Haldane Society responded to the Ministry of Justice's consultation on "Options for dealing with Squatting".

Our response is here:

The Society is opposed to proposalstto create a new criminal offence of trespass (or squatting) for the following reasons;

The paper presents no evidence, other than stories in the press, that squatting of individual's homes is a significant problem. Such evidence as has been gathered- for example the recently published report by Crisis- "Squatting a homelessness issue" ( download pdf here ) - suggests ,squatting takes place in unoccupied properties and is the last resort of the desperate

The unauthorized occupation of residential premises is already a criminal offence under Section 7 of the 1977 Criminal Law Act., and it is a myth to say that the current law, when properly applied, is not adequate to deal with the problems. This is a question of education and administration not legislation. The creation of a new offence is unnecessary

It is proposed to extend the new offence to the occupation of all types of buildings, including the commercial and the public. Adequate remedies are available in the civil court to the owners of such properties and they have the knowledge and resources to use them. In the current economic climate, there is no justification for such an extension of the law to protect those who are not faced with the loss of their home and who already have adequate means of resolving their own problems.

There is no discussion of enforcement. The police are currently unwilling to involve themselves in disputes relating to property. It is unlikely that the proposed new offence will change this. Resource strapped local authorities (many of whom no longer have tenancy relations service) will not be willing to enforce the law either.

The new offence would be open to abuse by unscrupulous landlords.

The minister is dismissive of the idea that squatting is a reasonable recourse of the homeless suffering from social deprivation because

"There are avenues open to those who are genuinely destitute and who need shelter which do not involve occupying somebody else's property without authority. No matter how compelling or difficult the squatter's own circumstances, it is wrong that legitimate occupants should be deprived of the use of their property".

The Society disagrees. The avenues open to the genuinely destitute have become increasingly narrowed in recent years. The number of affordable tenancies (either public or private) has shrunk massively. The changes in Housing Benefit will exacerbate this. Many of the homeless do not receive the assistance from local authorities that they are entitled to. There is every indication that this will get worse, as the Crisis report suggests.

The minister refers to proposal "stop squatters getting legal aid to fight eviction." People who are accused of squatting only get Legal Aid if they can demonstrate that they have a reasonable chance of proving they have a right to remain - in which case they are not squatters.

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and Avocats Sans Frontiers present

"Enforcing Housing Rights: the case of Sheikh Jarrah": a report of the fact-finding mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Tensions have flared in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian area located to the north of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem. Over the last three years, more than 60 Palestinians have been forcibly evicted in this area and at least another 500 are at risk of dispossession and displacement, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

Since the start of the Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, which continues until today, the Palestinian refugee families in Sheikh Jarrah have been the target of eviction proceedings brought by the Committees and their successor, the Nahalat Shimon Company (to whom all rights and obligations were transferred in 2008-2009), before Israeli courts, resulting in the eviction of 4 refugee families to date (60 people) – the Mohammad Al-Kurd, Al-Ghawi, Hanoun and Rifqa Al-Kurd families – all of whom had already been forcibly displaced at least once before.

Following a request from local lawyers and NGOs received by Avocats Sans Frontières, an international legal expert mission visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) from 19 to 23 December 2010. The delegation - organised by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers - consisted of four English barristers, all specializing in housing rights – John Beckley, Liz Davies, and Marina Sergides and John Hobson as well as English barrister and human rights lawyer Hannah Rought-Brooks and Bill Bowring, also a barrister practising at the European Court of Human Rights, and Professor of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London. The delegation was accompanied by ASF project coordinator Stijn Denayer and human rights lawyer Valentina Azarov.

Their report "Enforcing Housing Rights: the case of Sheikh Jarrah" examines the Palestinian housing rights crisis in East Jerusalem, Israel's breaches of international law as an occupying power, the inequalities faced by Palestinians before the Israeli Courts, law enforcement failures and breaches of international law in carrying out evictions. It contains recommendations to Israel, the UN and international community, the European Union and the UK government.

Recommendations to the UK government are:

- To declare publicly that it will use its influence and all available mechanisms within the EU to ensure that the EU acts upon the recommendations set out immediately above.

- To ensure that senior UK officials observe court hearings concerning Sheikh Jarrah, and visit Sheikh Jarrah; and join high-level groups from the EU.

