“Green advocacy” is the very opposite of informed consent.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talks during a press conference at the Hilton Hotel on Sept. 19, 2014 in New York City. Goodell spoke about the NFL's failure to address domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse in the league.; Credit: Elsa/Getty Images

Update 1:04 p.m. Goodell: 'Same mistakes can never be repeated'

Commissioner Roger Goodell says the NFL wants to implement new personal conduct policies by the Super Bowl. At a news conference Friday, Goodell made his first public statements in more than a week about the rash of NFL players involved in domestic violence. He did not announce any specific changes, but said he has not considered resigning.

"Unfortunately, over the past several weeks, we have seen all too much of the NFL doing wrong," he said. "That starts with me."

The league has faced increasing criticism that it has not acted quickly or emphatically enough concerning the domestic abuse cases.

The commissioner reiterated that he botched the handling of the Ray Rice case.

"The same mistakes can never be repeated," he said.

Goodell now oversees all personal conduct cases, deciding guilt and penalties.

He said he believes he has the support of the NFL's owners, his bosses.

"That has been clear to me," he said.

The Indianapolis Colts' Darius Butler was among those who tweeted criticism of the press conference:

Colts tweet 1

Colts tweet 2

The commissioner and some NFL teams have been heavily criticized for lenient or delayed punishment of Rice, Adrian Peterson and other players involved in recent domestic violence cases. Less than three weeks into the season, five such cases have made headlines, the others involving Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and Jonathan Dwyer.

Vikings star running back Peterson, Carolina defensive end Hardy and Arizona running back Dwyer are on a special commissioner's exemption list and are being paid while they go through the legal process. McDonald, a defensive end for San Francisco, continues to practice and play while being investigated on suspicion of domestic violence.

As these cases have come to light, such groups as the National Organization of Women and league partners and sponsors have come down hard on the NFL to be more responsive in dealing with them. Congress also is watching to see how the NFL reacts.

In response to the criticism, the NFL announced it is partnering with a domestic violence hotline and a sexual violence resource center.

Goodell also said in a memo to the clubs late Thursday that within the next 30 days, all NFL and team personnel will participate in education sessions on domestic violence and sexual assault. The memo said the league will work with the union in providing the "information and tools to understand and recognize domestic violence and sexual assault."

The league will provide financial, operational and promotional support to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

12:07 p.m. Roger Goodell to break silence on domestic abuse and the NFL

Roger Goodell will make his first public statements in more than a week about the rash of NFL players involved in domestic violence when he holds a news conference Friday.

The NFL commissioner will address the league's personal conduct policy. The league has faced increasing criticism it has not acted quickly or emphatically enough concerning the domestic abuse cases.

His last public appearance was at a high school in North Carolina on Sept. 10.

The commissioner and some NFL teams have been heavily criticized for lenient or delayed punishment of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and other players involved in recent domestic violence cases. Less than three weeks into the season, five such cases have made headlines, the others involving Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and Jonathan Dwyer.

Vikings star running back Peterson, Carolina defensive end Hardy and Arizona running back Dwyer are on a special commissioner's exemption list and are being paid while they go through the legal process. McDonald, a defensive end for San Francisco, continues to practice and play while being investigated on suspicion of domestic violence.

As these cases have come to light, such groups as the National Organization of Women and league partners and sponsors have come down hard on the NFL to be more responsive in dealing with them. Congress also is watching to see how the NFL reacts.

In response to the criticism, the NFL announced it is partnering with a domestic violence hotline and a sexual violence resource center.

Goodell also said in a memo to the clubs late Thursday that within the next 30 days, all NFL and team personnel will participate in education sessions on domestic violence and sexual assault. The memo said the league will work with the union in providing the "information and tools to understand and recognize domestic violence and sexual assault."

The league will provide financial, operational and promotional support to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

"These commitments will enable both the hotline and NSVRC to help more people affected by domestic violence and sexual assault," Goodell said in the memo.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides domestic violence victims and survivors access to a national network of resources and shelters. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 170 languages. Goodell noted that the hotline received 84 percent more calls from Sept. 8-15, and the organization said more than 50 percent of those calls went unanswered because of lack of staff.

"The hotline will add 25 full-time advocates over the next few weeks that will result in an additional 750 calls a day being answered," he said.

NSVRC supports sexual violence coalitions across the United States. The NFL's initial support will be directed toward state coalitions to provide additional resources to sexual assault hotlines.

This story has been updated.

