Daily Archives: November 17, 2021

The Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement hosted the seventh annual Diversity Summit late last week, featuring more than 20 virtual sessions including a keynote address from Angela Davis.

Nearly 40 speakers including students, scholars and activists participated in the virtual summit Thursday and Friday, headlined by the theme The Audacity of Hope, The Power in Community, which sought to educate the University community to protect diverse identities and enhance racial equity across the country. The summits lineup featured distinguished civil rights activist Angela Davis who delivered the keynote address, speakers from GW and honorary guests Dr. Tony Keith and Rebecca Russo, whodiscussed issues ranging from policings effect on D.C. youth to the intersection between sexual violence and disability.

Davis rehashed her journey of advocacy from the Civil Rights Movement to modern-day racial justice issues, like prison abolition and intersectional discrimination and advocacy, during her address Thursday.

She said she has spent her careerwriting eight books about social justice issues and lecturing about civil rights throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. She said as a child growing up in the Jim Crow south, she developed a life centered around resistance from a young age, recalling a game where her friends would dare each other to ring white peoples doorbells before running away.

We even turned resistance into a game. Davis said at the summit. But most importantly, it became a way of life. It became the way in which we live our lives.

Davis said Black feminists have faced an intersectionality of discrimination on the basis of race, gender and sexuality, evidence of how multiple identities have conceptualized our place in the world.

Intersectionality is a particular formulation of the kind of interconnectedness and interrelatedness that Black feminists have been arguing for for a very long time, she said.

Davis voiced her support for the prison abolition movement at the summit, saying that without prisons, people would be free to live their lives without the fear of oppression and harm.

A world that would no longer need prisons and police for security would be a world in which people were happy and free and were able to explore their own individual desires and passions. Davis said. It would be a socialist world, let me put it that way.

She said everyone comes from a community, which in turn will shape their individual personality, tying into this years theme invoking the power in community identities, relationships and voices.

We are all produced by communities, we would not exist as individuals if not for our communities. she said.

Other speakers at the Diversity Summit discussed antisemitism, critical race theory and health concerns related to racial trauma as issues that affect community diversity.

Sabrina Soffer, a freshman majoring in international politics and Judaic studies and an opinions writer for The Hatchet, spoke at an event about antisemitism and Jewish inclusion on campus Thursday,where she advocated for an increase in Holocaust education and more awareness about a recent rise in antisemitism across college campuses.

Antisemitism resurfaced as a campus-wide discussion at GW after a Torah was desecrated at Tau Kappa Epsilons townhouse earlier this month, drawing hundreds of students to voice their support for the Jewish student population.

We have to remember history in order to prevent whats going on, especially because GW has a one-third Jewish population, but yet we have the second most cases of antisemitism across colleges in the nation. Soffer said in an interview.

Following Russos presentation, a panel of faculty and administrators answered questions and explained available resources, like bias reporting, to address concerns about antisemitism at GW. Caroline Laguerre-Brown, the vice provost for diversity equity and community engagement, said on the panel that officials have a mission to build a more inclusive GW through these resources.

In response to a question from the audience regarding the summits theme of hope, Laguerre-Brown said that in the face of rising antisemitism, she finds hope in the GW student community.

As the head of the Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement, to be sure, the mission of the office is really every single day to work on as many fronts as we can to try to build a more inclusive GW, she said.

Wendy Ellis, an assistant professor of global health and the director of the Center for Community Resilience in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, spoke during the closing event entitled Trauma, Equity and Resilience: A Call to Action. The discussion focused on trauma created by forms of systemic racism, like inequitable economic opportunity, social capital and housing affordability, which have oppressed and marginalized communities.

When we hear community narratives, are we merely just looking at the outcome, or are we asking ourselves, Is this also the experience of racism that we are seeing? she said at the event.

Ellis said community resilience is essential to break from cycles of trauma.Recounting her own childhood experiences with an abusive father who murdered her mother, Ellis said the resilience of her community and the availability of an education propelled her to where she is today.

We know what equity means, we know what diversity looks like and we know the importance of inclusion, she said. So lets get to work.

