Canadians Abroad Part 2: The question of the rights of Canadian citizens abroad has recently come to light in the case of Mohamed El-Attar. El-Attar was put to trial on Feb 24th 2007 in Egypt for allegedly being a spy for the Israeli Mossad in Canada. He was picked up on January 1st on a […]
Canadians Abroad Part 1: The question of how immigrants should be treated, or considered equally among all social and cultural groups in a country was put to its greatest test in Canada in the summer of 2006. During the conflict between Israel and Lebanon last summer there was a flood of protests and criticisms against […]
Berlin played host to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Treaties of Rome, the cornerstone of the modern European Union over the weekend. Germany's presidency of the Council is a fortuitous coincidence, imbuing these celebrations with a particularly symbolic air. As one of the founding nations, a country divided until […]
Nearly 180,000 undocumented migrants in Germany will soon be able to live in the country legally – providing they have a job by 2009. This is one of the core provisions etched into the compromise solution hammered out between the members of the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic and Christian Democratic Parties last week. The […]
With approximately 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico currently living in the United States, the focus of the last leg of Bush's Latin America Tour in Mexico was dominated by immigration issues. In the article “Mexico presses Bush over Immigration on Tour“, writer Steve Holland suggests that President Felipe Calderon of Mexico surprised many by placing […]
Elihu Root, a leading American International Lawyer argued in 1910 for the rights of Foreign Nationals. In states in which they were not citizens, there was an obligation under Customary International Law that national law must treat aliens as equal to that of their own citizens, as well, that there is an International Minimum Standard […]
TIME Magazine featured an interesting cover story a few weeks ago. In it, author Jumana Farouky highlights five steps toward a true muticultural society in Europe. She suggests that the debate on headscarves take on a more rational approach accross Europe, as a sign of a true acceptance of Islam into the multi-facetted spectrum of […]
Central America: Part 1: In communities all over North America since the 1980s there has been an ever-growing community of Central Americans among American, Canadian and Mexican cities. The destruction of many communities due to the Central American wars in the 1980s have left permanent scars among not only the economic, social and political structures […]
The protection of fundamental rights for all residing in the EU is the goal of the European Fundamental Rights Agency (EFRA) launched today in Vienna, Austria. EFRA previously functioned as the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). The agency's core competence will remain the same: data and information collection on the abuse of […]