A job seeker fills out an application during a career fair at the Southeast Community Facility Commission on May 21, 2014 in San Francisco; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

California employers added 44,200 jobs in August, the largest gain of any state in the country. The state's unemployment rate stood still at 7.4 percent, compared to 6.1 percent nationwide.

"When the national numbers came out for August, and we saw a significant slowdown in job creation, we were a little bit concerned that we'd see the same thing happening here," said economist Kimberly Ritter-Martinez of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. "But in California, we stayed pretty much on track, outpacing the nation in terms of job creation." 

The construction sector was a huge contributor to California's job growth in August, with a gain of 13,600 jobs.  The other sectors with large gains were Education/Health Services (+12,200), and Professional/Business Services (+10,600). 

"We've been seeing steady increases in construction employment for some time, but it has been a slow steady increase," said Tom Holsman, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of California.

"Recent increases are attributable to many projects that have been in the early stages of startup gaining momentum," Holsman added, citing LA County Metro transit projects and the new Wilshire Grand Hotel construction project as local examples.

In Los Angeles County, the unemployment rate also stayed flat at 8.1 percent, but it remains far lower than the 9.9 percent of August of 2013. In the last twelve months, the L.A. County Metro area has gained 6,600 construction jobs, a rate of 5.6 percent.

Ritter-Martinez, of the LAEDC says other economic indicators support a boost in construction jobs at the Los Angeles and statewide levels: permits for new housing construction, remodeling, and non-residential construction are all on the rise. 

"Builders and developers are reporting that they're having trouble finding some skilled labor for construction," Ritter-Martinez said. "It's taken so long for that sector to come back, a lot of construction people have gone off and found other kinds of jobs or moved out of the region." 

In Orange County, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.7 percent in July. The unemployment rate in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area was 8.7 percent in 
August 2014, down from a revised 9.3 percent in July 2014.

Get ready for some very hard, yet rewarding, work. Being an agent of change for the better is always rewarding, no matter what the industry, profession or hobby. Anything worth accomplishing is going to take a lot of work—just look at what we have seen at the recent Summer Olympics.

I recently conducted an online survey, asking gluten-free consumers whether breads, rolls, sweet goods and other baked products on the market today meet their expectations for taste, texture and nutritional quality. 

PL snack and bakery lines have moved beyond the basic and bargain-basement to go toe-to-toe with big-brand offerings.

Mr. Ticket, traffic ticket lawyer in Los Angeles, offers free consultation to drivers who have been charged with a traffic violation.

KM experts joined KMWorld's latest webinar, Enabling Knowledge-Based AI, to examine key components and best practices for adopting AI-enabled approaches that evolve, extend, and power knowledge systems.

I am a firm believer in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. If you've not read this book, it is worth the time. I mention this because my focus at BA Insight is around Covey's second habit, which is, "Begin with the end in mind." Seems simple, right? Well it is, but it's also quite rare. When approaching any enterprise search project, at any phase, I always try to come back to this idea. What is success? When are we done? What does finished look like? These are all different ways of saying, "Make sure you have goals!"

Yesterday, Cameron Koczon shared a link to the dingbat font, Pictos, by the talented, Drew Wilson. Cameron predicted that dingbats will soon be everywhere. Symbol fonts, yes, I thought. Dingbats? No, thanks. Jason Santa Maria replied:

@FictiveCameron I hope not, dingbat fonts sort of spit in the face of accessibility and semantics at the moment. We need better options.

Jason rightly pointed out the accessibility and semantic problems with dingbats. By mapping icons to letters or numbers in the character map, they are represented on the page by that icon. That’s what Pictos does. For example, by typing an ‘a’ on your keyboard, and setting Pictos as the font-face for that letter, the Pictos anchor icon is displayed.

Other folks suggested SVG and JS might be better, and other more novel workarounds to hide content from assistive technology like screen readers. All interesting, but either not workable in my view, or just a bit awkward.

Falling down with CSS text-replacement

A CSS solution in an article from Pictos creator, Drew Wilson, relies on the fact that most of his icons are mapped to a character that forms part of the common name for that symbol. The article uses the delete icon as an example which is mapped to ‘d’. Using :before and :after pseudo-elements, Drew suggests you can kind-of wrangle the markup into something sort-of semantic. However, it starts to fall down fast. For example, a check mark (tick) is mapped to ‘3’. There’s nothing semantic about that. Clever replacement techniques just hide the evidence. It’s a hack. There’s nothing wrong with a hack here and there (as box model veterans well know) but the ends have to justify the means. The end of this story is not good as a VoiceOver test by Scott at Filament Group shows. In fairness to Drew Wilson, though, he goes on to say if in doubt, do it the old way, using his font to create a background image and deploy with a negative text-indent.

