The European Centre for Law and Justice This Week

July 21, 2006

(Strasbourg, France)- Be sure to visit www.eclj.com regularly for updates as to the important work being done by the European Centre for Law and Justice. Reflecting on a very active week, ECLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow had very special guests Bas Belder and Daniel Lipsic on his radio program Jay Sekulow Live! If you haven’t already listened to programs and what these European leaders had to say about the current combat situation in Israel, you still have a chance at “ACLJ on the Radio” at www.aclj.org for the dates of July 18 and 19.

ECLJ has also been working in co-operation with the American Centre for Law and Justice and Regent University Law School as Regent has been holding its annual Regent Summer Law Program in Strasbourg. The students had an exciting week receiving lectures on national security from former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and a special guest lecture by one of the architects of the European Court of Human Rights and a chief administrator of the Court Hans-Christian Krueger. Former Deputy-Prime Minister and Justice Minister of the Slovak Republic also spoke to the students about his work in the field of anti-corruption and on the challenges ahead for this next generation of law students in a relativistic world.

ECLJ representative Roger Kiska also received an invitation to address the European Parliament bioethics inter-group on the topic of advanced scientific research and legal issues arising there from within the context of the European Communities. He will then take questions from the Inter-group. That will take place in September during the plenary session of the Parliament in Strasbourg. In the meantime, ECLJ continues it draft application to the European Court of Justice regarding a challenge to the European financement of embryonic stem cell research. ECLJ is working with Members of European Parliament and Member State Representatives in bringing this suit if the Council of Ministers should adopt the Commission directive. Staying in the field of bioethics, ECLJ continues its analysis of the Commission Advanced Therapies bill at the request of the bill’s rapporteur.

ECLJ has also been in contact with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey regarding the closing of the Chalki Theological Seminary and the Patriarchy’s suit against the Turkish government at the European Court of Human Rights. ECLJ lends its support and wishes to lend its legal expertise to this very important endeavour for religious freedoms in Turkey.

The Law Centre has also been in contact with the NGO liaison officer of the United Nations regarding obtaining consultative status with the United Nations to work on important initiatives in human rights and security. ECLJ has long been an important resource at the disposal of the Council of Europe and European Union and plans to translate this work to the UN level.