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I was cheered to read this intervention by Bob Spink MP, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Baha’is, in a recent Westminster Hall Adjournment Debate in the UK House of Commons. The debate was about the Foreign Affairs Committee’s eighth report of the 2006-07 parliamentary session on global security in the middle east:

Bob Spink (Castle Point, Conservative)

Again, I congratulate the Committee on this excellent report on a difficult matter.

I shall speak on a narrow subject. In chapter 5 of the report, on Egypt, I note that the part entitled “Human Rights and Democratisation” does not address a certain issue. I understand the Committee’s difficulty in visiting every point on human rights, but minority rights in Egypt are important, and I wish to flag them up.

The inception of a new system of computerised ID cards in Egypt compelled its citizens to identify themselves as members of one of three constitutionally recognised religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Members of Egypt’s Baha’i minority have been unable to register as citizens of their own country. On 16 December 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the Government’s position that forces Baha’is either to falsely claim to be a member of a religion or go without an ID card. Egyptian Baha’is are therefore unable to register the birth of their children, denying those children access to education, jobs and medical treatment. They are effectively unable to live as citizens in the country of their birth. That is a minority issue, and it is understandable why it is not covered in the report. Other religious groups in Egypt, including the Copts, who have changed their religion, have also faced a problem in getting ID cards.

Denying fundamental freedoms to Egyptian citizens on that basis appears to be a breach of Egypt’s obligations under article 18 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, as was asserted in a recent report by Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. It would be useful for future reports of the Foreign Affairs Committee to examine minority rights, if possible.

Mr Spink had been briefed by the UK National Spiritual Assembly’s Office of External Affairs.

Jo Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, picked up on Mr Spink’s intervention:

The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) made a brief but welcome contribution about minority rights in Egypt and the discrimination against the Baha’i, which picked up on the similar point that we heard about religious discrimination against Christian students. Obviously, both types of discrimination are appalling and need to be on the agenda of our Ministers and diplomats in their relations with the countries involved.

Mike Gapes MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, responded:

For the record, each year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office produces an annual human rights report. The Committee always produces our commentary on it, and we consider human rights issues such as religious and minority rights in a number of countries as part of that. However, we do not always repeat in every regionally focused report what we have done at other times.

Needless to say, the fact that a couple of British MPs have mentioned the plight of the Baha’is in Egypt in a debate is unlikely to change anything for the Egyptian Baha’is, but it does keep the matter on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which can play an influential part in British foreign policy, and hence on the radar screen of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Egypt, parliament, House of Commons, Bob Spink, Jo Swinson

You can read the rest of the debate here. And you can read more about the latest developments in the situation of the Baha’is in Egypt here.

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I was appalled to read this on the BBC News website:

UK astronomers will lose access to two of the world’s finest telescopes in February, as administrators look to plug an £80m hole in their finances.

Observation programmes on the 8.1m telescopes of the Gemini organisation will end abruptly because Britain is cancelling its subscription.

It means UK astronomers can no longer view the Northern Hemisphere sky with the largest class of telescope.

Researchers say they are aghast at the administrators’ decision.

So the bean-counters win out over the scientists. This is how one astronomer reacted:

“To withdraw from the state-of-the-art Gemini facilities leaves the UK ground-based astronomy strategy in disarray - some would say deliberately sabotaged,” said Professor Paul Crowther from Sheffield University.

“This will badly affect the UK astronomical community’s ability to address questions such as how galaxies form, or look for planets around other stars, or be able to adequately exploit space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope,” explained the current chair of the UK telescope allocation committee for Gemini.

“The loss of Gemini North is particularly acute, since the majority of the UK past investment has been focused upon the Northern Hemisphere,” he told BBC News.

My daughter and son-in-law are both pursuing astrophysics PhDs and I know how precious telescope time is for both their projects. What’s more Britain has long played a leading role in astronomy, so to cut our astronomers off from this world-class telescope is the height of madness.

Aaaargh!!!

Technorati Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, Gemini North, telescope

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