I agreed with Jason, and mentioned a half-formed idea:

@jasonsantamaria that’s exactly what I was thinking. Proper unicode mapping if possible, perhaps?

The conversation continued, and thanks to Jason, helped me refine the idea into this post.

Jon Hicks flagged a common problem for some Windows users where certain Unicode characters are displayed as ‘missing character’ glyphs depending on what character it is. I think most of the problems with dingbats or missing Unicode characters can be solved with web fonts and Unicode.

Rising with Unicode and web fonts

I’d love to be able to use custom icons via optimised web fonts. I want to do so accessibly and semantically, and have optimised font files. This is how it could be done:

1. Map the icons in the font to the existing Unicode code points for those symbols wherever possible.

   Unicode code points already exist for many common symbols. Fonts could be tiny, fast, stand-alone symbol fonts. Existing typefaces could also be extended to contain symbols that match the style of individual widths, variants, slopes, and weights. Imagine a set of Clarendon or Gotham symbols for a moment. Wouldn’t that be a joy to behold?

   There may be a possibility that private code points could be used if a code-point does not exist for a symbol we need. Type designers, iconographers, and foundries might agree a common set of extended symbols. Alternatively, they could be proposed for inclusion in Unicode.

2. Include the font with font-face.

   This assumes ubiquitous support (as any use of dingbats does) — we’re very nearly there. WOFF is coming to Safari and with a bit more campaigning we may even see WOFF on iPad soon.

3. In HTML, reference the Unicode code points in UTF-8 using numeric character references.

   Unicode characters have corresponding numerical references. Named entities may not be rendered by XML parsers. Sean Coates reminded me that in many Cocoa apps in OS X the character map is accessible via a simple CMD+ALT+t shortcut. Ralf Herrmann mentioned that unicode characters ‘…have “speaking” descriptions (like Leftwards Arrow) and fall back nicely to system fonts.’

Limitations

1. Accessibility: Limited Unicode / entity support in assistive devices.

   My friend and colleague, Jon Gibbins’s old tests in JAWS 7 show some of the inconsistencies. It seems some characters are read out, some ignored completely, and some read as a question mark. Not great, but perhaps Jon will post more about this in the future.

   Elizabeth Pyatt at Penn State university did some dingbat tests in screen readers. For real Unicode symbols, there are pronunciation files that increase the character repertoire of screen readers, like this file for phonetic characters. Symbols would benefit from one.

2. Web fonts: font-face not supported.

   If font-face is not supported on certain devices like mobile phones, falling back to system fonts is problematic. Unicode symbols may not be present in any system fonts. If they are, for many designers, they will almost certainly be stylistically suboptimal. It is possible to detect font-face using the Paul Irish technique. Perhaps there could be a way to swap Unicode for images if font-face is not present.

Now, next, and a caveat

I can’t recommend using dingbats like Pictos, but the icons sure are useful as images. Beautifully crafted icon sets as carefully crafted fonts could be very useful for rapidly creating image icons for different resolution devices like the iPhone 4, and iPad.

Perhaps we could try and formulate a standard set of commonly used icons using the Unicode symbols range as a starting point. I’ve struggled to find a better visual list of the existing symbols than this Unicode symbol chart from Johannes Knabe.

Icons in fonts as Unicode symbols needs further testing in assistive devices and using font-face.

Last, but not least, I feel a bit cheeky making these suggestions. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Combine it with a bit of imagination, and it can be lethal. I have a limited knowledge about how fonts are created, and about Unicode. The real work would be done by others with deeper knowledge than I. I’d be fascinated to hear from Unicode, accessibility, or font experts to see if this is possible. I hope so. It feels to me like a much more elegant and sustainable solution for scalable icons than dingbat fonts.

For more on Unicode, read this long, but excellent, article recommended by my colleague, Andrei, the architect of Unicode and internationalization support in PHP 6: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets.

International consumer management company, Gigya, has opened an office in Melbourne as part of its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. The move comes after strong growth in 2013 for the US-based company, during which it processed more than 800 million logins for clients in 46 countries, including Tommy Hilfiger, the Independent, the Globe and Mail, KLM, L'Occitane, Next Media, Japan Airlines and Canon.

