Leo van Doesburg

The 10th Summer School is about Sustainability The European Christian Political Youth Network (ECPYN) will host its 10th International Summer School in Finland in July. The topic for the five-day Summer School is ”A Christian approach to Sustainable Development”. The event will take place from the 1st to the 5th of July 2013 at Conference Hotel Sofia (Kallvikintie 28) in Helsinki .   You can apply for the Summer School here The Summer School offers the participants a great opportunity to learn more about Christian Democratic politics, discuss sustainable development and meet other young like-minded people from all over Europe. All this in the middle of the Finnish nature by the sea, yet close to Helsinki city centre.

A panel of five judges at the European Court of Human Rights will tomorrow (Monday 27th May) consider whether the cases of Shirley Chaplin and Gary McFarlane should be heard by the Grand Chamber of the Court. These cases are very significant for the future of Christian freedoms in the UK and across the Council of Europe area (c. 800 million citizens). In a press release, Christian Concern (defending these cases) asks people to pray that the Judges refer the cases to the Grand Chamber. 

The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians releases 41 examples of national laws with adverse effects on Christians in more than 15 European Countries. Additionally, 169 cases of intolerance against Christians in the EU – area in 2012 are portrayed. The report was presented on May 21 at an OSCE High Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-discrimination held in Tirana, Albania, in a keynote speech delivered by the Observatory’s director Dr. Gudrun Kugler. Read the full speech here   Read more here 

On the 17th of May ( on International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia) , the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) presented the results of the largest LGTB survey ever on experiences of hate crime and discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGTB) people during a conference hosted by the Dutch Government in The Hague. In this (370,000 Euros-taxpayer-Euro) report, the shocking claim has been made that a quarter of the 93.000 LGBT people that answered the questionnaire said that they had become victims of physical violence in the past and claimed that this is the largest LGTB survey ever on Hate Crimes and Discrimination. With pride this report was presented and even new Queen Maxima of the Netherlands participated at the opening.    However, if you look carefully to the report and the procedures how these results were obtained, then serious questions raise about the credibility of both this report and their results.  Please find here a critica...