Interim Provost Chris Bracey delivered a presentation about critical race theory, its origins and its inclusion in public school history curricula at an event Friday. Bracey said critical race theory originated in the legal field, and that the term acts as a verb in describing one who engages in critical race theory to learn more about the role of race and racism in society.

He said critical race theorists are examining how a rule, law or decision may disadvantagepeople of color.

Bracey said conservatives have worked to oppose critical race theory and its inclusion in public school history curricula, fearing it may negatively portray white people.

Critical race theory seems to have risen from relative obscurity to front page news almost overnight, Bracey said at the summit.

He said this resistancehasdriven the growing attention toward critical race theory, but these conservative opponents who have no clue about the true meaning of the term are actually opposing the rise of multiculturalism.

This is what the masses are reacting to this prevailing perception that somehow critical race theory is threatening white privilege, Bracey said.

This article appeared in the November 15, 2021 issue of the Hatchet.

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Diversity Summit takes community-based focus The GW Hatchet - GW Hatchet

Foot. gd_project / / stock struggle

After it was announced that Shells headquarters would be moved from the Netherlands to the UK, the Dutch government wants to scrap the dividend tax for international shareholders in order to convince the company to change its mind. The Minister of Economy wants to convince the political parties to do so.

The giant oil and gas company Shell announced, Monday, that it intends to exit the Netherlands. The seat will be moved from The Hague to London.

The Dutch government was unhappy with the proposal that the companys shareholders will vote on on December 10. I am unpleasantly surprised, Economy Minister Steve Block told reporters.

Moving the companys headquarters would mean losing hundreds of millions of euros a year, which now goes to the treasury as taxes, Jan van de Strick, a professor of tax law, was quoted by the daily Trouw as saying.

According to the media, Minister Block began consultations with parties in the House of Representatives (Tweed cameras) regarding the abolition of the tax on dividends to persuade the company to change its decision to change its seat.

De Telegraaf reports that Shell CEO Ben van Beurden indicated in conversations with the government and journalists that the failure to abolish the profit tax was the main reason for moving the headquarters to London.

The newspaper said: The government is now frantically persuading the parliamentary factions to agree to it. According to the media, the adoption of the governments proposal will cost the budget nearly 2 billion euros annually.

The answer is no, Lillian Blumen, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, wrote on Twitter. In her view, this money should be used to solve the problems of housing and investment in health care.

VNO NCW believes that the loss of Shell will worsen the business situation in the Netherlands. The organization notes that two million people work for multinational companies in the Netherlands, earning twice the average national income.

Andrzej Pawluszek from Amsterdam

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The Netherlands is fighting for Shell's concerns. The government proposes to abolish the tax on dividends for international shareholders - R&R...

Since 2019 a total of six young members of Cork County Council have said goodbye to politics, all citing the pressures of the job

FINE Gael councillors Liam OConnor and Katie Murphy are just the latest in what appears to be an ever-growing list of resignations by young members of Cork County Council, citing the heavy workload of the job.

Their resignations follow on from other recent resignations of young councillors, including Aidan Lombard earlier this year, as well as Rachel McCarthy, James ODonovan and Noel ODonovan in recent years. An ever increasing workload and the 24/7 nature of the job have been cited as reasons for these resignations.

The local government system isnt local enough and the ratio of councillors to citizens is exceptionally high, said Dr Aodh Quinlivan, director at the centre for local and regional governance at UCC.

Also the abolition of the town councils was a backward step and it now means councillors have much larger jurisdictions to cover and a big increase in workloads too, he added.

Entry into town councils was easier then and more young people and more women were elected onto town councils than any other level of government, he continued, suggesting they should be reinstated.

Dr Quinlivan said it is important to make local government more meaningful by increasing its powers.

Local government in Ireland is weak with limited responsibilities in areas like transport, tourism, policing and education. If young people feel that their local councils cannot make a major difference they are less likely to put themselves forward and if we want more young people involved we need to sell it and make it attractive. Remuneration and supports are vital to retain councillors.

At the moment many of our councillors are people who can afford to be councillors but its very difficult for those who may be part-time workers. Its not all about the money either and its more about general support too, like getting administrative help, mentoring and education.

