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Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
People Are "Disappearing" Since Trump Took Office. Here's What That Means.
Last month, Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, was scheduled for a routine hearing in immigration court. But as Mother Jones reports, he never made it because he'd been whisked off without due process to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) along with 230 Venezuelan immigrants. Since President Donald Trump began to carry out what he claimed would be the 'largest deportation' campaign in U.S. history earlier this year, there have been a number of cases where immigrants like Cornejo Pulgar have just 'disappeared.' In January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man working a delivery job and picking up food at a McDonald's in Detroit, Michigan, was deported and 'disappeared' to El Salvador after taking a wrong turn into Canada. 'Ricardo's story by itself is incredibly tragic — and we don't know how many Ricardos there are,' Ben Levey, a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center who tried to locate Prada Vásquez, told The New York Times. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ultimately confirmed to him that he had been deported but did not divulge his destination. After the abductions, families of men like Prada Vásquez search, but the names of their loved ones disappear from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's online detainee locator. Could what's happening to immigrants under Trump be classified as 'enforced disappearances'? We spoke with academics and researchers who study how rogue states 'disappear' people. First, what does it mean to 'disappear' a person? According to the United Nations, an 'enforced disappearance' occurs when agents of the state (or groups acting with its authorization and support) arrest, detain, abduct or in any other way deprive a person of their liberty. The state then refuses to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the person concerned. If you're wondering whether this is legal or illegal, it's actually neither. 'The inherent consequence of an enforced disappearance is that the person is placed outside the protection of the law, in a sort of legal limbo,' said Gabriella Citroni, an adjunct professor of international human rights law at the university of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy, and a chair-rapporteur of UN expert group on enforced or involuntary disappearances. Unlike other crimes under international law, such as torture, enforced disappearances were not prohibited by a universal legally binding instrument before a UN Convention came into effect in 2010. Disappeared people frequently include political opponents, protesters, human rights defenders and community leaders, students and members of minorities, Citroni said. Related: "We Don't Import Food": 31 Americans Who Are Just So, So Confused About Tariffs And US Trade 'Typically, enforced disappearances are used to suppress freedom of expression or religion, or legitimate civil strife demanding democracy, as well as against persons involved in the defense of the land, natural resources, and the environment, and to fight organized crime or counter terrorism,' she said. Enforced disappearance functions as a tool of terror in two ways, said Oscar Lopez, a journalist based in Mexico City working on a book about the origins of forced disappearance during Mexico's 'Dirty War.' 'First, the victim is deprived of due process and often subjected to torture as well as the psychological hell of not knowing what's going to happen to them and possibly fearing for their life,' he told HuffPost. Secondly, enforced disappearance forces families and communities into a state of painful uncertainty, Lopez said. 'They don't know whether their relative is alive or dead and toggle between desperate hope and unbearable despair.' When disappearances occur frequently enough, they can leave entire communities in a state of terror, unsure of who might be taken next, Lopez said. What has happened to disappeared people in the past? What happens to people involuntarily disappeared depends 'very much on the context' in which they are taken, Lopez said. But generally speaking, if the person is kept alive, they're held in state custody for an indeterminate amount of time without the ability to communicate with their family or legal counsel ― aka they're 'held incommunicado.' If the person is killed, their bodies are often disposed of in such a way that it becomes almost impossible for them to be found. 'This can mean burying them in unmarked graves, cremating their remains, or, as happened in Latin America, throwing their corpses out to sea,' he said. Where have enforced disappearances happened before? Related: AOC's Viral Response About A Potential Presidential Run Has Everyone Watching, And I'm Honestly Living For It Lopez pointed to a few examples: In Argentina, during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, an estimated 30,000 people were disappeared. In nearby Chile, more than 1,000 people went missing under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while in Guatemala, some 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. In North Korea, instances of enforced disappearances and abductions date back to 1950. 'There are more recent instances of enforced disappearance, too,' he said. 'In Syria, for example, it's estimated that 136,000 people were disappeared under the Assad dictatorship.' But enforced disappearances aren't always carried out directly by state agents. said Adam Isacson, who leads border and migration work at the Washington Office on Latin America. Hundreds of thousands of people have been disappeared each by irregular groups in Colombia and Mexico, operating with the tacit permission or even assistance of government officials. 