La Trobe University in Melbourne will bring its world-class scientific expertise to the newly launched Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI).

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Ford Robotics Building
Organized By: Michigan Robotics

Chair: Prof. Dimitra Panagou

Abstract:
Advances in sensing modalities and computational power have led to the prospect of a widespread deployment of robots in our society. Central to this objective is developing control and navigation stacks that avoid conservatism, presumed to be measured by a performance metric, while being provably and practically safe. A crucial element that must be accounted for is that controllers, which are typically designed for and tuned in laboratory or highly monitored industrial settings for a specific scenario, may experience a drop in performance and lose their safety guarantees when used elsewhere. It is of paramount importance therefore to import robots with the capability to adapt their controllers online to customize responses to a priori untested environments.

In this dissertation, I present (1) tools to adapt any parametric controller using a model-based approach to achieve simultaneous satisfaction of multiple state constraints and enhanced performance; (2) a numerical scheme for predicting future state distributions in systems governed by stochastic dynamics with state-dependent disturbances, which can be utilized in model-predictive approaches; and (3) a method to assist decision-making on dropping (disregarding) constraints when it is not feasible to satisfy all constraints simultaneously.

A significant part of the dissertation also focuses on a specific safety-critical control method - control barrier functions (CBF). The CBF-based controllers have garnered interest in recent years due to their ease of implementation. However, finding a theoretically valid CBF remains a challenge and in practice, they are prone to performance degradation and safety violations, especially when multiple CBFs are imposed together. This dissertation introduces a new notion of CBFs, called Rate-Tunable CBFs, that allows for time-varying parameters in theory and online tuning in practice.

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 2:00pm
Location:
Organized By: University Career Center

We are excited to inform you that we will be hosting a Sanitation Facilities Construction Virtual Career Fair Event, on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 2:00 pm (ET) - 3:00 pm (ET). This presents a great opportunity for us to engage with talented candidates who are eager to learn more about our organization and potential careeropportunities. Thank you and we look forward to meeting with you! Thank you. SFC Hiring Team

Elon Musk will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration, president-elect Trump said late Tuesday. According to Trump’s press statement, the Department of Government Efficiency will […]

The County of Bruce has selected Ecosystem as the winning bidder to provide integrated energy performance contracting (IEPC) services in four of the county’s buildings. The $3.4 million project is expected to generate annual energy savings of $273,288 and receive $251,800 in incentives.

Constrafor is stepping up to support local contractors across Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia with a comprehensive Disaster Relief Effort. This initiative, in conjunction with their Early Pay Program (EPP), aims to provide immediate financial support to contractors, enabling them to overcome delays, secure materials, and ensure timely payment for their teams.

Today's consumers are much more likely to focus on changing their snacking habits in order to achieve weight loss success.

In May 2014, the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), McLean, Va., launched a national effort to encourage consumers to take a fresh look at frozen foods.

For more details please see attached the Request for pre-qualification.

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PODGORICA, 12 July  2016 - OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier concluded today a two-day visit to Montenegro, marking the 10th anniversary of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro. “After independence, this country entrusted the OSCE with an important responsibility: to help advance security, democracy, the rule of law and human rights for Montenegrin citizens,” Zannier said.  

During his visit, the Secretary General met with President Filip Vujanovic, Parliament Speaker Darko Pajovic, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, Deputy Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and Minister of Interior Goran Danilovic, as well as representatives of civil society.

Zannier commended the Montenegrin authorities for their commitment to undertaking reforms and encouraged further progress, offering OSCE’s continued support in line with national priorities. “The OSCE remains one of the country’s key partners in helping to further develop independent, open and transparent institutions that enjoy wide public trust,” he stated.

Discussing preparations for the parliamentary elections on 16 October, the Secretary General commended the sense of responsibility already demonstrated by political parties in overcoming the recent political crisis through a broad political agreement adopted last April, which was important, above all, for the Montenegrin people.

“Political leaders managed to successfully bridge their differences by reaching a compromise, one that aims to serve the public interest,” said Zannier. “Now we need to see this agreement implemented in full, and in good faith.”

During his meetings, the Secretary General stated that the parliamentary elections will be an important test for the country, adding that the Mission to Montenegro is providing technical assistance to the State Election Commission until the end of 2016. “All actors involved in the preparation of elections should work together as closely as possible in line with their responsibilities as set out in the law. This is vital for having a credible election,” Zannier concluded.

