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Von 18 Tonnen Rüebli, die der Demeter-Betrieb Gut Rheinau verkaufen wollte, erhielt er 13 Tonnen zurück – wegen Mängeln. Stecken dahinter absurde Schönheitsnormen, oder würde die krummen Karotten niemand kaufen? Blick beleuchtet das System hinter dem Biogemüse.

Die Schweizer Rüstungsbranche steht vor wachsenden Herausforderungen. Deutschland verzichtet bewusst auf den Kauf von Schweizer Kriegsmaterial, da es im Ernstfall nicht an die Ukraine weitergegeben werden dürfe. Was meint die Community dazu?

581107 Public Affairs Unit, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Katya Andrusz

Over 100 criminal justice experts and representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as from international organizations met in Astana from 20 to 21 November 2024 for the Ninth Expert Forum on Criminal Justice for Central Asia, organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan.

“All OSCE states have committed to building effective criminal justice systems based on the rule of law,” said ODIHR Director’s Alternate and First Deputy Director Tea Jaliashvili. “Through fair and effective criminal justice systems, countries improve human rights protection and increase security both at home and across the entire region.”

Organized in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Legal Policy and Research Center (LPRC), and Dignity Kazakhstan, and supported by the OSCE Programme Offices in Astana, Bishkek and Dushanbe, the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, the event enabled an in-depth assessment of new developments in the criminal justice system.

Participants focused on recent trends and ongoing reforms, changes to criminal procedure in Central Asia, and their impact specifically on the right to a fair trial and on criminal justice systems overall. Topics along the entire criminal justice chain were discussed, from arrest, through investigation and interrogation and the digitalization process in the area of criminal justice, to court proceedings and alternatives to imprisonment. 

While there have been a number of positive developments in the field of criminal justice in Central Asia in recent years, restrictions on fundamental rights have undermined reform efforts. The lack of guarantees to ensure the independence of judiciary and fair trial right remains among the main challenges to the effective functioning of criminal justice systems in the region.

The Forum has been organized by ODIHR since 2008, and takes place every two years. The last forum took place in Tashkent in 2021.

La filière européenne du coquillage doit s'adapter aux conséquences du réchauffement climatique, qui affecte la production du continent. Pour sortir la tête de l'eau, les organisations professionnelles demandent une politique aquacole commune et une véritable stratégie de relance.

Auf der Flucht erlitt die Syrerin Suha Jneid in der Schweiz eine Totgeburt. Die Schweizer Grenzwache hatte ihr damals medizinische Hilfe verweigert. Jetzt hat das Bundesgericht der Familie eine Genugtuung zugesprochen.

Un ancien gradé a facturé 412’300 francs à la Confédération pendant quinze mois. Le Ministère public enquête sur les circonstances du mandat.

Baku Emergency Services team: Fazid Xalilov, Emil Alivyev, and Eldar Rzqyev. Credit: IPS

By Cecilia Russell
BAKU , Nov 22 2024 (IPS)

The drive home is uneventful. Our Bolt driver is a careful driver—the bright, half-moon provides a delightful end to an evening of song and good food. Our last night as an IPS team at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

A short friendly spat over who will hold the ample leftovers is settled, and my phone slips off my lap and onto the floor. Forgotten.

About an hour later, back in the room, I look for it. My backpack gets pulled apart; jacket pockets checked, rechecked, rechecked again. It’s simply gone.

“Call 112,” my colleague Umar Manzoor Shah WhatsApps me. I know he is still awake as he has to write a story for the next day, and we persuaded him to abandon his post and join us for dinner. The WhatsApp web is still working on my computer. “Call from the landline in your room.”

Searching for the missing phone online.

I do, then when I realize that I have called emergency services. I tell the very kind woman on the line that my phone is lost—it isn’t an emergency, just a lost phone.

“We can help you,” she insists, and a few minutes later (and at this time very close to midnight), there is knocking on my door. I do what I would consider unthinkable in South Africa and open it to find three smiling young men there.

I explain about the phone—explain it could be on the Bolt or in the shuttle from The Grand to the Polo Residences. What it looks like, my name, my number, all the possible details.

All the time I feel slightly embarrassed because it’s a phone, not a real emergency, and the only loss really is that it will be inconvenient, and I would have lost the lovely video of the incredible singer from Kasa Masa where we had dined with my colleagues crooning to the theme song from Titanic. Video only uploads on wi-fi.

The group of men leaves with promises that tomorrow I will have my phone. I am impressed at their concern, but mostly I find it incredible the interest shown in this lost phone, something seldom seen back home.

I made tea, opened my computer, and decided to try to trace my phone. iPhones are easy to trace, so I check online for the ‘how’, check into ‘find my devices’, and voilà—there is the last trace of it at The Grand.

I call emergency services again to say I have found it, and a few minutes later my three young men reappear.

We check its location again, and it’s moving back to town, this time in the Bolt. We ping it online, as it makes a loud noise. Somebody answers—they phone him on my phone. They video call him—he shows me my phone—and I identify it by its colorful flowery cover.

The men laugh and joke—they will be back in half an hour with my phone. It arrives, they do. And so it’s recovered.

Nobody is more surprised than me—this service is a real bolt from the blue. Not expecting another, but life may surprise me, until the next blue moon in 2037.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Selon nos informations, les défenseurs des contrats d'achat d'électricité nucléaire à long terme pour la production d’hydrogène « bas-carbone » font pression pour que la Commission prenne une décision sur leur reconnaissance en 2026, plutôt qu’en 2028, comme prévu actuellement.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel and the United States, which do not officially recognise the ICC, have harshly criticised the move. Europe's press is divided.

Russia says it has fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. President Putin explained in a video address that the Oreshnik missile was launched from the Russian region of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea in response to attacks against Russia with Western missiles. It was not carrying nuclear warheads although these missiles are nuclear-capable, he added. Commentators take stock.