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Violence against women is often associated with femicides. According to Stop Feminicide blog, created by feminist associations, 21 women have already been killed in 2019 for the simple fact that they are women. In total since 2017, when the blog was created, 99 feminicides have been identified in Belgium. There is no official figure on the issue, however, and the number of femicides could be higher. The association account is based on a relative media exposure.

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Between Rond-Point Schuman and the Cinquantenaire Park (petite rue de la Loi). Access via the Park side.
Pro-Europa and Best for Britain are organising an event just before the European Council meeting on 17/18 October to highlight widespread opposition to Brexit among British citizens. Passionate speakers and offbeat photo opportunities will provide footage to liven up European Council coverage. #FinalSay #DitchBrexit

Speakers include:
– Naomi Smith, CEO Best for Britain
– Richard Corbett, leader of the Labour MEPs
– Irina von Weise, LibDem MEP for London
– Alessandro Fusacchia, Member of Italian Chamber of Deputies for Italians abroad
– Laura Shields of British in Europe

Photogenic ‘stunts’ and music include Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg mimics, a visual portrayal of post-Brexit difficulties with volunteers entangled in Brexit red tape and songs by local Brits and ‘EU Supergirl’, Madeleina Kay.

The event provides a platform for Brits in Brussels and elsewhere and Europeans who want Britain to stay in the EU. We call for an extension to the Article 50 deadline of 31 October to allow a referendum to take place on the government’s Leave plan vs No Brexit at all.

This is being manifested:
Lack of any democratic mandate for the Johnson-Cummings regime or for any particular Brexit and especially a no-deal;
Huge pro-European grassroots movement in the UK, emerging consensus on staying in the EU and renewing the UK’s democracy, cross-party cooperation in rejecting a no-deal, moves to form a new government, and the need to keep the UK in the EU family.

The post Stop Brexit Action on Thursday 17 October appeared first on Brussels Express.

This morning, a giant pig appeared on the Schuman roundabout in Brussels. The gigantic sculpture, that is 4 meters high and 7 meters long, looks towards Berlaymont, because it has a message to send to the European Commission.

« Ode au Pig », this is the name of the sculpture, is the work of the Dutch artist Jantien Mook. Before arriving in Brussels, it had already been exhibited in 12 cities in the Netherlands.

The statue is part of the « Exit The Cages » campaign, organized by Gaia, an animal welfare organization. The aim of the campaign is to ask the European Commission to put an end to the cage farming system in Europe. This is the reason why the statue was placed in that strategic place. The sculpture also celebrates the success of the campaign, which has collected more than 1.5 million signatures in Europe. In Belgium, the petition has been signed by more than 90,000 people.

Gaia’s activists claim that the European Commission has the possibility to issue new directives in this area.  Michel Vandenbosch, Gaia’s president, states: “We needed a million signatures for our petition to be officially recognized by the Commission. According to the mandatory procedure, it must now address this issue. We hope it will be a big boost to end these terrible living conditions in a cage”.

In Europe, 300 million animals live in cages. The 170 organizations that support the action « Exit The Cages » claim their definitive ban. They hope that the new European Commission will listen and take this initiative seriously.

The post This morning the giant sculpture of a pig appeared on the Schuman roundabout appeared first on Brussels Express.

Every inhabitant of Belgium is invited to take part in a comprehensive program of Popular Assemblies, where we will debate how Belgium should respond to the climate and ecological crisis. » states the Extinction Rebellion’s press release.

NO NEUTRAL ZONE ON A DEAD PLANET

All citizens of Belgium are invited to bring a chair and to peacefully occupy the Royal Palace of Brussels by participating in people’s assemblies on Saturday 12th October. These assemblies will be held in the garden at the entrance to the Royal Palace (Place des Palais 6, between the gates overlooking the square and the palace itself).

This is the first in a series of large-scale non-violent civil disobedience actions in Brussels organised by Extinction Rebellion Belgium through spring 2020. These actions follow the example set by Extinction Rebellion UK in April 2019 in the city of London.

Since the garden is located inside the palace grounds in the so-called « neutral » zone, where all demonstrations are prohibited, participating in these popular assemblies constitutes an important twofold political act.

Firstly, it is an act of deliberate civil disobedience which directly addresses the King, thereby condemning the failure of the Belgian political authorities to confront the climate and ecological emergency.

Secondly, it is an act of civic duty, through which citizens undertake without delay to remedy the obvious shortcomings of their governments and to demonstrate the existence of a political alternative: one which could effectively tackle the crisis without undermining our democratic and human rights.

Throughout the occupation, some twenty assemblies will be held in parallel, each welcoming between 30 and 50 people. Each assembly will discuss a particular aspect of what should be done in Belgium to address the climate and ecological emergency. The meetings will last as long as necessary to discuss all these issues in depth, continuing until the next day if necessary.The topics of discussion and schedules will be published in the coming weeks.

Anyone who wishes to join the action is invited to fill out this registration form and to bring a chair to the Royal Palace in Brussels on Saturday 12th October.

AN APPEAL TO THE SOVEREIGN

By inviting citizens to exercise their sovereign democratic power in the garden of the Royal Palace, this non-violent action repudiates elected political powers, who have failed in their duties, and addresses the King directly. This action is a call for a new democratic system capable of responding to the crisis.

Aware of the extraordinary nature of this request, we call on the King to step out of His constitutional reserve, to publicly acknowledge the true gravity of the situation, and to declare a state of climate and ecological emergency in Belgium. With this bold and exceptional act the King can set in motion the implementation of a climate, ecological, and social action plan that is genuinely commensurate to the urgency of the moment.