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WARSAW / BUCHAREST, 2 August 2016 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Ambassador Mihnea Constantinescu, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), called today for greater efforts to protect endangered memorial sites related to the Roma and Sinti genocide during World War II.

Speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the liquidation of the “Gypsy family camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, when the close to 3,000 remaining Roma and Sinti in the camp were murdered, they stressed that states have to do more to demonstrate their sincere and strong commitment to education about and remembrance of the genocide.

“Positively, we have seen increasing attention in recent years on the part of OSCE participating States to commemorate the Roma and Sinti genocide, and to educate people about this horrible event. This practice and these experiences should be widely shared and replicated,” Director Link said. “Promoting understanding of the Holocaust and its effect on different communities can help to create empathy and promote equality and non-discrimination for all.”

“Accurate and ethical education about the Holocaust includes the respectful and dignified preservation of memorial sites,” said Ambassador Constantinescu. “States have to take resolute action to protect endangered memorial sites and continue to do more to commemorate the Roma and Sinti victims. The history of these endangered sites should be included as part of broader efforts to educate about the consequences of indifference to racism.”

They called on governments to ensure that endangered memorial sites for Roma and Sinti victims are preserved and protected, to include this history as an integral part of civic and human rights education in their countries. They stressed that current developments, including a disturbing rise in xenophobic public rhetoric and racism, mean it is even more essential to build strong alliances among different communities.

In 2003, with the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, the OSCE participating States committed themselves to strengthen education about the Roma and Sinti genocide. Through its Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues, ODIHR promotes knowledge about and recognition of the plight of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust to counter present-day discrimination and racism, and to promote tolerance. According to ODIHR’s recent publication Teaching about and Commemorating the Roma and Sinti Genocide: Practices within the OSCE Area, seven OSCE participating States officially commemorate the Roma and Sinti genocide on 2 August, while a larger number of states commemorate the Roma and Sinti victims on the International Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is an inter-governmental organization and the foremost international network of political leaders and professionals advancing and shaping Holocaust education, remembrance and research. Its 31 member countries are committed to the tenets of the Stockholm Declaration. The IHRA Committee on the Genocide of the Roma aims to increase the commitment of IHRA Member Countries to educate, research and commemorate the genocide of the Roma.

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VIENNA, 8 July 2016 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović, today expressed concern about a proposed law on the German Foreign Intelligence Agency (BND, Bundesnachrichtendienst), which was debated in the Bundestag, Germany’s Federal Parliament, today.

“Increasing surveillance capabilities of journalists is a clear threat to media freedom,” Mijatović said. “This draft law runs counter to the very core of fundamental freedoms such as media freedom and freedom of expression.”

The draft law increases BND’s capabilities to place foreign journalists under surveillance. Moreover, no exemption is made for the work of journalists, and journalists without citizenship of the European Union can be subjected to surveillance without an explicit court order.

“I call on the German Bundestag to revise the current draft law and ensure proper the protection of journalists regardless of their nationality,” Mijatović said.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom. 

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OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors visited Washington DC and New York City from 25 to 29 April 2016, where she explored opportunities to strengthen co-operation in conflict prevention, implementing early action policies and in fostering inclusion within diverse societies.

Thors met with officials from the United States and representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations Secretariat, Funds, Programmes and Agencies, as well as members of the academia, think tanks and human rights organizations.

During her visit, Thors welcomed the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of the Resolution 2282 (2016) on the Review of United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture as renewed meaningful support to conflict prevention worldwide. In discussions, it was also noted that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the data provided during their implementation are very relevantpertinent for building just and inclusive societies.

“I am pleased with the strengthened partnerships with the wider international community achieved during my trip, in particular in thematic areas such as access to justice and education, both highly relevant to national minorities and conflict prevention,” Thors concluded.

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WARSAW / BUCHAREST, 2 August 2016 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Ambassador Mihnea Constantinescu, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), called today for greater efforts to protect endangered memorial sites related to the Roma and Sinti genocide during World War II.

Speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the liquidation of the “Gypsy family camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, when the close to 3,000 remaining Roma and Sinti in the camp were murdered, they stressed that states have to do more to demonstrate their sincere and strong commitment to education about and remembrance of the genocide.

“Positively, we have seen increasing attention in recent years on the part of OSCE participating States to commemorate the Roma and Sinti genocide, and to educate people about this horrible event. This practice and these experiences should be widely shared and replicated,” Director Link said. “Promoting understanding of the Holocaust and its effect on different communities can help to create empathy and promote equality and non-discrimination for all.”