Lama the local authority members association has recently announced a councillor assistance programme, where free and confidential psychotherapy sessions will be provided by former Olympic boxer, Cllr Kenneth Egan.

The Council should be representative of society as much as possible regarding gender, age, self-employed etc, and at the moment they dont accurately reflect this, said Dr Quinlivan. I also wouldnt be surprised if more councillors will resign down the road and also the pool of people who can become councillors is quite narrow, too, and it depends on their employment situation.

Former Fine Gael councillor Liam OConnor, who was elected to the newly created Carrigaline Municipal District in 2019, said it was very tough balancing his work commitments as a scientist with Janssen and his Council obligations.

Id have calls and emails every single day, as well as trying to juggle my work and attend the various Council meetings and I couldnt give my Council work 100%. So I had to decide then as things were changing in work, too, and it wasnt feasible, said Liam.

To give yourself fully to the role of a councillor, youre not able to have a full-time job. They will have to look at creating full-time roles where one is paid accordingly. Its a shame, too, because there are some great community people who could be great councillors but the role isnt attractive enough, he added.

For now Liam will remain active in his local party cumann and he hasnt ruled out a return to politics in the future. In the meantime, he says, he will continue his work as chair of Carrigaline Tidy Towns.

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Heavy workload leads to exodus of young voices - Southern Star Newspaper

The following is a report delivered by Peter Symonds,the national editor of the WSWS in Australia, to a meeting of electoral members of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) on November 14. The meeting was one of a series being held by the SEP as it campaigns against anti-democratic new electoral laws that have trebled the number of members required to achieve the party registration needed to have the partys name placed on election ballot papers.

1. We have in these meetings been discussing the murderous policy of herd immunity and living with the virus that has now been adopted by virtually every country in the world. The results have been devastating.

The pandemic continues to ravage the world. The total number of confirmed cases is now over 250 million and the total number of deaths is more than 5 milliona terrible toll that finds its parallels only in the tragedies of major wars.

In those countries that have championed herd immunity, the figures are horrendous.

In the United Kingdom, according to the latest update on November 13 from the World Health Organisation, there were 42,401 new cases in the previous 24 hours. The total number of cases was nearly nine and a half million, and the total death toll was over 142,000.

In the United States, there were nearly 88,000 new infections in the previous 24 hours. Total cases were well over 46 million, and total deaths were over 750,000 and rapidly heading toward 800,000.

2. All of this is now accepted by governments and the media as the new normal and immense pressure is being exerted for people to do the same. We are seeing it here with the ending of restrictions in every state, the opening of schools, of borders, both state and national, regardless of the deadly consequences.

China stands out as the great exception. Rigorous public health measures, including wholesale testing and contact tracing, lockdowns and other restrictions, now supplemented by mass vaccinations, not only suppressed the initial outbreak last year in Wuhan but have limited the outbreaks that have occurred since then. All of those have resulted from infections being brought into China from outside.

The latest World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics for November 13 are a stark contrast with the rest of the world.

In the previous 24 hours, there were just 110 new cases in China. The cases were quite widespread but there is a serious effort to contain and suppress them. All of this is in marked contrast to the rest of the world. In the same 24 hours here in Australia, with a population that is tiny compared to China, there were 1,589 cases.

Overall, there have been just over 127,000 cases in China and about 5,700 deaths. The vast majority of these took place in the first few months of last year when Chinese authorities were struggling to deal with the outbreak in Wuhan of what was then an unknown respiratory disease. They rapidly identified the cause, and worked out measures to treat, contain and suppress it. And they made that information available to the WHO and the world.

Amid all the talk in the media that it is impossible to eliminate COVID-19, the experience in China demonstrates the opposite. Elimination is possible, but only if carried out on a co-ordinated international basis.

The SEP and the International Committee of the Fourth International have very fundamental political differences with the Chinese Communist Party that go to the heart of the struggle of the Trotskyist movement against Stalinism. It is not the place here to go into the complex history of the three revolutions in China and the evolution of the regime that emerged after the Third Chinese Revolution in 1949.

It is enough to say that the legacy of those huge social and political upheavals does live on, principally in the sentiments of masses of ordinary people who take the issue of the priority of social needs, including the welfare of the population amid the pandemic, over private profit very seriously. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, which faces an enormous social and economic crisis, is thus under pressure to take this seriously as well and its handling of the pandemic has widespread popular support.

