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The horizontal equal treatment directive: why it needs to be adopted
Get PDFThis article addresses the reasons why Proposal COM(2008)426, often referred to as the horizontal equal treatment directive, should be adopted as soon as possible in order to protect persons across the EU against discrimination on the grounds of religion and belief, disability, age and sexual orientation outside the employment sphere, a protection that is currently lacking. The arguments for this are, first, that adoption would deal with some of the reasons for the hierarchy between discrimination grounds that is said to exist in EU law. Second, and most important, adoption of the proposal would fulfil, to a large extent, the positive obligations of the EU and of the Member States under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The latter part of this article analyses the CRPD and compares this to Proposal COM(2008)426 in its present compromise form to establish this
The age of uncertainty: Cengiz Çandar on power, justice, and the Middle East
No full textFew figures have observed the political transformations of Türkiye and the Middle East with the depth and continuity of Cengiz Çandar. A journalist, author, and now politician, he has written through wars, peace processes, and the long search for democracy, often with a rare blend of analysis and conscience. In this interview, he reflects on the region’s unfinished struggles and the lessons of a lifetime spent observing its political transformations
Explainer: compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights: the UK and Europe
No full textThe European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is an international human rights treaty that protects the rights of everyone within or affected by the actions of the 46 states, including the UK, that belong to the Council of Europe. The ECHR is not an EU treaty, and the Council of Europe is not an EU body.
This explainer examines the UK’s relationship with the ECHR system in 2024 – how often the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg finds that the UK has violated human rights and on what issues, and how far the UK complies with those rulings. It compares the UK’s record with other European states
Visualizing versus verbalizing uncertainty in intelligence analysis
Get PDFWe compared the probability terms used by Western intelligence organizations against two visual encoding channel-based representations of uncertainty (i.e., darkness and thickness). Analysts were more sensitive to the probability being communicated under the word than thickness condition but not the darkness condition, with no difference among the visual conditions. However, sensitivity was not perfect. There was no difference in inter-individual variability across all conditions, which was generally poor. Test-retest reliability was greater in the word compared to thickness condition, but not the darkness condition, although, it was imperfect. Finally, analysts did not fully comply with existing uncertainty communication lexicons
Discovering Rodney Ackland
No full textA blogpost, published on the website of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, about my research into the playwright/screenwriter Rodney Ackland, and specifically his unfilmed screenplay Derby Day
How stage playwrights saved the British cinema, 1930-1956
No full textA talk delivered at the Reuben Library, British Film Institute, on 17th February 2025, as part of the launch of the book How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930-1956: The Well Made Screenpla
Community arts: making a difference - in it for the long term
No full textInterview by Belinda Kidd with Loraine Leeson and John Phillips.
Both of the organisations they co-led – for John, the Paddington Printshop (co-founded with Pippa Smith in 1975), and for Loraine, the Docklands Community Poster Project (co-founded with Peter Dunn in 1981) – are often seen as key players in the community arts movement. However, at the time, they did not see themselves as central, although clearly having much affinity with it. The key area of difference was around direct creative participation. The important issue for both was to make a difference in their local communities: supporting community activism through facilitating a dynamic visual presence. This did not always involve people directly in the creative process, which is often seen as a key defining characteristic of Community Arts, although the term co-creation, which is now increasingly used, does describe their approach – for example see the approaches described in Creative Communities, an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research programme hosted by Northumbria University.
The Paddington Printshop created many posters supporting community action in West London. Sometimes people from the community would make their own images facilitated with technical support from the Printshop, but in other cases the posters would be made by staff members in consultation with people from community action groups rather than directly by them.
The Docklands Community Poster project made large photo murals about the redevelopment of the London Docklands, displayed on purpose built hoardings, developing the ideas for the images through an intense dialogue with local activists. However, the images were designed and created by the two lead artists, Loraine and Peter. Their organisational structure, a community co-operative, involved individuals such as Ted Johns of the Association of Island Communities and Maureen Davies of the Wapping Parents Action Group. All members of the co-operative were directly involved in consulting on and signing off the images to be used
Quality model tool for intelligent environments: initial findings from a literature review
Get PDFIntelligent Environments (IEs) are complex user-centric systems that integrate a mix of sensors, software, and algorithms designed to react, handle and retain awareness to provided contextual information, user preferences, reasoning processes, and even system malfunctions. Developing IEs requires a structured, iterative approach that ensures context-specific requirements and maintains system quality throughout the development lifecycle. Although robust frameworks and strategies now exist to assess the quality of the systems, during or after development, tools to support developers in these stages remain scarce. This study aims to identify, synthesise, and present the findings on tools available to improve the evaluation and quality management of IEs. A systematic literature review was conducted to explore the current landscape of research on the development and engineering of intelligent environments. The initial findings suggest new avenues for research, particularly the need for automation in evaluation processes to improve framework applicability, efficiency, and reliability. Addressing this gap should be a target for research endeavors
From the AI white paper of the European Commission to the draft ‘AI-Act’—contours of a legal framework for AI in Statu Nascendi
Get PDFThis article first provides an overview of the Commission’s ‘AI White Paper’. Having done so, the need for a comprehensive AI legal framework will be discussed in more detail and then the contours of such a framework pursuant to the White Paper will be outlined. This article then focuses on the implementation of the White Paper by the draft ‘AI Act’ of April 2021. This draft is a legal novelty as it constitutes the first concrete approach for regulating AI worldwide. The main features of this ‘Act’ are briefly presented and then subjected to a critical analysis
