Poland: Sexual Crimes and Roman Polanski

Posted 30 September 2009 0:27 GMT

Countries	Poland, U.S.A., Switzerland
Topics	Governance, History, Human Rights, Law, International Relations, Politics
Languages	English

Poland

Polandian writes about Poland's plans to legalize chemical castration for those who commit sexual crimes against minors - and about the arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland and the Polish foreign minister's intention to ask the U.S. president to pardon the film director: “Now, if the 1977 charge had been for shoplifting, one might just about argue that Poland has the right to go asking for a pardon for this famous son, however, the charge was for the rape of a 13 year old girl when Polanski was 44.”

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Updates about Western Europe

10 February 2012

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Elsa Doladille writes [fr] on the Educators Without Borders blog : ” While the Guéant Bill in France aims at toughening the conditions for foreign students to obtain a work permit, Germany encourages the integration of students from abroad in their workforce.”

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Human Rights

Pierre Vicari [fr] had this to say about the results of a survey [fr] which appeared on the site Lefigaro.fr, “To the ignoramuses who say that PACS and marriage are the same thing: No! A PACS does not provide any of the same rights as marriage! In addition, you intolerant people who do not want equality for all human beings, please tell us why because so far, despite the years that this debate has been going on, nobody has been able to put forth any real arguments.”

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Georgia

As parliamentary elections approach this year in Georgia, to be followed by a presidential vote in 2013, allegations against Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire opposition politician, have appeared on the Internet. The alleged exposé of life in the Ivanishvili household by American teacher Patrick Downey, formerly employed by the businessman turned politician, have been met with skepticism from other expatriates in the former Soviet republic, and not least because of claims also made against Georgia in general, the U.S., and [his ancestral homeland of] Ireland. Downey had sought asylum or residency in the latter, according to a video blog, “[…] in light of recent uncontrolled and willfully ill-advised policies concerning the mass emigration of non-Irish persons to Ireland […].” Ivanishvili has responded by saying that Downey “is suffering from psychological problems.”

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8 February 2012

Religion

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