Day of the Endangered Lawyer 2014

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The “Day of the Endangered Lawyer” is a joint initiative of European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL, www.aed-edl.net), the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH, www.eldh.eu) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE, www.idhae.org), who together represent lawyers all over Europe.

To mark the third "Day of the Endangered Lawyer", Rommel Durán Castellanos, Colombian Human Rights Lawyer and member of the Colombian Association of Human Rights Lawyers (Acadehum), the 'Pueblos' Legal Team, and the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners, will speak in London on the serious risk situation for lawyers in Colombia, and the role that the international legal community can play in this situation. 

Following Mr Duran's presentation, there will be a short panel discussion with Professor Bill Bowring, President of European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights, and Carlos Orjuela, Haldane Society, (Further speakers to be announced)

The event will be chaired by Professor Sara Chandler, Chair of the Law Society Human Rights Committee and of the Colombian Caravana UK Lawyers' Group.

To finish the event, we will show a new documentary entitled "Gotas que agrietan la Roca", about the José Alvéar Restrepo Lawyers' Collective (Cajar).

Friday, 24 January 201

6.30-8.30pm

The Seminar Room

Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LJ

Rommel Durán is a human rights lawyer who tirelessly works to achieve justice in human and environmental rights cases in Colombia. Mr. Durán represents rural communities in Colombia in cases of land restitution, including the Pitalito Community in the Department of César. He is also involved in trying to protect fragile ecosystems from being destroyed by indiscriminate mining projects. Because of this work, he and his colleagues have been repreatedly threatened and attacked. 

This event in London is co-organised by European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH), the Haldane Society, the Colombian Caravana UK Lawyers' Group and Justice for Colombia, and is hosted by Garden Court Chambers. 

RSVP: colombian.caravana@gmail.com to secure your place at this important event

Haldane Lectures Spring 2014

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Wednesday 15th January 2014:

Government's Attack on Squatters

Speakers: David Wawtkinson, barrister and specialist in squatters rights; and a squatters' rights activist.

Thursday 13th February 2014:

UK Human Rights Violations in Iraq and Afghanistan - The Present Picture

Speakers: Phil Shiner, solicitor, Public Interest Lawyers.

All lectures at 6.30pm, University of Law, Store Street. Check in advance for CPD.

Download the A4 poster (PDF).

Drop the charges against revolutionary activists in Egypt: Defend the right to protest

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We condemn the sentencing of leading revolutionary activists in Egypt under the terms of the 2013 Protest Law, legislation described by Amnesty International as “a grave threat to freedom of assembly”. According to the law, protest organisers must apply in advance for permission to hold a demonstration, and it allows courts to impose jail sentences and fines for non-compliance. The law also gives the security forces authority to use lethal force in dispersing ‘unauthorised’ protests.

Ahmed Douma, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel from the 6th April Youth Movement were sentenced to three years in prison and a 50,000 LE (£4000) fine on 23 December 2013, for organising a demonstration without police permission and allegedly attacking police officers. Mahienour el-Massry and Hassan Moustafa from the Revolutionary Socialists in Alexandria received 2 year jail sentences and 50,000 LE (£4000) fines on 2 January 2014 also for organising an unauthorised protest. Other activists from Alexandria who received 2 year jail sentences in connection with the same event include Lu’ay Al-Qahwagi, Amr Hafez, Nasir Abu-al-Hamd and Islam Muhamadein. They join hundreds of other opponents of the current military-backed regime who have been arrested in recent months, as part of a crackdown ostensibly targeting the Muslim Brotherhood.

As members of the legal profession, we note with particular concern that Mahienour el-Massry, a qualified lawyer who is well-known for her work on behalf of detainees in Alexandria, was arrested and beaten in March 2013 when attending a police station with a group of lawyers to represent arrested demonstrators. We call on the Egyptian authorities to take urgent steps to ensure that all those arrested and their legal representatives are treated with respect.

We call for all charges connected with the 2013 Protest Law to be dropped, and for the release of all those Egyptians detained or sentenced for the exercise of their democratic rights.