3. What has begun, however, is a rising drumbeat of demands in the US and international media for China to abandon its elimination strategy. It is particularly marked in the financial pressthe Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and here in the Australian Financial Review.

A comment in the Financial Times by the columnist Gideon Rachman, for example, is entitled Chinas self-isolation is a global concern. Its underline, Beijings zero-Covid policy is damaging international business and global governance, speaks volumes about the hypocrisy, criminal indifference to suffering and death, and underlying motives of the ruling elites for whom Rachman speaks.

What Rachman writes is very revealing. He declares: When much of the globe was in lockdown, the extreme nature of Chinas measures seemed less remarkable. But as most of the world returns to something close to normality, Chinas self-isolation is increasingly anomalous.

There are many things that can be said this statement, but the central thrust of what is being argued is that China must accept what has now been imposed by the ruling classes around the world. Something close to normality means ending the public health measures necessary to protect the population and prevent deaths in the interests of profit. The daily toll of cases and lives lost, increasingly including children, is what must be accepted in China.

Rachman is highly indignant over what he describes as the worst control-freak tendencies of the Communist party, citing the case of more than 30,000 people who were locked inside Disneyland Shanghai and tested, after the discovery of a single case of Covid.

The CCP regime has indeed a vast police-state apparatus, which it uses, above all, to suppress the working class. And there may indeed be cases of bureaucratic overkill in dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19, but this was not one of them. As we all know, the Delta strain is highly infectious and thus spreads very rapidly with deadly consequences, even in highly vaccinated populations.

All public health measures are in a sense bureaucratic. This is what is seized upon by the extreme rightwing to demand the abolition of such measuresall in the name of individual rights, including, that means, the right to infect others.

Rachman expresses no outrage at the fact that the British government, indeed the entire political establishment, allows the virus to run rampant in the United Kingdom, with deaths continuing in the hundreds every week. This is the new normal. In the United States, more people die each week from COVID-19 than have died overall in China.

The economic and political factors driving the open up campaign

4. Why is there this vicious campaign to demand that China open up? There are two main reasonsthe first economic, and the second political.

Rachman blurts out the first when he declares: The effects on international business are already apparent. China continues to trade and invest with the outside world. But business ties are fraying. Foreign chambers of commerce in China report that international executives are leaving the country and not being replaced. Hong Kongs role as a global business centre has taken a battering.

In a world economy built on the globalisation of production, any restrictions or the shutting down of any industry or any country affects supply chains around the world, impacting on profits and the stability of the financial system. The disruption is particularly great when it comes to Chinathe worlds largest manufacturer.

Articles have also appeared in the financial press complaining about the disruption of supply chains in South East Asia where countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam have succumbed to pressure to end public health measures. The fact that an open campaign is underway to force China to open up also indicates that the sudden dropping of restrictions here not only came from big business in Australia but also internationally.

The second political reason is bound up with the developing public opposition in the working class around the world to the sacrifice of the health and lives of working people in the pursuit of profits. The ruling classes cannot tolerate any exceptionespecially one so large and obvious as Chinato the mantra that it is impossible to eliminate COVID-19 and everyone has to learn to live with it, and one should add, die with it.

Will Beijing will bow to this pressure? That depends over several factors, above all on what the working class in China and internationally does.

China is not a socialist or communist country. The Chinese Communist Partys claim that it is presiding over socialism with Chinese characteristics is absurd. After more than four decades of capitalist restoration, it is the capitalist market that dominates over every aspect of life and the economy in China. Undoubtedly, there is pressure on the regime from domestic big business as well as international finance capital.

But there is also the potential for the eruption of widespread opposition among Chinese workers if they are forced back to work in unsafe conditions and their children forced back into unsafe schools. The Chinese Communist Party is well aware that it is sitting on top of a social time bomb and to date has maintained its strict elimination policyat least within its borders. Its nationalist outlook means it is incapable of making any broad appeal to the one social force that could fight for it on a world scalethe international working class.

5. The open attack in the international media on Chinas COVID-19 policy is part of a far broader US-led confrontation with China over the past decadefirst under Obama then Trump and now Biden.

