‘Selective Affinities’: The Reactions of the Council of Europe and the European Union to the Second Armed Conflict in Chechnya (1999 – 2006)

This article aims to compare how the main bodies of the European Union and the Council of Europe reacted to the issues raised by the armed conflict in Chechnya: human rights violations; the necessity (or otherwise) of political negotiations between the Chechens and the Russians; and Chechen terrorism. While the requests for political negotiations were quickly dropped by nearly all organs of the Council of Europe (CoE) and European Union (EU), the issue of human rights abuses uncovered a chasm between the legislative and decision-making bodies. The terrorist acts had no impact on either the EU's or the CoE's definition of the conflict in Chechnya, but they did influence EU policy. In sum, this comparison suggests the presence of ‘selective affinities’ between the CoE and EU bodies depending on the issue involved.     

Estimating China's Urban Unemployment Rate: Background,mechanics and an alternative

This paper opens by explaining the political processes that lie behind the definition and measurement of China's urban unemployment. Thereafter, it uses publicly available sources to replicate the inscrutable official urban unemployment estimate for the year 1997. Scholars widely critique the official estimate as under-counting the number of unemployed people, though it is less appreciated that official statistics also under-estimate the number of employed urban people. This paper addresses both deficiencies, unofficially calculating that urban unemployment for the year 1997 was at the rate of 4.5%, higher than the officially stated rate of 3.1%, but closer to the official rate than is often assumed. We conclude by proposing additional research that would enable more precise estimates of China's urban unemployment rate.     

Accidental methylene chloride fatality

A case of accidental methylene chloride poisoning by inhalation is presented. The methylene chloride concentration in post-mortem blood was 29.8 mg% as determined by a headspace gas-chromatography technique. The accidental death was attributed to improper ventilation of vapors.