'Sometimes, as with the anti-communist paramilitaries in Colombia and death squads in 1980s El Salvador, the officials colluded with the groups out of some ideological alliance,' he said. 'Sometimes, as with corrupt Mexican cops who assist organized crime, they do it because they profit from it.' Could what's happening in the U.S. now with immigrants be considered 'enforced disappearances'? In spite of existing court orders and legal challenges, the Trump administration continues its deportation policy in El Salvador, in partnership with the county's President Nayib Bukele. Venezuelan migrants have been targeted in particular for deportation, many on unproven allegations of gang affiliation. That said, Trump has also repeatedly said he's 'all for' looking for ways to detain U.S. citizens in foreign jails. Should we be calling what's happening now 'forced disappearances'? A report released by the UN in April suggests yes. The incommunicado detentions appeared to involve 'enforced disappearances, contrary to international law,' the report said. 'Many detainees were unaware of their destination, their families were not informed of their detention or removal, and the U.S. and Salvadoran authorities have not published the names or legal status of the detainees,' the UN experts wrote. 'Those imprisoned in El Salvador have been denied the right to communicate with and be visited by their family members.' Isacson agrees that we should be calling a spade a spade here. 'The only difference between that and what was done in 1970s Chile or Argentina is that loved ones have more reason to believe that their relatives are still alive and haven't been killed,' he said. But even that certainty is not complete, he said: 'Can you say with 100% confidence that Andry Hernandez ― the gay Venezuelan stylist that disappeared two months ago ― is still alive right now? He probably is, but you absolutely cannot guarantee that, and no one will confirm it.' The raids and deportations have certainly struck fear into American communities ― another classic characteristic of enforced disappearances. The Trump administration has openly said that its goal is to try to make life so difficult for immigrants that they 'self-deport.' Fear of being sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, where inmates never see the light of day, plays into that goal, said Rod Abouharb, an associate professor of international relations who researches forced disappearances at the University College London. 'These raids send out a chilling effect on those individuals who may be undocumented and even those who are legally in the United States: that they may be caught up in one of these raids, disappear into the prison system, and deported to a third country they may have no connection with,' he told HuffPost. What can regular citizens do in response to enforced disappearances? The best thing Americans can do to object to efforts like this is to draw as much attention as possible to individual cases, Lopez said. 'Whether that's by holding protests, creating online petitions or posting on social media, ensuring that a person who the government has tried to disappear remains visible and in the public discourse can be a powerful way to draw national attention to their plight and the plight of others like them.' he said. Isacson thinks it's important to encourage senate and congressional Democrats who've stood up and made headlines, like Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.). Back in April, Van Hollen pushed for a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia ― a Salvadoran native living in Maryland who was deported in March to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. 'Democrats will actually help themselves politically if they keep making a lot of righteous noise about this,' he said. Americans should write to Republican moderates who seem quietly uncomfortable about forced disappearances and might be persuaded to action, Isacson said. 'All of us to stay vocal about this,' he said. 'Keep protesting, keep writing about it and keep calling your legislators.'This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in In the News: People Can't Believe This "Disgusting" Donald Trump Jr. Post About Joe Biden's Cancer Diagnosis Is Real Also in In the News: Republicans Are Calling Tim Walz "Tampon Tim," And The Backlash From Women Is Too Good Not To Share Also in In the News: JD Vance Shared The Most Bizarre Tweet Of Him Serving "Food" As Donald Trump's Housewife
Buzz Feed
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
Trump Era Disappearances: What You Need To Know
Last month, Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, was scheduled for a routine hearing in immigration court. But as Mother Jones reports, he never made it because he'd been whisked off without due process to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) along with 230 Venezuelan immigrants. Since President Donald Trump began to carry out what he claimed would be the 'largest deportation' campaign in U.S. history earlier this year, there have been a number of cases where immigrants like Cornejo Pulgar have just 'disappeared.' In January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man working a delivery job and picking up food at a McDonald's in Detroit, Michigan, was deported and 'disappeared' to El Salvador after taking a wrong turn into Canada. 'Ricardo's story by itself is incredibly tragic — and we don't know how many Ricardos there are,' Ben Levey, a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center who tried to locate Prada Vásquez, told The New York Times. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ultimately confirmed to him that he had been deported but did not divulge his destination. After the abductions, families of men like Prada Vásquez search, but the names of their loved ones disappear from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's online detainee locator. Could what's happening to immigrants under Trump be classified as 'enforced disappearances'? We spoke with academics and researchers who study how rogue states 'disappear' people. According to the United Nations, an 'enforced disappearance' occurs when agents of the state (or groups acting with its authorization and support) arrest, detain, abduct or in any other way deprive a person of their liberty. The state then refuses to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the person concerned. If you're wondering whether this is legal or illegal, it's actually neither. 'The inherent consequence of an enforced disappearance is that the person is placed outside the protection of the law, in a sort of legal limbo,' said Gabriella Citroni, an adjunct professor of international human rights law at the university of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy, and a chair-rapporteur of UN expert group on enforced or involuntary disappearances. Unlike other crimes under international law, such as torture, enforced disappearances were not prohibited by a universal legally binding instrument before a UN Convention came into effect in 2010. Disappeared people frequently include political opponents, protesters, human rights defenders and community leaders, students and members of minorities, Citroni said. 'Typically, enforced disappearances are used to suppress freedom of expression or religion, or legitimate civil strife demanding democracy, as well as against persons involved in the defense of the land, natural resources, and the environment, and to fight organized crime or counter terrorism,' she said. Enforced disappearance functions as a tool of terror in two ways, said Oscar Lopez, a journalist based in Mexico City working on a book about the origins of forced disappearance during Mexico's 'Dirty War.' 'First, the victim is deprived of due process and often subjected to torture as well as the psychological hell of not knowing what's going to happen to them and possibly fearing for their life,' he told HuffPost. Secondly, enforced disappearance forces families and communities into a state of painful uncertainty, Lopez said. 'They don't know whether their relative is alive or dead and toggle between desperate hope and unbearable despair.' When disappearances occur frequently enough, they can leave entire communities in a state of terror, unsure of who might be taken next, Lopez said. What happens to people involuntarily disappeared depends 'very much on the context' in which they are taken, Lopez said. But generally speaking, if the person is kept alive, they're held in state custody for an indeterminate amount of time without the ability to communicate with their family or legal counsel ― aka they're 'held incommunicado.' If the person is killed, their bodies are often disposed of in such a way that it becomes almost impossible for them to be found. 'This can mean burying them in unmarked graves, cremating their remains, or, as happened in Latin America, throwing their corpses out to sea,' he said. Lopez pointed to a few examples: In Argentina, during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, an estimated 30,000 people were disappeared. In nearby Chile, more than 1,000 people went missing under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while in Guatemala, some 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. In North Korea, instances of enforced disappearances and abductions date back to 1950. 'There are more recent instances of enforced disappearance, too,' he said. 'In Syria, for example, it's estimated that 136,000 people were disappeared under the Assad dictatorship.' But enforced disappearances aren't always carried out directly by state agents. said Adam Isacson, who leads border and migration work at the Washington Office on Latin America. Hundreds of thousands of people have been disappeared each by irregular groups in Colombia and Mexico, operating with the tacit permission or even assistance of government officials. 'Sometimes, as with the anti-communist paramilitaries in Colombia and death squads in 1980s El Salvador, the officials colluded with the groups out of some ideological alliance,' he said. 'Sometimes, as with corrupt Mexican cops who assist organized crime, they do it because they profit from it.' In spite of existing court orders and legal challenges, the Trump administration continues its deportation policy in El Salvador, in partnership with the county's President Nayib Bukele. Venezuelan migrants have been targeted in particular for deportation, many on unproven allegations of gang affiliation. That said, Trump has also repeatedly said he's 'all for' looking for ways to detain U.S. citizens in foreign jails. Should we be calling what's happening now 'forced disappearances'? A report released by the UN in April suggests yes. The incommunicado detentions appeared to involve 'enforced disappearances, contrary to international law,' the report said. 'Many detainees were unaware of their destination, their families were not informed of their detention or removal, and the U.S. and Salvadoran authorities have not published the names or legal status of the detainees,' the UN experts wrote. 'Those imprisoned in El Salvador have been denied the right to communicate with and be visited by their family members.' Isacson agrees that we should be calling a spade a spade here. 