“Accurate and ethical education about the Holocaust includes the respectful and dignified preservation of memorial sites,” said Ambassador Constantinescu. “States have to take resolute action to protect endangered memorial sites and continue to do more to commemorate the Roma and Sinti victims. The history of these endangered sites should be included as part of broader efforts to educate about the consequences of indifference to racism.”

They called on governments to ensure that endangered memorial sites for Roma and Sinti victims are preserved and protected, to include this history as an integral part of civic and human rights education in their countries. They stressed that current developments, including a disturbing rise in xenophobic public rhetoric and racism, mean it is even more essential to build strong alliances among different communities.

In 2003, with the Action Plan on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area, the OSCE participating States committed themselves to strengthen education about the Roma and Sinti genocide. Through its Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues, ODIHR promotes knowledge about and recognition of the plight of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust to counter present-day discrimination and racism, and to promote tolerance. According to ODIHR’s recent publication Teaching about and Commemorating the Roma and Sinti Genocide: Practices within the OSCE Area, seven OSCE participating States officially commemorate the Roma and Sinti genocide on 2 August, while a larger number of states commemorate the Roma and Sinti victims on the International Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is an inter-governmental organization and the foremost international network of political leaders and professionals advancing and shaping Holocaust education, remembrance and research. Its 31 member countries are committed to the tenets of the Stockholm Declaration. The IHRA Committee on the Genocide of the Roma aims to increase the commitment of IHRA Member Countries to educate, research and commemorate the genocide of the Roma.

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OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors visited Washington DC and New York City from 25 to 29 April 2016, where she explored opportunities to strengthen co-operation in conflict prevention, implementing early action policies and in fostering inclusion within diverse societies.

Thors met with officials from the United States and representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations Secretariat, Funds, Programmes and Agencies, as well as members of the academia, think tanks and human rights organizations.

During her visit, Thors welcomed the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of the Resolution 2282 (2016) on the Review of United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture as renewed meaningful support to conflict prevention worldwide. In discussions, it was also noted that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the data provided during their implementation are very relevantpertinent for building just and inclusive societies.

“I am pleased with the strengthened partnerships with the wider international community achieved during my trip, in particular in thematic areas such as access to justice and education, both highly relevant to national minorities and conflict prevention,” Thors concluded.

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Google Fonts - Different emoticons are shown when no fonts are found.

/via Thomas Park

El presidente valenciano medita en todo caso una remodelación más amplia del Consell para esquivar el mensaje de que toda la responsabilidad por la DANA es de la Generalitat, sin descartar tampoco cambio de carteras Leer

El Holocausto sólo es entendible si se aborda de forma desapasionada. Nada ayuda la indignación. Sólo los datos son útiles. Y entender, a la manera del clásico.

Una ciudadana critica el estado del consulado español en Argelia.

Recurre en amparo la inadmisión a trámite en un juzgado de Barcelona de la querella presentada por dos hermanos Leer

El 29 de octubre en torno a las 18.00 horas la Generalitat ya pidió a la Comunidad de Madrid la textualidad del mensaje ES-Alert enviado a la población madrileña el 3 de septiembre de 2023 Leer

 Leer

El Govern incrementa los contactos con el equipo de la vicepresidenta María Jesús Montero para sentar las bases de un modelo para Cataluña similar al concierto económico vasco Leer

El gobierno de coalición del PP con los de Abascal, roto el pasado julio, rebajó un 5% el presupuesto para Emergencias y derogó la UVE antes de que comenzara a funcionar Leer

"Sin un megadepartamento para la reconstrucción, el Consell no será creíble", asumen fuentes de la Generalitat, aunque también hay ceses sobre la mesa Leer

El desarrollador indie español, famoso por sus exquisitos juegos estilo retro para PC, ha llegado a un acuerdo con Abylight Studios para que sus juegos vean la luz en las videoconsolas. El primero de ellos, el genial Maldita Castilla.

Antes del terremoto, Haití era una nación al borde del precipicio. La mayoría de sus habitantes vivían de las remesas que enviaban sus familiares y sólo un 15% tenía un empleo regular. Sin embargo, los haitianos son amantes de su tierra, por mísera que sea, y orgullosos de su pasado. Aunque nada empuje al optimismo, ellos tienen esperanzas de renacer de sus cenizas.