- To continue and if possible intensify the present policy of providing all possible support to the Sheikh Jarrah families.

- To give urgent and public consideration to the question how it can best comply with the obligations laid upon it (and all other states) by the International Court of Justice in 2004:

- All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction;

- All States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 have in addition the obligation, while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.

- In particular, to take steps to implement the recommendation by Amnesty International in 2009 that the UK government should “suspend all military exports to Israel until there is no longer a substantial risk that such equipment will be used for serious violations of human rights.

The views contained in the report and the recommendations are those of the delegation.

Download full report here ( 6.7MB )

Haldane Opposes Riot-Related Evictions

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers opposes any attempt to evict tenants for the actions of members of their family, especially when those actions do not impact on their neighbours' lives.

We protest at threats by Wandsworth Council to start eviction proceedings against a council tenant on the apparent basis that a member of her family might have been involved in some of the rioting committed in the second week of August 2011. We believe that subjecting a family to eviction constitutes collective punishment of the whole family for the alleged actions of one individual. If the individual has committed a crime, he or she should be subject to the usual penalties through the criminal justice system. His or her family should not be made homeless.
We will be responding to the government's consultation on extending social landlords' powers to seek possession for criminality and anti-social behaviour and expressing our opposition to those proposals. We call upon social landlords not to penalise their tenants for the actions of those who live with them.

Promises and Challenges: The Tunisian Revolution of 2010-2011

The Report of the March 2011 Delegation of Attorneys to Tunisia.

In March 2011 three members of the Haldane's executive committee joined colleagues from America and Turkey in an international human rights delegation to Tunisia. Co-chairs Katherine Craig and Anna Morris travelled to Tunis with Russell Fraser where they spent five days meeting with politicians, trade unionists, bloggers and democracy campaigners. The delegation heard evidence of state torture and corruption. During the Ben Ali years a culture of impunity reigned, a feature common to dictatorships across the world. Another feature common to such regimes is the interference of Western governments in furtherance of imperial desires. Tunisia is no different and has experienced French and US meddling in its internal affairs in its recent history.

The group has produced a report on its activities, those they met, and recommendation for the future which can be downloaded here.

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers fully supports the industrial action called by PCS and other unions on 30th June 2011.

PCS Ministry of Justice workers, including Court workers will be taking strike action to resist cuts to their pensions, increases in their pension contributions and more years to work until they get them. This is all part of the cuts to legal services which will close courts permanently, create redundancies amongst court staff, close Law Centres and CABx, cut Legal Aid so denying access to justice for all but the rich and driving lawyers from publicly funded work.

On 30th June some Courts will be closed and there will certainly be picket-lines at any that remain open. We encourage our members to show solidarity with the striking Court workers by respecting the picket-lines so long as that does not breach members' professional duties. This situation has been explained to PCS who understand the constraints on practising lawyers under a professional duty to attend court but who would not wish to cross a picket line. Members can express their solidarity with the PCS in other ways, in particular by making a donation to the Ministry of Justice Group hardship fund (see the statement below for details).

Members are urged to make arrangements before 30th June to avoid, if possible, the need for their attendance at court on that day so long as the interests of their clients are protected. If you have no alternative but to attend court on 30th June take this statement with you and show it to the PCS steward. We would encourage members who find that they do have to appear in Court on 30th June to consider donating some of their personal remuneration to the strike hardship fund.

PCS will be holding over 50 rallies, marches and picnics all around the country on 30 June.

Here are the details:

http://www.pcs.org.uk In Central London, PCS will assemble at 11am, at Lincoln Inn Fields, WC2A 3TL.  Music provided by Love Music Hate Racism. March to Westminster Central Hall, Storeys Gate, London. SW1H 9NH, for a rally at 1pm. Speakers include union general secretaries - Christine Blower (NUT), Mary Bousted (ATL), Sally Hunt (UCU), and Mark Serwotka (PCS); Dot Gibson of the National Pensioners Convention; and Labour MP John McDonnell. Please try and attend one of the events in your area.

PCS has been an active player in the campaigns to save legal aid, giving evidence at Haldane Society's Commission of Inquiry into Legal Aid in February. Many Haldane members are either directly employed by public authorities or, as legal aid practitioners, are effectively public servants. The battle to save public sector pensions is part of the battle to retain the welfare state, under attack by the Coalition government. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in the PCS and other public sector unions.