It is beyond the scope of this report to deal in any great detail with the reckless US efforts to undermine China diplomatically and economically, and to engage in a huge military build-up throughout the Asian region. This includes that strengthening of military alliances, strategic partnerships and basing arrangements in preparation for what would be a disastrous war between the worlds two largest economies, both nuclear-armed.

The latest is the AUKUS agreement involving the US, Britain and Australia that, among other things, will provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. As former Prime Minister Paul Keating, one of a tiny handful of critics, pointed out this week, these submarines only have one purposeto assist the US in a war with China by confining its navy to Chinas coastline.

The Biden administration has not only continued the aggressive, anti-China policies of the Trump administration but further intensified them on all frontsthe hypocritical denunciations of China over human rights issues, trade war measures and punitive economic measures against Chinese corporations such as Huawei, as well as provocative military operations in areas close to the Chinese mainland.

To touch very briefly on one of the most dangerous signs of the accelerating war drive, the Biden administration is recklessly inflaming tensions over Taiwanarguably the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. While accusing China of plotting aggression against Taiwan, the US is actively undermining the One China policy that was the basis of the diplomatic relations with China established in 1979. The willingness of Washington to sacrifice diplomatic relations is a sure indication that it is preparing for war.

And the time frame is short. The top US generalchairman of the joint chiefs of staff Mark Milleyrecently put it in a very roundabout way: he didnt expect war with China over Taiwan in the next two years. In other words, after two yearsall bets are off!

The US-led drive to war is not simply a product of bad individuals or policies, but is rooted in the capitalist system itself, and its division of the world into competing nation states. US imperialism regards China and its massive economic expansion as the chief threat to the dominant position that it established in global capitalism after World War II. The US is prepared to use all means, including military, to arrest its historic decline and subordinate China to its economic and strategic interests. Anyone who believes that the potentially catastrophic effects of such a war will deter the ruling class should ponder the fact that they have already been willing to sacrifice millions of lives in the COVID-19 pandemic in the pursuit of profit.

6. The pandemic, the rising danger of war and other deeply troubling problems confronting humanity, such as climate change, are fuelling a radicalisation of workers and young people internationally. The solution to these crises is not to be found in futile appeals to the powers that be, but in the development of a unified revolutionary movement of the working class to put an end to the bankrupt and outmoded system of capitalism.

The electoral laws that we are campaigning against are just one element of the efforts to prevent above all a genuine socialist perspective from being enunciated. I would urge everyone here to redouble their efforts to sign up electoral members to the Socialist Equality Party and to seriously consider, if you are not already, applying to become full SEP members.

Apply for electoral membership of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

Cost: $5 (waged) / $2 (unwaged/student)

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Mounting pressure on China to abandon its zero-COVID policy - WSWS

Besides the older and persistent threat of cross-border terrorism, Pakistan now poses another serious threat to Indias security interests there have been multiple cyberattacks from Pakistan-based hacker groups targeting Indias critical infrastructure and government servers.

These attacks eclipse the earlier nuisance value acts of vandalising Indian websites a regular Pakistani habit. The new attacks demonstrate a step-up of Pakistans cyber capabilities and work concurrently with its persistent anti-India cyber disinformation campaigns such as those pertaining to Kashmir and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

In early August, the United States-based cyber security firm, Black Lotus Labs, reported that a Pakistan-origin malware, ReverseRat 2.0 targeted Indian government officials by sending a forged invite for a United Nations meeting on organised crime with a Microsoft Teams link. Its impact is still not known. ReverseRat 2.0 can breach the device of its intended victims, and the malware can remotely click photographs via its webcams, even retrieve files from USB devices plugged into the infected device. According to Black Lotus Labs, this is an advanced version of Pakistans earlier malware ReverseRat, detected just two months prior in June, targeting Indias power sector and government departments.

India has been on the radar of Pakistani hackers for some time. In 2020, security researchers from the Ireland-based Malwarebytes Labs cyber security firm noticed attempts from a hacking group, APT36, a Pakistani state-sponsored malicious actor, to infiltrate Indian government, diplomatic and military networks, and honey trap defence personnel for stealing sensitive data related to Pakistani military and diplomatic interests. Its modus operandi involved spear phishing emails with a malicious link, purportedly from the Indian government. The group has been active since 2016, indicating its long cyber espionage campaign.