For more information about the action: https://www.extinctionrebellion.be/docs/Royal-Rebellion-Press-Release-201909.pdf

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But what about helping a stranger? Someone you’ve never met; and I don’t mean once in a while giving change to someone homeless on the street (though that’s always a helpful gesture!)

I mean engaging on a regular basis in an action that supports the needs of a community that is outside of your own. This kind of help comes in many forms: a seemingly small as collecting unused clothing to donate to people who need it, taking time once a week to teach English, or traveling to another country to use your skills for good, without asking for anything in return.

Volunteering allows you to learn about the reality of life for some else: for the average European, a trip to a Greek island means relaxing and having fun in the beaches, or a trip to Budapest normally implies having nice walks along the Danube or relaxing in the thermal waters. But beyond those amazing beaches and those thermal waters there are real people struggling to find their way through Europe, but most importantly to finding their way to safety. By volunteering, you first-hand can begin to understand these realities.

In Brussels, volunteering with SB Espoir means you get to see and experience the city you live in but with people who have a completely different perspective than you. For example, you could get to do things like go to Mini Europe with a group of youngsters who may have never even heard of some of the cities features, or participate in the Belgian Red Cross’ “vis mon exile” event that allows you to put yourself in the shoes of someone fleeing their country.

For these youth, having group of people come to the center that they live in and offer their time during an afternoon on the weekend, gives the them not only the opportunity to escape from their isolation, but to also come in contact with the broader Brussels community. You make a difference in someone’s life. Our activities during the weekend gives the youth a distraction, something to do and look forward to, our actions support their wellbeing. If a person is alone and lonely their thoughts tend to go to past experiences, and for young migrant people this is especially true since they have experienced the hardship exile.

You also get to explore places that as a local you often don’t go to. I think it has happened to all of us: we put off visiting a museum we are interested in, or places like the Royal Observatory or even visiting the European institutions since we live here and think that we will have the time to visit them anytime in the future.

These are only some of the many benefits of volunteering your time and ways in which doing so will change your life.

Not convinced?

Read our Volunteer Blog, you will find real stories of the people that have or still volunteer with us. If you decide to help us make a difference in migrant youth and want to become part of our group of volunteers, it’s easy to join.  Send us an email to and you can sign up to participate in our weekend activities in Brussels, or go abroad and teach English in our centers in Lebanon.

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For more than a year and a half now, the 1bru1vote collective has been calling on Brussels politicians to give foreigners the right to vote in regional elections. While foreign nationals can vote in local elections, they are still unable to vote at the regional level. The collective estimates that approximately 220,000 European Union nationals and 90,000 from the rest of the world, or 310,000 people in total, do not have the right to vote in the Brussels Region for the regional elections.

In particular, the group has initiated a resolution on behalf of the Brussels Parliament, which was passed last April, calling on the federal parliament to grant the right to vote to all foreign nationals living in Brussels.

However, the group remains pessimistic that the resolution will be passed by the federal government.

“In the current state of power relations in the federal parliament, such an outcome unfortunately seems unrealistic to us,” explained 1bru1vote in a statement. The group thus believes that a law allowing foreigners to vote might not be passed until 2024, which would therefore postpone foreigners’ ability to vote until the 2029 regional elections.

As a result of the expected delay in passing this resolution, 1bru1vote has requested that the next Brussels government take several measures to “fill this legitimacy gap”. The collective is thus calling for the establishment of a ‘Brussels parliament’ of 89 citizens representing these 310,000 non-Belgian citizens of Brussels, with one third of the 89 consisting of non-Belgian municipal elected officials, one third of voluntary citizens, and one third of citizens drawn by lot.

The group has requested that this parliament be convened four times a year before a joint session with the Brussels Parliament, and that it be endowed with a certain amount of voting power.

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Molenbeek’s municipal council approved on Wednesday a “zero plastic” motion, which provides a detailed plan of action to combat plastic use.

In particular, a municipality-run “eco-team” will be responsible for creating and enforcing a charter of good practices for plastic use, with particular emphasis placed upon the elimination of “single-use” plastics.

The team is also tasked with raising awareness among the general public and businesses of the environmental impact of plastic use.

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Last week at this crossroads a young girl was struck by a hit-and-run driver on her way to school. This accident was one of a series of accidents that have affected Schaerbeek over the past year. The area around the crossroads is classified as a 30 km/h zone, but, according to the demonstrators, the speed limit is only rarely enforced by authorities or adhered to by drivers.

“We’re tired of taking risks crossing the street in Schaerbeek. We are in an area where the speed is limited to 30 km/h but there are not enough ways of enforcing motorists to drive at this speed. This is the case both at this crossroad and elsewhere in Schaerbeek,” explained one of the 1030/0 collective’s coordinators, Benoît Gérard.

The 1030/0 collective is calling for road improvements that will be designed to give priority to road and pedestrian safety over other criteria such as traffic flow or driving comfort, and which will favour cyclists and pedestrians (especially the elderly and children) over drivers.

“It’s a matter of political will,” added Mr Gérard. “The money must be made available. We expect a strong response from the Region and Schaerbeek municipality. We have created a 30 km/h zone here, but we can see that we are not getting results. The series of accidents is a reminder that things are not proceeding fast enough,” Mr. Gérard pointed out.

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The surface area of the premises is 1400 square metres, but for the moment only 800 square metres are being used. For the time being, the rest of the available space will be used as a reading area or an exhibition.

Yuman will also offer the option of renting and repairing its products.

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