Details of the event can be found here, and the poster can be downloaded here

The Haldane Society is sorry to announce the death of our Vice-President Kader Asmal

He was a towering intellectual, great champion of human rights and unswerving in his commitment to the liberation of South Africa. We send our condolences and solidarity to his wife and his family.

Click here for the Guardian obituary.

Morning Star article on Commission's findings:

Liz Davies wrote an account of the Commission's findings on 20th June in the Morning Star newspaper:

 Read it in full here

Haldane Society supports Defend the Right to Protest and those students and staff arrested protesting against David Willetts

This letter has been initiated by activists of the Defend the Right to Protest Campaign. To sign the letter please use the e-petition or e-mail mark.bergfeld@nus.org.uk

On late Monday afternoon, a hundred students and staff from SOAS and the University of London assembled to protest against Universities Minister David Willetts' visit to the college.

In order to avoid a repetition of what happened to A.C.Grayling's lecture at Foyles bookstore, or Richard Dawkins at the Institute of Education SOAS management had not listed the event on its website. In addition, SOAS management flouted the fact that both the Students' Union and UCU at SOAS have voted motions of no confidence in David Willetts. Instead they invited the police onto college grounds to guard the door to the Brunei Gallery.

Asserting their democratic right to protest, students and staff entered the building and occupied the foyer of the lecture hall in which Willetts was speaking. Once the occupation had ended the police arrested a student, and went over to arrest three more. Police were using batons, they erected metal barriers outside the Brunei Gallery and one plain clothes police officer was spotted giving hand signals to the police. The police's actions were provocative, violent and turned a good-natured protest into a scene of mayhem.

The events of yesterday are indeed worrying as they show once again the brutal methods the police will employ in order to quell dissent on the streets and on our campuses. It seems that now, every time the student' and trade union movement calls a protest, the police abuse their powers to intimidate and attack people taking part.

On June 30th, up to one million public sector workers will be striking in defence of their pensions and livelihoods. Yesterday's attacks on our right to protest resemble the arrests before the Royal Wedding and in the run-up to March 26th.

We pledge to defend and assert our right to protest, and demand:
- SOAS management instigate a full independent investigation with the involvement of student and staff from the college into what happened at the demonstration
- the police drop all charges against the arrested protesters
- An end to political policing

Haldane Society supports campaign to free imprisoned pro-democracy campaigners, Swaziland

A campaign has been launched to free Maxwell Dlamini, the president of Swaziland's NUS (SNUS). Dlamini was arrested, along with political activist Musa Mgudeni, on the eve of the pro-Democracy protests on April 12 and charged with possession of illegal ammunition, although he denies this charge.

His supporters say that the Swazi government is trying to smear Dlamini because he is a popular and well-known figure in Swaziland having led many battles with the government on behalf of the students since he took office.

Dlamini was voted in as president of the NUS in October 2010 and has since led campaigns against increased tuition fees, against proposed cuts to scholarship programmes, and in favour of compelling the Swazi government to honour its constitutional commitment to introduce free primary school education.

Swazi parents currently pay fees for education at every level. A situation that forces some to educate only some of their children and only in the months that they can afford to pay for schooling.

The UK's incoming NUS vice president for society and citizenship, Danielle Grufferty, described Dlamini as "the figurehead" of Swazi student politics. "Maxwell is well-known as a radical within the democracy and union movements in Swaziland," she said. She also said the police knew him as the organiser of recent student protests.

Grufferty, who has lived in Swaziland for a year, was in the country at the time of Dlamini's first bail hearing. She said that the prosecution tried to establish Dlamini as a threat to society. "At the hearing, the prosecution kept asking the police if they thought he was a threat to society, and the police kept saying they believed he was but they couldn't produce any evidence. They asked questions about previous misconduct and there were none. They asked about previous convictions and there weren't any of those either. In the three days that I attended court they didn't produce any evidence to support the allegation that he was in possession of explosives. The people in the gallery began to laugh at the police because of their answers, which annoyed the judge and she warned the gallery: 'There are enough cells down there for you all'."