Pakistans recent anti-India cyber activity must be viewed in the backdrop of its new Cyber Security Policy 2021, which seeks to position the country as an important participant in the global conversation on cyber security. While the new policy does not explicitly mention the pursuit of cyber offensive capabilities for pre-emptive use, it does display more teeth in its messaging to Pakistans potential adversaries than the earlier Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

Whereas the 2016 Acts stated objective was to control the escalation of cyber offences in Pakistan and transgressions related to information systems, the most significant assertion in the recent law is that any cyberattack on a Pakistani establishment will hereafter be treated as an assault on Pakistans sovereignty and invite suitable retaliation. Unsurprisingly, the document has no clarity on the nature of retaliation, and whether it will be implemented using cyber offensive campaigns or more conventional methods. From Indias perspective, it is more likely that the actual objective of this vagueness is to grant Pakistan flexibility and unpredictability in its actions.

Although Pakistani hacking activities against India lack the sophistication of Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups, it is compensated for by the tenacity of the well-designed and catchy propaganda unleashed by the Inter-Services Public Relations of the Pakistani Army, such as in the aftermath of the August 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Indias erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. For this, it utilised fake profiles, cyber trolls, journalists, and Pakistani diplomats, focussing on themes such as alleged human rights violations by Indian security forces in the Kashmir Valley, the plight of ordinary Kashmiris and scaremongering on the possibility of an India-Pakistan nuclear war. This propaganda gained temporary traction with viral posts and trending Twitter hashtags, but it failed to cause any significant dent in Indias global image.

More critical for India is Pakistans status as Chinas client state. Pakistans propaganda machinery has been busy concocting anti-India propaganda throughout the ongoing India-China border stand-off in eastern Ladakh to embarrass India and score brownie points with China. Although there is no material evidence to prove that these actions are carried out at Chinas behest, there are suspicions of cooperation between Pakistani and Chinese state-backed hackers in cyberattacks directed against India after the abolition of Articles 370 and 35A. In fact, the Long-Term Plan for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor identifies information and communications technology infrastructure development as a key area of bilateral cooperation, and while that sounds innocuous enough, dont rule out collaboration between their deep States for the misuse of technology for geopolitical ends.

It is imperative, therefore, that India prepare to effectively counter the cyber threat from Pakistan. In recent years, India has strengthened its cyber security capabilities by creating institutions such as the Defence Cyber Agency and putting in place policy frameworks like the National Cyber Security Policy of 2013. This has acted as an umbrella policy document that traces a plan for holistic, cooperative and coordinated responses to address cyber security issues within the country. It is now being recast as the National Cyber Security Strategy to take a proactive approach to cyber issues. Universities like the National Forensic Sciences University in Gujarat offer cyber forensics courses. And the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre has begun working with the public and private sectors to secure critical infrastructure from cyber threats. India will need to be on its guard.

Aditya Bhan is assistant professor, FLAME University

Sameer Patil is a fellow for International Security Studies Programme, Gateway House

The article is written under the aegis of The Gateway House-FLAME Policy Lab at FLAME University, Pune.

The views expressed are personal

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From across the border, a new cyber threat - Hindustan Times

Executive Summary

Children are one of the most vulnerable groupings amongst those who migrate. They have complex needs, including for a safe and stable environment, as well as access to healthcare, education and tailored, child-friendly services. Within this group, unaccompanied children, - those who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so are particularly exposed to increased risks of violence, abuse, and exploitation. As a result, they need targeted and appropriate services to scale, including adequate identification and registration, guardianship and legal representation, quality accommodation and care arrangements.

As of 15 October 2021, there were 2,159 unaccompanied children in Greece, the vast majority of whom were boys over 16 years of age. In the preceding 18 months, more than 1,000 other children were relocated from Greece to other European countries as part of a voluntary relocation scheme to assist the most vulnerable and decongest gravely overcrowded camps and reception facilities. The reality that over 37,000 unaccompanied children were referred for accommodation in Greece since 2016, indicates the scale of the needs and the multiple challenges the country has faced in trying to address them. Added to this, more than 18,000 unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents disappeared from state care across Europe between 2018 and 2020, including 2,118 from Greece, revealing just how vulnerable and at-risk this group can be.

