Local Matters: Olympics and Human Rights

This week on Local Matters, we focus on the Olympic Games in Beijing. Our guest for today was Olivier Pirot, General Director of Amnesty International Luxembourg who is more than concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

In January, the organisers of the Olympic Wintergames in Beijing warned athletes not to violate the “Olympic spirit” or Chinese rules, after human rights advocates expressed concerns about the safety of the athletes. “Any behaviour or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are subject to certain punishment,” said Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022’s International Relations Department, during a press conference in January.

While athlete teams from all over the world compete in the Games, other countries decided to boycott the Olympics sending a clear message: We don’t support nor tolerate the human rights violations in China. Luxembourg is not part of this movement and neither the human rights NGO Amnesty International Luxembourg voiced a call for boycott. General Director Olivier Pirot explains: “A boycott is not enough. If you are there as a partner, it is an opportunity. You should use this opportunity to remind China of its obligations. China is member of the United Nations. So, they have to respect the human rights declaration.”

Olivier Pirot is concerned about the lack of the freedom of expression in the country, and not least about the high number of executions due to the death penalty. “Every year, we launch a report on death penalty. China is not even mentioned in the report with figures because we’re talking about thousands of executions in China. We don’t even know how many.” But Pirot is hopeful: “If you look decades back, there were a lot of countries where death penalty was still ongoing and with this slow pressure, things are changing. Every year, we see improvements. It is long processes.”

Local Matters: Luxembourg at the Olympics

Two Luxembourgish skiers are at the Olympic Games in Beijing right now. We got Matthieu Osch and Gwyneth ten Raa on the phone. In our interview, they told us about the atmosphere in the Olympic village, about heavy snowfalls and their athletic ambitions.

All that Gwyneth ten Raa aimed for at the Olympics, was to ride over the finishing line, wave at her family in the cameras, happy and relieved. But unfortunately, she didn’t make it that far in her first and only Olympic race ever. The 16-year-old skier dropped out of the competition last week. Nevertheless, she enjoys the experience. “It’s amazing to be here. I’ve never been out of Europe. Being at the Olympics in China is very impressive”, she says. These days, she watches sports and inspiring athletes. She supports her team member Matthieu Osch in his training.

For him, the race if not over yet. Last weekend, he participated in the giant slalom that converted into a snow chaos. “The last two weeks that we had been here, we had always nice weather, blue sky, it was sunny; but on Sunday, we had a different situation. We had a lot of snowfall, heavy wind and the sight was not good, so, it was kind of tricky. But I think in the end, it was a fair race.”” Matthieu Osch reached the finishing line 17 seconds after the winner of the race, the Swiss skier Marco Odermatt, at 28th position. “I am pretty satisfied, I made some mistakes I could have avoided. But in the end, I can take this with me for the next race.” Now he is preparing his next and last race for this year, the slalom that takes place tomorrow. Hopefully with better weather conditions.

Photo: IOC/Greg Martin

Local Matters: Interview with Dr. Mary Faltz on sexual abuse

For 16 years, Mary Faltz was sexually abused by her father. Many years, four children and one cancer diagnose later, she decided to speak up about her experience and wrote a book about her life. Dr. Mary Faltz was our guest at “Local Matters”, in the interview, she talked about her book, about the trial that brought her abuser in jail, and about the message she wants to give to all victims and the public: Speak up, it’ll help.

When Mary Faltz started writing her book “Cruelly betrayed” in 2020, she did not expect the outcome. She just got out of surgery, life kicked her in the butt once again, when she heard her cancer was worse than expected. Mary started writing, wrote everything down that came into her mind, sent her finished book to an edition house and there it was, a testimonial that freed her and has given hope to others.

Today, she sits in our studio smiling, just as she is smiling on the cover of her book. Because “in Orange week and in every publication against sexual abuse of children, you always see these dark images, a little girl with the fist in front of her mouth, a child sitting next to a wall, her head between her knees”, she says. “But if you are already a victim in a horrible situation, you don’t want to see more sad victims on posters, you want to see a smile, hope, the hope of being happy.” Mary got her hope back fighting for it. She fought the injustice she experienced in her childhood and during her life, she fought four years during the trial that brought her father behind bars and for this one moment that freed her. “I have this victory. Seeing my abuser being handcoughed and being escorted to that shielded policevan, was the best day of my life.”

Out of his punishment and out of her own recovery, Mary drew much energy that, today, she wants to use to help others doing preventive empowerment work and engaging with other victims.

Listen to the whole interview here on aracityradio.com.

If you are in need of help, contact one of the following services:

For everyone:

SOS Détresse: Tel: 45 45 45

SCAS Service central d’assistance sociale: Tel: 47 58 21-1

For children and youth:

Police, Department Youth protection: Tel: 12321

ALUPSE: Tel: 26 18 48 1, www.alupse.lu

KannerJugend-Telefon: Tel: 116 111

L’Ombuds-Comité fir d’Rechter vum Kand (ORK) www.ork.lu

 For women:

Femmes en Détresse, Tel: 40 73 35

Local Matters: Interview on the criminal law for sexual offenders

In January, Diane Schaefers launched a petition (external link) for a revision of the criminal code on sexual offences which to date collected 4.586 signatures exceeding the minimum number to necessary to provoke a debate in the Chamber. Diane Schaefers is educationist in the psychotherapy practice lead by Kashayar Pazooki in Luxembourg, both were our guests in the studio.

The petition demands longer limitation terms, a reconsideration of the word “rape” as well as harsher sentences for offenders. In our interview, Diane Schaefers recalls the judgement in Liv Jeitz-Wampachs case: according to the article in the “Luxemburger Wort”, where she opened up, she was sexually abused as a teenager by her music-teacher who finally walked free because he had no previous offences on his criminal record. “We had patients sending the article to us saying this makes no sense, why file a report if the abuser comes free? This was the moment when we said, we need to do something, we need to talk about that, because it’s a big taboo and nobody even knows the law.”

According to the ministry of Justice, there have been 144 cases of sexual assault and 104 cases of rape in 2020. Psychotherapist Kashayar Pazooki estimates that the actual number is five to ten times higher since many victims do not file a report. Longer limitation periods could enable more victims to report the crime.   Often it takes a long time for the victims to remember and to realize what has happened to them, particularly for children and teenagers. Kashayar Pazooki explains: “Victims of sexual assault have a fragmented brain. The trauma has been so great that the prefrontal and frontal cortexes are fragmented and many of the important details of the event, they won’t remember yet. So, we have to do a lot of therapy until the hippocampus starts working again. We have to go to two or three years of therapy to have the patient prepared for the confrontation and to dive into trauma-therapy. It is impossible to go to the police, to sit down and give the police the necessary details about the event.” With the limitation periods currently in place, it is often too late to come out and to charge the abuser once the victims are finally able to take this step.

This is one issue that the Minister of Justice Sam Tanson stressed in her draft bill as well. Diane Schaefer’s petition and the draft bill have points in common, but still Schaefer is convinced: “I think the discussion in parliament would still be good.” According to her it is a step in the right direction, but “a lot of things that are supposed to change concern abuse or rape of kids, but what about when you’re adult, when you’re 18?” Her petition as well as the draft bill demand: more protection for minors as well as adults, a stricter definition of consent, more time to process, and finally, break the taboo about sexual assault, abuse and rape.