'The only difference between that and what was done in 1970s Chile or Argentina is that loved ones have more reason to believe that their relatives are still alive and haven't been killed,' he said. But even that certainty is not complete, he said: 'Can you say with 100% confidence that Andry Hernandez ― the gay Venezuelan stylist that disappeared two months ago ― is still alive right now? He probably is, but you absolutely cannot guarantee that, and no one will confirm it. ' The raids and deportations have certainly struck fear into American communities ― another classic characteristic of enforced disappearances. The Trump administration has openly said that its goal is to try to make life so difficult for immigrants that they 'self-deport.' Fear of being sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, where inmates never see the light of day, plays into that goal, said Rod Abouharb, an associate professor of international relations who researches forced disappearances at the University College London. 'These raids send out a chilling effect on those individuals who may be undocumented and even those who are legally in the United States: that they may be caught up in one of these raids, disappear into the prison system, and deported to a third country they may have no connection with,' he told HuffPost. What can regular citizens do in response to enforced disappearances? Pacific Press / Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images The best thing Americans can do to object to efforts like this is to draw as much attention as possible to individual cases, Lopez said. 'Whether that's by holding protests, creating online petitions or posting on social media, ensuring that a person who the government has tried to disappear remains visible and in the public discourse can be a powerful way to draw national attention to their plight and the plight of others like them.' he said. Isacson thinks it's important to encourage senate and congressional Democrats who've stood up and made headlines, like Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.). Back in April, Van Hollen pushed for a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia ― a Salvadoran native living in Maryland who was deported in March to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. 'Democrats will actually help themselves politically if they keep making a lot of righteous noise about this,' he said. Americans should write to Republican moderates who seem quietly uncomfortable about forced disappearances and might be persuaded to action, Isacson said. 'All of us to stay vocal about this,' he said. 'Keep protesting, keep writing about it and keep calling your legislators.' HuffPost.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
People Are 'Disappearing' Since Trump Took Office. Here's What That Means.
Last month, Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, was scheduled for a routine hearing in immigration court. But as Mother Jones reports, he never made it because he'd been whisked off without due process to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) along with 230 Venezuelan immigrants. Since President Donald Trump began to carry out what he claimed would be the 'largest deportation' campaign in U.S. history earlier this year, there have been a number of cases where immigrants like Cornejo Pulgar have just 'disappeared.' In January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man working a delivery job and picking up food at a McDonald's in Detroit, Michigan, was deported and 'disappeared' to El Salvador after taking a wrong turn into Canada. 'Ricardo's story by itself is incredibly tragic — and we don't know how many Ricardos there are,' Ben Levey, a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center who tried to locate Prada Vásquez, told The New York Times. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ultimately confirmed to him that he had been deported but did not divulge his destination. After the abductions, families of men like Prada Vásquez search but the names of their loved ones disappear from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's online detainee locator. Could what's happening to immigrants under Trump be classified as 'enforced disappearances'? We spoke with academics and researchers who study how rogue states 'disappear' people. According to the United Nations, an 'enforced disappearance' occurs when agents of the state (or groups acting with its authorization and support) arrest, detain, abduct or in any other way deprive a person of their liberty. The state then refuses to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the person concerned. If you're wondering whether this is legal or illegal, it's actually neither. 'The inherent consequence of an enforced disappearance is that the person is placed outside the protection of the law, in a sort of legal limbo,' said Gabriella Citroni, an adjunct professor of international human rights law at the university of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy, and a chair-rapporteur of UN expert group on enforced or involuntary disappearances. Unlike other crimes under international law, such as torture, enforced disappearances were not prohibited by a universal legally binding instrument before a UN Convention came into effect in 2010. Disappeared people frequently include political opponents, protesters, human rights defenders and community leaders, students and members of minorities, Citroni said. 'Typically, enforced disappearances are used to suppress freedom of expression or religion, or legitimate civil strife demanding democracy, as well as against persons involved in the defense of the land, natural resources and the environment and to fight organized crime or counter terrorism,' she said. Enforced disappearance functions as a tool of terror in two ways, said Oscar Lopez, a journalist based in Mexico City working on a book about the origins of forced disappearance during Mexico's 'Dirty War.' 'First, the victim is deprived of due process and often subjected to torture as well as the psychological hell of not knowing what's going to happen to them and possibly fearing for their life,' he told HuffPost. Secondly, enforced disappearance forces families and communities into a state of painful uncertainty, Lopez said. 