Day: 11 December 2016

Princess Charlene joined with other eminent proponents of children’s rights at a major summit in Delhi at the weekend.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, the Dalai Lama, and former President of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, joined in calling for the globalisation of children’s rights on Saturday.

“The world is facing many problems. We humans have created these problems, and it is only we who can solve them. We can’t blame Buddha, or God or Jesus for the problems faced by our children,” the Dalai Lama told delegates at the two-day event.

“This can only come from compassion, from ending all the violence which we have seen in the 20th century. The 21st century has to be the century of peace.”

In 2015, an estimated 5.9 million children died before reaching the age of five, mostly as a result of preventable and treatable diseases, according to UNICEF. Almost half of the world’s extremely poor are children.

Indian child rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kailash Satyarthi, organised the summit to bring together 250 leaders and laureates from politics, the corporate world, civil society, academia and the judiciary, and to harness their voices to advocate for children on one single platform.

He said that while progress has been made over the last ten years in decreasing the number of child labourers and increasing school attendance, it was not enough as millions of children are still exploited.

While on an official engagement in India to join other leaders at a top-level summit organised to promote children’s rights, HSH Princess Charlene visited a number of families affected by HIV in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

On a visit to the home of a 41-year-old farm worker, who suffers from chronic disease, she witnessed firsthand the terrible poverty that afflicts families where the main breadwinner cannot work. The Princess offered to help, and gave a gift of a cricket bat to the family’s only son.

A cheerful welcome awaited the Princess at a private college where children and adults afflicted by HIV had gathered to meet her. Princess Charlene was feted with rose bouquets, garlands and a crown of flowers. (Feature image: Facebook Palais Princier / Eric Mathon)

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The Alpine Convention this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Monaco has been a member since 1994.

Monaco’s interest in the conservation of mountain regions began well before the Alpine Convention: even in the time of Prince Albert I, in the early twentieth century, conservation projects were being developed as a result of Monaco’s commitment, including a cross-border Natural Park in the Pyrenees and the development of hydrotherapy and tourism in the Alps that respected the sites and the environment.

Today, the Principality actively participates in the exchange of experience and good practice among the eight member countries and in the development of joint initiatives.

Monaco hosted in 2008 a meeting of the executive body of the Alpine Convention, the Standing Committee.

Through numerous partnerships, the Principality has partnered with the reintroduction of the bearded vulture, the implementation of Via Alpina and the reforestation of cross-border areas in cooperation with France. Monaco is committed to the platform of the Alpine Convention on Ecological Connectivity and provides significant support to the ALPARC association, which brings together protected areas in the Alpine arc.

The Alpine Convention is firmly committed to the fight against climate change. The melting of Alpine glaciers alerted the scientific world to the reality of these changes. Warming is twice as high in the Alps as in the rest of the northern hemisphere and because of the topography, the massif is also more exposed to the natural disasters that are likely to result.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation are therefore at the forefront of the goals set by ministers and high-level representatives of the eight countries at the XIVth Alpine Conference last October. The Principality will contribute with the objective of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

The Alpine Convention is an international treaty for the protection and sustainable development of the Alps, ratified by eight Alpine countries (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland) and the European Union.

The Alps, with their unique biodiversity capital, water and wood reserves, constitute a natural, cultural, environmental and living environment for more than 14 million people and an attractive tourist destination for more than 120 million tourists every year.

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If the UK government gets its way, expat pensioners living abroad will pay considerably more in tax on pensions.

A scheme known as Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (Qrops), which lowers income tax paid on qualifying registered overseas pension schemes to 90 percent of the amount otherwise due, will no longer apply and, from April 6, 2017, 100 percent of income tax will have to be paid, according to a little-noticed proposal in the so-called Autumn Statement by the UK finance minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond.

Pensioners currently paying 36 percent will in future pay 40 percent, if the plans make their way into law.