Undeniably, Greece was not equipped to face the scale of the needs that arose with the arrival of these children. Age-appropriate, quality care arrangements, in line with the best interests of the child, were sorely lacking, leaving thousands of children out of long-term accommodation, in precarious conditions, in homelessness or even detention. From the moment of first arrival in the country, unaccompanied childrens safety is impacted as a result of inadequate first reception, identification and registration services and the lack of appointed guardians. If children are not officially recognised as children following the identification stage, then they are forced to live with unknown adults, in inadequate accommodation, without the protection services they need and are entitled to.

In November 2019, the Prime Minister of Greece made a public pledge to protect unaccompanied children through the No Child Alone scheme, at a time when over 5,000 were present in the country. Since then, Greece has made considerable improvements in the protection of unaccompanied children, especially in the provision of quality accommodation and care arrangements. Important advances include the legal abolition of protective custody and the gradual phasing out of safe zones and hotels as means of accommodation. Significantly, the creation of supported independent living apartments demonstrated a marked shift from institutional care and other more isolating and segregated settings to more appropriate, supported and empowering independent living. However, despite these welcome improvements, serious gaps in the protection of unaccompanied children remain.

Providing sufficient safety and support for unaccompanied children is the joint responsibility of both Greece and the EU as a whole, as part of the wider refugee response and in line with EU values and law. The relocation of over 1,000 children from Greece to other European countries is a practical show of solidarity that has also allowed Greece to protect the children remaining in its territory more effectively. Still, more needs to be done. EU member states should urgently fulfil their pledges to relocate unaccompanied children and put family unity at the heart of their asylum policies, allowing all children with family elsewhere in Europe, to join their relatives and grow up with their family. Sadly, in 2020, 3/4 of all family reunification requests of unaccompanied children in Greece were rejected by other EU countries.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been providing child protection services for asylum-seekers, refugees and other migrants in Greece since 2016. Based on this work, as well as relevant protection and migration programming around the world, we believe that durable solutions that better address the needs and safeguard the rights of unaccompanied children must be urgently introduced or expanded. These include, as a priority, swifter family reunification for children with family members elsewhere in Europe; relocation to other European countries, ideally through a more permanent EU-wide relocation mechanism; resourced and effective foster care for younger children; and the increased provision of supported independent living accommodation for children over 16 years of age.

Supported yet independent accommodation is a community-based-care and protection model for largely self-sufficient adolescents, based on the provision of safe housing and individualised support with a view to supporting residents gradual and sustained autonomy. Considering that more than 90% of the unaccompanied children in Greece are over 14 years of age, and the largest percentage are 16 years or older, the importance of the SIL apartments model is evident. However, for this model to achieve its full potential in helping unaccompanied children transition smoothly into adulthood and integrate into society, serious gaps must be addressed. The Greek state needs to resolve serious issues affecting childrens access to the asylum procedure, health care, and education, as well as their representation by guardians, as they are separated from their parents.

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A chance for a better future: Supported independent living and the protection of unaccompanied children in Greece [EN/EL] - Greece - ReliefWeb

It was a difficult decision not to run again, Mayor Don Iveson told city council on September 7 while attending his last meeting.

Iveson announced back in November 2020 that he would not be running for a third term as mayor, leaving us with a 14-year legacy. Over the last decade and a half, Iveson has made a great impact on our city, though whether Edmonton will continue to follow the path Iveson has set remains to be seen. Lets take a look over the highlights of his career.

Don Iveson initially ran for council back in 2007. He ran in Ward 5 against incumbents Bryan Anderson and Mike Nickel. Despite the advantage the incumbents had, Iveson won the second seat available for Ward 5, beating out Nickel by nearly 2,000 votes. Early into his time as councillor, Iveson started working on Edmontons environmental portfolio; this later carried on into his work as mayor. During his time as councillor, Iveson attended climate change conferences and consistently showed concern for making Edmonton a greener city.