The prosecution argued that they needed more time and the hearing ended without the judge ruling on whether or not Dlamini could be bailed.

Grufferty filmed this interview outside the court where Dlamini's supporters were singing Swazi liberation songs, and pledging to return to the court each Friday until Dlamini's case is heard.

Swazi school teachers took to the streets last week demanding that King Mswati III's assets to be frozen following a warning from finance minister Majozi Sithole that the government could not ensure salaries would be paid beyond June.

The False Economy of Legal Aid Cuts

Haldane Society and Young Legal Aid Lawyers release independent report arguing that cutting legal aid is "a false economy" ahead of expected government announcement on legal aid reforms.

A panel of independent experts have concluded that cutting legal aid will not bring the savings to Government spending that Ken Clarke hopes.

" UNEQUAL BEFORE THE LAW? THE FUTURE OF LEGAL AID " sets out the findings of a 'Commission of Inquiry into Legal Aid'. The Commission comprises Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat MP, Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the trade union Unite, and the Reverend Professor Nicholas Sagovsky, until recently the canon of Westminster Abbey. These three non-partisan and independent-minded experts, each with a long track record of promoting social justice, considered the cases both for and against legal aid.

Their purpose was to consider objectively, at a time of cuts to public spending including proposals to remove £350 million from the £2.1 billion legal aid budget (see over), the value of the safety net which our legal aid system provides for the ordinary people, sometimes poor and usually vulnerable, who rely upon it.

'Without legal aid I would not have been able to get the help I needed. I would have either been forced back into an abusive relationship or had to move to a refuge with my two children.' SH, written evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into legal aid

On February 2 the Commission took part in a live session at the House of Commons and heard from ordinary people who had received help under the legal aid scheme including the victims of domestic abuse (such as "SH"), destitute asylum seekers, individuals with mental health problems and those who had experienced debt and homelessness.

EP described how legal aid helped her escape her abusive and domineering husband and gain custody of their children. Mrs Whitehouse expressed gratitude for the legal aid lawyers who had helped her stay in her home of nearly 50 years. The Commission heard how people facing such problems in the future may find themselves unable to obtain advice or representation if the government reforms are brought in unchanged.

During its inquiry the Commission also considered evidence from groups such as Liberty and the Child Poverty Action Group as well as submissions from a wide range of organisations (the Ministry of Justice, Policy Exchange and The Adam Smith Institute).

The Commission made seven findings (see over). Unequal before the law? publishes those findings, the individual testimonies and the submissions that they considered.

Evan Harris, Diana Holland and Reverend Nicholas Sagovsky said:

'Legal aid is vital in protecting the rights of vulnerable people...many of those who receive legal aid are among the most vulnerable in society. They include the elderly, the disabled, the abused, children and the mentally ill. They each have legal rights which they would not have been able to enforce without legal aid.'

'Legal aid is vital in upholding the rule of law...There can be no semblance of equality before the law when those who cannot afford to pay a lawyer privately go unrepresented or receive a worse kind representation than those who can.'

'Legal aid is essential to holding the state to account...It would be wrong in principle for the state to tolerate bad-decision making while at the same time removing the ability of ordinary people to hold those bodies to account for their mistakes by reducing legal aid.'

'Cutting legal aid is a false economy...When coupled with the human cost to the vulnerable and socially excluded of reducing legal aid, the panel finds these increased economic costs are unacceptable.'

Having considered the evidence the Commission made seven key findings:

• Legal aid is vital to protecting the rights of vulnerable people;
• Legal aid is vital to upholding the rule of law;
• Legal aid is essential to holding the state to account;
• Cutting legal aid is a false economy;
• A holistic approach is needed in providing legal aid;
• Cuts to legal aid will drive out committed lawyers; and
• Cutting legal aid is not a fair or effective way to reduce unnecessary litigation.

Unequal before the law? The future of legal aid is published by Solicitors Journal and the research company Jures as part of the Justice Gap series. It is edited by Jon Robins. This is the third publication in the Justice Gap series.

Information about the Justice Gap series including requests for hard copies and PDFs, contact Jon Robins (jon@jures.co.uk/ 07760 415 478).

It is available for download here.

Photos from the launch of the Legal Aid Report here

Please show your support for legal aid by supporting 38 degrees here

And sign the Sound Off for Justice petition here