Leo van Doesburg

Within a few hours, the year 2020 will be ended. For many, this year probably was a very difficult one. It was determined by the Covid-19 pandemic which may have caused you moments of sadness, fear or even anger.  We were limited in doing things we normally like doing. Even meeting our loved ones during Easter and Christmas was a challenge for many this year. Such limitations can give us a feeling that we are living in a dark days.  But even during these times Christmas still exists, although we celebrated it differently this year. We still were reminded of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a humble stable in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph were taken away from their loved ones and had to go to that city. And when they arrived to Bethlehem, there was no place for Mary to give birth at, and there were no family or loved ones to welcome the baby. Perhaps a few animals in the stable. How lonely this couple could have felt? Nevertheless, God brought shepherds and wise m...

  Today is the European Day on the Protectionof Children   against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, an initiative by the Council of Europe. This year’s European Day focuses on preventing risky behaviour by children through child self-generated sexual images and/or videos. The COVID crisis has unfortunately exacerbated the problem of child sexual abuse, as the "EU Strategy for a Most Effective Fight Against Child Sex Abuse" highlighted.   Children are spending more time than before online, possibly unsupervised. While this has allowed them to continue their studies and not fall behind in the education process, there are signs that they are at an increased risk of encountering predators.   Actions to address these problems are therefore needed. To that end, on the 9th of December, ECPM Member of the European Parliament Helmut Geuking , as co-chair of the European Parliament Intergroup on Demographic Challenges, Family-Work Balance and Youth Transitions, will ...

In the framework of the European Anti-Trafficking Day, I was invited as a speaker to a large online conference on "Combating Human Trafficking - a Continued Struggle, adapted to the new context generated by the COVID-19 Pandemic". This conference was organized by the Parliamentary Group for the Fight Against Human Trafficking in the Romanian Parliament. See here my presentation: Some of the other speakers were : Angel TÎLVĂR , coordinator of the Parliamentary Group for the Fight against human trafficking, Valiant RICHEY, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Bogdan DESPESCU , Secretary of State, Police Chief-Quaestor of Police, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Cornel FERUȚĂ , Secretary of State for Global Affairs and Diplomatic Strategies Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cristina-Ionela IURIŞNIŢI , Chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, Olivier ONIDI , EU Anti-trafficking Coordinator, Gabriela SCUTEA , Pr...