However, in my experience I have found that even after 14 years in politics, Ivesons push for environmentalism has gotten lost among the other policies he has implemented and Edmontonians often forget that environmentalism was a big part of Ivesons platform to begin with.

In 2013, Steven Mandel announced that he would not be running for mayor again. Iveson seized his opportunity to make an even bigger difference and ran for office. In October that year, Iveson won with 62 per cent of the vote.

Ivesons mayoral platform was based on sustainability of the city and ending homelessness. But in fall last year, he expressed concern over the citys struggle to achieve the 10 year plan to end homelessness citing struggles with other levels of government as part of the issue.

Ivesons mission to end homelessness was really put to the test in 2020 with the appearance of Camp Pekiwewin in Edmontons Rossdale neighbourhood. The camps population was dispersed among homeless shelters throughout the city and Iveson vowed to find permanent housing for Edmontons homeless population. That being said, the forcible abolition of the camp has made me question Ivesons sincerity on his promise to end homelessness and likely has many other young Edmontonians feeling the same way.

Though his career has been long, Iveson has impressively had only one notable controversy over the last 14 years. Back in 2015, in a tweet, Iveson speculated the shooting and death of EPS officer Daniel Woodhall may be connected to the abolition of the federal gun registry. Iveson later took the tweet down, issuing an apology.

Ivesons work to curb gun violence continued into 2021 when Justin Trudeaus government introduced a bill that would allow municipalities to ban guns within their borders rather than having a national law put in place by the federal government. Iveson voiced his concerns, maintaining the belief that municipal bans on handguns would simply not be effective unless municipalities worked together. This was also linked to his belief that a systematic approach needs to be taken in order to control drug use and organized crime, rather than each municipality dealing with it on their own.

While in office, Iveson had to face the discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children at residential schools. In response, Iveson pushed for the renaming of Grandin station. There were concerns raised about the murals in the station in 2014, which displays Vital-Justin Grandin, the stations namesake who helped administer and design Canadas residential school system. At the time, art honouring Indigenous culture was added on either side. This was proven unsatisfactory and, for the sake of reconciliation, Iveson rightly advocated for the station renaming and painting over the mural and was successful on both counts the station is now known as the Government Centre station.

The Valley Line LRT has been a defining feature of Don Ivesons career. It will be completed in two stages Valley Line Southeast and Valley Line West.

Construction for the Valley Line Southeast started in 2016 and was originally projected to be completed in 2020 but was pushed multiple times and is now set to finish in the first quarter of 2022. The construction of the Valley Line West is still projected to start in 2021. The project will ultimately make transit more efficient for transit riders, but there has been a cutback of transit routes across the city to make the buses faster. Buses avoid going through neighbourhoods and make the routes longer to ensure transit access for Edmontonians that live further away from Edmontons core. Though these cuts enabled access to transit even in the suburb communities of Edmonton, the combination of lost bus routes and the delayed LRT opening has been a source of frustration for Edmontonians which has undoubtedly cast a shadow on Ivesons time in office.

During Ivesons re-election campaign in 2017, his agenda was questioned; David Staples of the Edmonton Journal stated that Iveson has never been more popular in the city of Edmonton. But his agenda for progressive change? Theres far more doubt on that count. Concerns were voiced regarding his push for the LRT, bike accessibility, photo radar speed traps, and affordable housing. These were initiatives Iveson took in order to improve Edmontons sustainability, however, Edmontonians did not necessarily always appreciate the services that higher taxes provided.

Iveson has also been known for being a proponent of Edmontons LGBTQ2S+ community. In 2014, he attended the Mayoral Pride Brunch and in 2019 moved to ban conversion therapy, calling the practice psychological abuse. MLA Janis Irwin and MP Randy Boissonnault worked with city council to put the ban through and then went on to push the movements in their own respective levels of government.

Don Ivesons 14 years in office in municipal government have certainly been notable and he has left his mark on this city. Despite a rise in support for more populist politicians, Edmonton has elected a progressive mayor and council that look promising. It is clear that Ivesons influence will certainly not be easily erased.

Thank you for your service, Don.

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Iveson is gone, what should we remember him by? - The Gateway Online