Leo van Doesburg

The Observatory's Report on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in the Year 2011 was released on March 19th, 2012. This report portrays the most important developments with regard to freedom of religion, the most striking cases of intolerance and discrimination throughout Europe – and what individuals and institutions say about it. The report includes several statistics as well as analysis of the meaning of freedom of religion in the European context. Dr. Gudrun Kugler, director of the Observatory, explains: „Studies suggest that 85% of all hate crimes with an anti-religion background in Europe are directed against Christians. It is high time for the public debate to respond to this reality! We also notice professional restrictions for Christians: a restrictive application of freedom of conscience leads to professions such as magistrates, doctors, nurses and midwives as well as pharmacists slowly closing for Christians. Teachers and parents get ...

On 25 March 2012, Slovenia held a post-legislative referendum on the new Family Code that was adopted in the Slovenian parliament in June 2011. In a popular vote, 55% of voters rejected the new Family Code and 45% supported the law. Turnout was 30% on a sunny Sunday. The new Family Code had 309 articles and addresses many issues, but despite intense negotiations over the past two and a half years continued to include serious threats to the family and rights of children.

Strasbourg , 15 March 2012. In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of GAS et DUBOIS c. France (Requête n o 25951/07) , the European Court of Human Rights held, by six votes to one, that there had been no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights by the limitation of MPA techniques to heterosexual couples and by the French refusal to allow a woman to adopt her same-sex partner’s child. (Source: Grégor Puppinck , Director of the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) See further information here

The British Government is threatening to further undermine religious liberty by arguing that Christians do not have a right to wear a cross or crucifix openly at work. According to a March 10th article in the Daily Telegraph , ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.  They will argue that "because it is not a "requirement" of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so," the Telegraph reports. (Source: Dignitatis Humanae Institute )

It was of course never to be expected that the European Commission, as a reply to critical questions from the European Parliament with regard to the generous funding it is handing out to ILGA-Europe (a homosexual lobby group), would openly acknowledge to have committed a misuse of budgetary funds. But if replies to parliamentary questions are evasive and not to the point, this can be viewed as a clear indication that the Commission finds it very difficult to explain to the public what it is doing. Click here for an interesting article with the official asked questions of MEP Godfrey Bloom to the European Commission, the answers of different European Commissioners. Unfortunately it shows a lack of transparency in spending money, a strange relations with the Civil Society and a low level of democracy. This all in times of economic crisis where lots of money seemed to be wasted.......  (Source: turtlebay and beyond)