The offices of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where I attended a meeting this afternoon, are to be found at the extraordinary address of 3 More London. How much more London do we want?

More London

More London is a new street that connects Tooley Street with Queen’s Walk (between London Bridge and City Hall and near Tower Bridge).

Tower Bridge and City Hall

City Hall and 3 More London

HMS Belfast

View across the river to the “Gherkin”

All photos © John Barnabas Leith under a Creative Commons licence.

Technorati Tags: London, riverside, Thames, More London, City Hall, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, gherkin

Did you know that one third of all women is likely to experience some form of violence or abuse in her lifetime? This was the stark figure revealed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today as he launched a multi-year global campaign to try to end violence against women. “It’s an issue that cannot wait,” he said, as he opened the latest session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Said Mr Ban:

At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist

He continued:

This is a campaign for them. It is a campaign for the women and girls who have the right to live free of violence, today and in the future. It is a campaign to stop the untold cost that violence against women inflicts on all humankind.

He called on youth, women’s groups, men, the private sector and UN member states to put their weight behind the campaign. He acknowledged that there can be no blanket approach to ending violence against women. Every country will have to formulate its own measures.

But there is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable

The Baha’i International Community’s Office for the Advancement of Women will be fully engaged in CSW and in the campaign, with the cooperation of national and local Baha’i communities across the world. You can read the BIC’s statement to the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women here.

Photo © Sherwin!!! under a Creative Commons licence.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Baha’i International Community, BIC, violence against women, UN, CSW, Ban Ki-moon

Slovenia, as the EU Presidency, has issued the following statement on behalf of the EU and a number of other countries, expressing grave concern at the draft penal code that the Iranian parliament is currently considering.

25.02.2008

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the EU concerning the consideration of a draft Penal code in Iran

The European Union is deeply concerned by the on-going deterioration in the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The EU expresses its acute concern about the news that the Iranian Parliament is reviewing a draft Penal code. The EU is concerned, in particular, about Section Five on Apostasy, Heresy and Witchcraft.

It is important to note that, if the law is adopted, it will be for the first time that the Islamic Republic of Iran had in its criminal code, as a legal stipulation, the death penalty for apostasy. In the past, the death penalty has been handed down and carried out in apostasy cases, but it has never before been set down in law. Furthermore, grave concern is also expressed over the articles concerning heresy and witchcraft, which determine death penalty as the punishment for acts that are contrary to the obligations and necessities of Islam.

These articles clearly violate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s commitments under the international human rights conventions, to which Iran is party.
The EU calls upon the Iranian authorities, both in Government and Parliament, to modify the draft Penal code in order to respect the obligations under the international human rights conventions to which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party. In its current state, the draft Penal code is not consistent with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s obligations and therefore should not enter into force as currently drafted.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

This draft penal code could have a devastating effect on the Baha’is of Iran, since many of them could be condemned under the new law’s apostasy provisions:

Apostasy provisions

Article 225-1: Any Muslim who clearly announces that he/she has left Islam and declares blasphemy is an Apostate.

Article 225-2: Serious and earnest intention is the condition for certainty in apostasy. Therefore, if the accused claims that his/her statement had been made with reluctance or ignorance, or in error, or while drunk, or through a slip of the tongue or without understanding the meaning of the words, or repeating words of others; or his/her real intentions had been something else, he/she is not considered an apostate and his/her claim could be heard and justified.

Article 225-3: There are two kinds of apostates: innate (Fetri) and parental (Melli).

Article 225-4: Innate Apostate is someone whose parent (at least one) was a Muslim at the time of conception, and who declares him/herself a Muslim after the age of maturity, and leaves Islam afterwards.

Article 225-5: Parental Apostate is one whose parents (both) had been non-Muslims at the time of conception, and who has become a Muslim after the age of maturity, and later leaves Islam and returns to blasphemy.

Article 225-6: If someone has at least one Muslim parent at the time of conception but after the age of maturity, without pretending to be a Muslim, chooses blasphemy is considered a Parental Apostate.

Article 225-7: Punishment for an Innate Apostate is death.

Article 225-8: Punishment for a Parental Apostate is death, but after the final sentencing for three days he/she would be guided to the right path and encouraged to recant his/her belief and if he/she refused, the death penalty would be carried out.

Article 225-9: In the case of a Parental Apostate, whenever there appears to be a possibility of recanting, sufficient time would be provided.

Article 225-10: Punishment for women, whether Innate or Parental, is life imprisonment and during the sentence, under the guidance of the court, hardship will be exercised on her, and she will be guided to the right path and encouraged to recant, and if she recants she will be freed immediately.

Note: The condition of hardship will be determined according to the religious laws.

Article 225-11: Whoever claims to be a Prophet is sentenced to death, and any Muslim who invents a heresy in the religion and creates a sect based on that which is contrary to the obligations and necessities of Islam, is considered an apostate.

Article 225-12: Any Muslim who deals with witchcraft and promotes it as a profession or sect in the community is sentenced to death.

Article 225-13: Assistance to the crimes in this chapter, in case there is no other punishment assigned to it by law, is punishable by up to 74 lashes in proportion with the crime and the criminal.

Photo © squarcina under a Creative Commons licence.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Islam, Iran, majlis, apostasy, blasphemy, penal code, death penalty, EU

Yes, it’s that time of the year with a very strange name in the Baha’i calendar, the Ayyám-i-Há or literally the “Days of H”, sometimes referred to as “the Intercalary Days” since they are the four (five in this Leap Year) days between the penultimate and the final month of the Baha’i year.

It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name. [Baha’u'llah]

It’s also the time when Baha’is anticipate the beginning of our period of fasting - sunrise to sunset from 2 March to sunset on 20 March.

You can read more about the Ayyám-i-Há and what the Baha’i children of Solano, north of Manila, in the Philippines are doing to mark these days here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, ayyam-i-ha, calendar, celebration, fasting