'They don't know whether their relative is alive or dead and toggle between desperate hope and unbearable despair.' When disappearances occur frequently enough, they can leave entire communities in a state of terror, unsure of who might be taken next, Lopez said. What happens to people involuntarily disappeared depends 'very much on the context' in which they are taken, Lopez said. But generally speaking, if the person is kept alive, they're held in state custody for an indeterminate amount of time without the ability to communicate with their family or legal counsel ― aka they're 'held incommunicado.' If the person is killed, their bodies are often disposed of in such a way that it becomes almost impossible for them to be found. 'This can mean burying them in unmarked graves, cremating their remains, or, as happened in Latin America, throwing their corpses out to sea,' he said. Lopez pointed to a few examples: In Argentina, during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, an estimated 30,000 people were disappeared. In nearby Chile, more than 1,000 people went missing under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while in Guatemala, some 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. In North Korea, instances of enforced disappearances and abductions date back to 1950. 'There are more recent instances of enforced disappearance, too,' he said. 'In Syria, for example, it's estimated that 136,000 people were disappeared under the Assad dictatorship.' But enforced disappearances aren't always carried out directly by state agents. said Adam Isacson, who leads border and migration work at the Washington Office on Latin America. Hundreds of thousands of people have been disappeared each by irregular groups in Colombia and Mexico, operating with the tacit permission or even assistance of government officials. 'Sometimes, as with the anti-communist paramilitaries in Colombia and death squads in 1980s El Salvador, the officials colluded with the groups out of some ideological alliance,' he said. 'Sometimes, as with corrupt Mexican cops who assist organized crime, they do it because they profit from it.' In spite of existing court orders and legal challenges, the Trump administration continues its deportation policy in El Salvador, in partnership with the county's President Nayib Bukele. Venezuelan migrants have been targeted in particular for deportation, many on unproven allegations of gang affiliation. That said, Trump has also repeatedly said he's 'all for' looking for ways to detain U.S. citizens in foreign jails. Should we be calling what's happening now 'forced disappearances'? A report released by the UN in April suggests yes. The incommunicado detentions appeared to involve 'enforced disappearances, contrary to international law,' the report said. 'Many detainees were unaware of their destination, their families were not informed of their detention or removal, and the U.S. and Salvadoran authorities have not published the names or legal status of the detainees,' the UN experts wrote. 'Those imprisoned in El Salvador have been denied the right to communicate with and be visited by their family members.' Isacson agrees that we should be calling a spade a spade here. 'The only difference between that and what was done in 1970s Chile or Argentina is that loved ones have more reason to believe that their relatives are still alive and haven't been killed,' he said. But even that certainty is not complete, he said: 'Can you say with 100% confidence that Andry Hernandez ― the gay Venezuelan stylist that disappeared two months ago ― is still alive right now? He probably is, but you absolutely cannot guarantee that, and no one will confirm it.' The raids and deportations have certainly struck fear into American communities ― another classic characteristic of enforced disappearances. The Trump administration has openly said that its goal is to try to make life so difficult for immigrants that they 'self-deport.' Fear of being sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, where inmates never see the light of day, plays into that goal, said Rod Abouharb, an associate professor of international relations who researches forced disappearances at the University College London. 'These raids send out a chilling effect on those individuals who may be undocumented and even those who are legally in the United States: that they may be caught up in one of these raids, disappear into the prison system, and deported to a third country they may have no connection with,' he told HuffPost. The best thing Americans can do to object to efforts like this is to draw as much attention as possible to individual cases, Lopez said. 'Whether that's by holding protests, creating online petitions or posting on social media, ensuring that a person who the government has tried to disappear remains visible and in the public discourse can be a powerful way to draw national attention to their plight and the plight of others like them.' he said. Isacson thinks it's important to encourage senate and congressional Democrats who've stood up and made headlines, like Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.). Back in April, Van Hollen pushed for a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia ― a Salvadoran native living in Maryland who was deported in March to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. 'Democrats will actually help themselves politically if they keep making a lot of righteous noise about this,' he said. Americans should write to Republican moderates who seem quietly uncomfortable about forced disappearances and might be persuaded to action, Isacson said. 'All of us to stay vocal about this,' he said. 'Keep protesting, keep writing about it and keep calling your legislators.' The Insidious Message Behind Kristi Noem's 'ICE Barbie' Cosplay Teen Remains In ICE Detention Despite Police Admitting To Pulling Her Over By Mistake Fed Up With ICE Crackdowns? Here's How To Actually Make A Difference For Immigrants.
