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	Pregnant women, families with small children, held in inhumane conditions by Morten Kjaerum Fundamental Rights Agency Greece   “Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of persons crossing the Greek land border in an irregular manner”   The Fundamental Rights Agency has published a report about the fundamental rights situation of persons entering Greece irregularly at its land border with Turkey. This report is based on field research in the Evros region in January 2011.   "The situation at the EU''s external land border between Greece and Turkey constitutes a fundamental rights emergency. People, including pregnant women and families with small children, are held in inhumane conditions," FRA Director Morten Kjaerum commented.   The situation in the detention centre in Soufli can be taken as an example: on 29 January 2011, the day of the FRA visit, 144 persons were being held in one room measuring about 110m2. There is no heating, and only one toilet and one cold shower are available for all detainees - with outside temperatures of around zero degrees Celsius.   The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe recommends 4m˛ of space per detainee in multi-occupancy accommodation. Nevertheless, no emergency measures have been implemented by the Greek authorities to address the conditions in detention centres in Evros - despite the availability of EU funds.   The FRA report identifies a number of factors which contribute to the current crisis, for instance, that everyone - except for persons requiring urgent hospitalisation - is automatically detained, including children and even babies.   Coordination of the local response in the Evros region is a key problem. Responsibilities for migration management are divided between four different ministries and allocation of responsibilities at local level is unclear.   One obvious way forward in addressing the immediate needs is the development of much stronger coordination mechanisms at a local operational level, which has proven to work effectively in other EU Member States.   Data and information for this report were directly collected by FRA staff through interviews with key actors, including people in detention as well as all relevant public authorities, and through direct observation of conditions at the border and inside detention centres; secondary data complemented the field research. The Greek government provided unimpeded access to all detention facilities to the FRA. Frontex provided important assistance in facilitating the field research.   Since 2010, Greek external EU land and sea borders account for 90% of all detections of irregular border crossings along all EU external land and sea borders. Daily crossings at the eastern border in Evros reached peaks of up to 350 persons. The largest group of migrants (44%) comes from Afghanistan. In 2010, 45 people lost their lives trying to cross the border in the Evros region. Visit the related web page
	Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses by International Federation for Human Rights   A Guide for Victims and NGOs on Recourse Mechanisms.   The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is pleased to announce the publication of a guide for victims and NGOs on recourse mechanisms in cases of corporate-related human rights violations. The guide was launched today in Amsterdam on the occasion of a public debate on corporate justice held in collaboration with the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and OECD Watch and with the participation of experts such as Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, author of the guide’s foreword and former FIDH Secretary General and Katherine Gallagher, Attorney of the Centre for Constitutional Rights and FIDH Vice-President.   In all parts of the world, human rights and environmental abuses are taking place as a result of the direct or indirect action of corporations. In Latin America, union leaders are being shot for publicly claiming their rights in many countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador.   From the Philippines to Peru, indigenous peoples’ right to be consulted in relation to investment projects in the extractive industry continues to be ignored.   Twenty years after the Bhopal tragedy, in which toxic gases leaked from a pesticide plant owned by the Union Carbide Corporation, thousands of surviving victims are still awaiting fair compensation and the plant site has still not been cleaned up.   Yet, victims of corporate-related abuses still struggle to obtain justice and as a result, impunity prevails.   With this guide, FIDH seeks to provide a practical tool for victims and their representatives, NGOs and other civil society groups (unions, peasant associations, social movements, activists) to seek justice and obtain reparation for victims of human rights abuses involving multinational corporations.   The guide is comprised of five sections. Each examines a different type of instrument, including intergovernmental mechanisms, legal options, mediation mechanisms such as the OECD national contact points, complaints mechanisms stemming from financial support received by companies and mechanisms that can be explored according to voluntary commitments taken by companies.   FIDH hopes it will encourage the actors involved to share and exchange strategies on the outcomes of using these mechanisms and help to ensure victims of human rights violations can obtain justice. Visit the related web page
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