigners.

26.02.2007 As the UK commemorates the end of the slave trade, a new Haitian sculpture will be unveiled today in Liverpool's Merseyside Maritime Museum. It will tour the country, taking in London and Bristol, before returning to Liverpool where it will remain on permanent display in the new International Slavery Museum, which opens on 23 August.

25.02.2007 As the UK commemorates the end of the slave trade, an original sculpture has been commissioned by Christian Aid and National Museums Liverpool from a group of Haitian artists representing their continuing struggle for freedom and human rights.

23.02.2007 Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) Suma Chakrabarti tells The Financial Express in an interview that a political consensus is building on in the UK over committing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment of 0.7% of its GNP. Read on for more.

23.02.2007 The Akcija Zdruzenska civic association, under the auspices of EU’s Campaign “2007 – Year of Equal Opportunities”, organized a forum on the topic On the Road to EU: Macedonian Gender Equality Policies.

23.02.2007 The Strategy promoted yesterday by the Department for Cooperation with Nongovernmental Organizations of the Government’s General Secretariat aims to improve the cooperation between the Government and the civil sector.

23.02.2007 A campaign is being organised to pressure British Chancellor Gordon Brown to use his international influence to stop "outrageous and immoral vulture funds", through which companies buy developing countries’ debt cheaply and then try to reclaim much more money when the country is in better shape.
* Stop the Debt Vultures

23.02.2007 The Transparency International Croatia (TIC) reports that the Draft-Law on Classification of Information, in its current form, may make the Law on the Right to Access Information totally obsolete and endanger the very progress of democracy in the country.

23.02.2007 Finland’s parliamentary elections will be held on March 18. There are almost 200,000 people with foreign backgrounds living in Finland – but still not a single immigrant representative in the Parliament.

22.02.2007 Authors talk about their new books set during the Bangladesh independence war and the civil war in Sri Lanka, about activism, about Bitch Lit and Les Lit, about forced marriages, plus discussions on The Politics of The Veil and on Brickbats, Bovver-Boots and Bans, as well as comedy, music and poetry. It's the Spit-Lit Festival, celebrating women's writing, London, 2-10 March.

22.02.2007 In a blatant attempt to intimidate advocates of a peaceful solution to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict, a leading Serbian nationalist newspaper has called for the prosecution of the Women’s Peace Coalition, a joint initiative of women activists, for advocating for the independence of Kosovo.