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
‘It comes from fear': Aoife Daly on parents' battles to get autistic children into schools
When Aoife Daly read the findings of a report by inspectors into how school admissions policies are placing barriers to entry for children with autism, there was no surprise – just recognition. 'It was sobering to read, but not shocking,' said Ms Daly, who has struggled to find a school place for her five-year-old boy, Bertie, who is autistic . 'It just confirms what many parents know already.' The review of admission policies for entry to special classes at 30 mainstream schools – 15 primary and 15 post-primary – carried out by the Department of Education 's inspectorate found 'almost all' admissions policies contained conditions which could limit access to appropriate education for autistic children. These exclusionary criteria include requirements that children should be able to participate in mainstream classes; restrictions on admissions to children with a certain level of disability; or refusal to admit children on the basis of their potential behaviour. READ MORE The findings have prompted Minister for Education Helen McEntee to write to school patrons asking them to review admissions policies to ensure they adhere to legal requirements. The autism charity AsIAm said restrictive admissions practices were reflective of a school system that is 'not inclusive' or in keeping with the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 'We commend the report for documenting these issues and for recognising the inconsistency and lack of oversight in how such policies are applied across schools. We must remove the inherent prejudicial practices that exist within these policies,' the charity said, in a statement. Ms Daly said she has applied to 25 primary school in Balbriggan and far beyond in an attempt to find a place for Bertie. Some admissions policies seemed to be framed as if places in special classes were for neurotypical children only, she said. [ Schools' rules are discriminatory to autistic pupils, says autism charity Opens in new window ] 'Some had conditions around behaviour – as if the child should behave in a certain way, with no obvious attempt to get the bottom of what might be behind a child's dysregulation.' The reason for these types of criteria, she feels, is simple. 'I think it comes from fear and a lack of understanding of what neurodiversity is,' she said. 'I wonder if some schools panic when they read a psychologist's report saying that a child is non-verbal. Maybe they feel they don't have the expertise ... none of that was an issue at preschool, where all the children mixed well together.' Principals and school managers privately say they worry about whether resources, training and supports will follow if they open special classes for pupils with complex needs, especially at a time when waiting lists for vital therapeutic services are so long. Some also grumble about the 'chaotic' way special classes are being opened at short notice, leaving schools with little time to prepare. The Government insists resources are available, as well as teacher upskilling, and that record funding for supports is being ploughed into the sector. [ Teacher training to include mandatory placements in special education Opens in new window ] Schools are required to adhere to legal requirements, guidelines and circulars issued by the Department of Education on provision for children and young people with special educational needs. The report emphasises the importance of schools fulfilling their legislative responsibilities in a way that ensures 'children with the greatest need have priority access to special class placements'. While many children are still waiting to find out if they have a school place in the coming academic year, Ms Daly said she is one of the fortunate ones. She eventually secured a place in a 'wonderful' primary school in Ashbourne, Co Meath. The downside is that the school is a two-hour round trip in rush-hour traffic. 'By some luck, they accepted us,' said Ms Daly, who works as a fundraiser for an opera company. 'It's a lovely school. We're very happy to get a place for him, but the logistics of travel and getting him there are far from ideal. 'But we're just happy that he has a place in a school that is supportive and understanding. It's the right kind of school. We're aware that many others are still worrying whether their children will get the right support.'
Ammon
13-03-2025
- Health
- Ammon
UN inquiry accuses Israel of committing acts of genocide in Gaza
Ammon News - An investigation released Thursday by a special UN commission confirmed that Israel committed acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip through the systematic destruction of reproductive health care facilities. The UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that the occupying authorities partially destroyed the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of the reproductive health sector, amounting to two categories of genocide. The UN Genocide Convention defines this crime as any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, or religious group. The investigation found that Israel engaged in at least two of the five acts the UN Convention defines as genocide. It indicated that Israel was "deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group (Palestinians) calculated to bring about its physical destruction and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. "These violations not only caused severe direct physical and psychological harm to women and girls, but also had long-term, irreversible consequences for the psychological and reproductive health and fertility prospects of Palestinians as a whole," said Navi Pillay, chair of the committee, in a statement. The investigation found that Israel carried out systematic attacks targeting Gaza's health infrastructure, including hospitals and clinics providing reproductive health services. It affirmed that this led to the near-total destruction of the health sector's ability to care for pregnant women and newborns. It emphasized that "severe restrictions on essential medical supplies and medicines exacerbated the deteriorating reproductive health of women and girls in Gaza, directly contributing to high maternal and newborn mortality rates." WAFA
