Έκθεση State Department - Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα

Η έκθεση του State Department για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα δεν άρεσε ιδιαίτερα στην Ελλάδα.

Την ίδια στιγμή που ο Γιώργος Παπανδρέου συνέστησε στην κυβέρνηση να λάβει σοβαρά υπόψη της την έκθεση, η κυβέρνηση αγρόν αγοράζει.

Η κυβέρνηση προτιμάει να μην βλέπει τα στραβά της και ειδικά όταν μιά αναφορά έρχεται από τους Αμερικανούς, οι ιθύνοντες την πετάνε στα άχρηστα, διότι αυτοί ξέρουν καλύτερα.
Αναφέρουμε μερικά θέματα της έκθεσης και όχι σε λεπτομέρειες.
Σε άλλη στιγμή θα αναφερθούμε αναλυτικά σε κάποια θέματα που δεν συμπεριλάβαμε εδώ.

Σε γενικές γραμμές
The government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in several areas.
Human rights abuses reported during the year included: reports of abuse by security forces, particularly of undocumented immigrants and Roma; overcrowding and harsh conditions in some prisons; detention of undocumented migrants in squalid conditions; some legal restrictions on freedom of speech (although not enforced in practice); restrictions and administrative obstacles faced by members of non‑Orthodox religions, including serious delays in receiving permits; detention and deportation of unaccompanied or separated immigrant minors, including asylum seekers; failure to provide adequate protection to victims of domestic violence; discrimination against Romani children in education; exploitation of Romani children through begging and forced labor; trafficking in persons; limits on the ability of ethnic minority groups to self‑identify; and discrimination against and social exclusion of ethnic minorities, particularly Roma.
A large number of Roma lacked access to adequate housing, basic medical care, public services, and employment opportunities.

Ειδικότερα για τον Αλέξη
On December 6, a police officer killed 15‑year‑old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the Exarchia district in Athens, as Grigoropoulos and other youths reportedly were throwing rocks at a police vehicle.
Authorities arrested the officer and his partner in connection with the shooting. The officer claimed that he fired warning shots and did not aim at Grigoropoulos. Autopsy and ballistics reports, requested by the victim's family, indicated that Grigoropoulos was killed by a ricochet bullet.
The official investigation into the circumstances of the shooting was still pending at year's end.
The shooting touched off more than a month of riots and demonstrations by youths and self‑styled anarchists in cities across the country that resulted in injuries to dozens of civilians and police as well as an estimated 1 billion euros (approximately $1.4 billion) in property damage.
Both policemen were in custody at year's end on as yet undetermined charges.

Για τις φυλακές
The Ministry of Justice reported that, as of September, the total prison population was 11,798, while the official capacity of the prison system was 7,543.

Για τον Κύπριο φοιτητή
In November eight Thessaloniki police officers were convicted in connection with the beating of a Cypriot student in 2006. The officers were convicted of causing bodily harm and were given sentences ranging from 15-39 months, with the option to avoid jail time by paying five euros (approximately $8) for each day of the sentence. The former police precinct director in place at the time of the beating was convicted for neglecting his supervisory duty and given a suspended 15‑month sentence. The policemen appealed their convictions, which were pending at year's end. Press and local NGOs criticized the punishments as lenient.

Κάτι που δεν γνωρίζαμε είναι ότι το κράτος αναγνωρίζει τον Ισλαμικό νόμο πράγμα που πιστεύουμε πως είναι απαράδεκτο και αντισυνταγματικό, αφού μέσο αυτού καταπατούνται κυρίως τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα γυναικών και παιδιών.
The government recognizes Shari'a (Islamic religious law) as the law regulating family and civic issues of the Muslim minority in Thrace.
Muslim women in Thrace have inferior rights to men under family law, property law, and in the judicial system, since these issues are resolved under Shari'a (Muslim religious) law interpreted by muftis.
The government recognizes Shari'a as the law regulating the family and civic issues of the Muslim minority in Thrace, and thus the first instance courts in Thrace routinely ratified the muftis' decisions.
In an unprecedented March case, a court of first instance in Rodopi Prefecture refused to ratify a mufti's decision that awarded a woman only a small share of her parental inheritance, instead of the one‑half share provided by the law.
The court held that Greek and European law should prevail over Shari'a law.
The court stated that the use of Shari'a should not deprive the country's Muslim women of their rights and should not be applied if it violated the basic principles of the constitution regarding the equality of the sexes and equality before the law. A final court decision regarding the division of property between the woman and her brother had not been delivered by year's end.

Ελευθερία στο Internet, αναφέρεται στον Αντώνη Τσιπρόπουλο του blogme.gr
The libel and defamation trial of an internet blog administrator who criticized a Greek Orthodox televangelist had not begun by year's end.
The blogger was charged in 2006 for comments that appeared on one of his Web sites allegedly calling the televangelist "stupid" for claiming that all things on earth came from Greece.

Βιασμοί γυναικών
Of the 47 rape cases that reached court, 20 resulted in conviction.
In September a Greek‑Spanish woman alleged that police in Eressos, Lesbos, threatened and discouraged her from filing charges against a local man who had beaten her. The victim alleged that the police officers at the station were friends of the perpetrator and were covering for him.

Πορνεία
It was estimated that fewer than 1,000 women were legally employed as prostitutes and approximately 20,000 women, most of foreign origin, were engaged in illegal prostitution.

Εμπόριο ανθρώπων
According to NGO estimates, there were 13,000-14,000 trafficking victims in the country at any given time.
Major countries of origin for trafficking victims included Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Albania, Moldova, Romania, and Belarus.
Women from many other countries were trafficked to the country and, in some cases, were reportedly trafficked on to Italy and other European Union countries as well as to the Middle East.
Women and children typically arrived as "tourists" or illegal immigrants and were lured into prostitution by club owners who threatened them with deportation.
In 2007 police conducted 42 trafficking investigations (30 sexual exploitation cases, 11 labor exploitation cases, and one illegal adoption), down from 70 in 2006. They brought charges against 121 suspected traffickers, down from 206 arrests in 2006.
Twenty-five defendants (in nine separate cases) were convicted of trafficking‑related charges, while three were acquitted. Sentences imposed on convicted traffickers remained lenient; moreover, the majority of convicted traffickers remained free on bail for five to six years while their convictions were appealed. The Ministry of Justice continued to lack effective databases, hindering its ability to provide and manage information on convictions and sentencing, especially in trafficking cases.