Further information: http://menasolidaritynetwork.com/2014/01/06/egypt-alexandrian-activists-face-two-years-in-prison/

Upcoming Lecture 2013-14

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Tuesday 10th December 2013:

How to be a Feminist Lawyer

Speakers: Elizabeth Woodcraft, family law barrister and Professor Alison Diduck, Professor of Law at University College London

Wednesday 15th January 2014:

Government’s attack on squatters

Speakers: David Watkinson, barrister and specialist in squatters’ rights and representative from Squatters Action for Secure Rights (SQUASH)

Download the A4 poster (PDF).

Chair of Haldane's Turkish Sister Organisation Assaulted

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Our comrade Selcuk Kozağaçlı, Chair of Contemporary Lawyers Association in Turkey, has been detained, along with other lawyers, since January 2013. He is awaiting trial on trumped up charges. These dreadful photographs show him being assaulted after he had refused to give blood and saliva samples to the Turkish police in January.

Photos of the abuse can be found by clicking "Click to read more" below.

Read More

Motion for Trade Unions to Show Support for Legal Aid

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The motion below, which can be downloaded here in Word (docx) form, is intended as a model motion for trade unions who want to show their support to the fight to save Legal Aid.

This organisation believes:

1. Legal aid, which celebrated its 60th birthday recently was a major concession won in the post-war consensus years. This major reform was won by the working class hand in hand with the trade union movement and the Labour Party.

2. Legal aid helped to secure rights and court representation in relation to eviction, welfare and the threat of unjust convictions. It leveled the playing field between the richest who could afford lawyers and the poorest who could not.

3. At the time of its launch, eight out of 10 people were entitled to the scheme’s assistance. The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal fewer than one in three are now eligible.

4. On 1 April 2013, the cuts in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into force. There is no longer legal aid for advice or representation in welfare benefits, employment, family cases (where there is no domestic violence), immigration cases and consumer rights.

5. On 9 April 2013 the government announced a consultation on further legal aid cuts: “Transforming legal aid”. The Government intends to cut a further 17.5% from the criminal defence budget and proposes to introduce a tendering system for large scale regional contracts in relation to duty solicitor work. If these proposals are implemented, we believe that the quality of legal aid services will fall dramatically and there will be an increased risk of miscarriages of justice that could lead to innocent people being convicted of crimes that they did not commit.

6. In addition, further cuts to civil legal aid rates mean that there will no longer be specialist legal aid lawyers providing advice and representation in areas of housing law, education, for people asserting their rights against the state or other civil cases.

7. The legal aid budget only represents only 0.545% of national public spending (or £2.2 billion - the approximate cost of keeping the NHS running for 2 weeks).  Legal aid is provided at a very low cost to the public purse but has the potential to provide access to justice to a great many, most often those most in need.

8. Legal aid should be viewed as part of the wider trade union campaign to defend public services and the welfare state.

This organisation agrees to:

1. Campaign for the defence of legal aid.

2. Support calls for legal aid to be recognised as part of the welfare state.

3. Support publicity efforts including: demands to campaign for the defence of legal aid and for legal aid rates to be restored to pre-1979 levels; and publicising advice and representation on employment law issues, as a stepping stone to a fully funded legal aid system.

4. Affiliate to The Justice Alliance - an alliance of legal organisations, charities, community groups, campaigning groups, trade unions and individuals who are united in the opposition to the Government's proposed attack on legal aid and the criminal justice system[1].

5. Register our support for those in the legal profession taking direct action, including strike action.

[1] To affiliate please contact Justice Alliance organiser Russell Fraser: russell.fraser@me.com

Haldane Society Stands in Solidarity with Persecuted Turkish Advocate

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Liz Davies, Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, has sent a letter to the President of Turkey expressing our strong concerns regarding the treatment of Advocate Ramazan Demir.

Adv. Demir has been summoned to appear before the special prosecutor of the 15th Criminal Court in Silivri in relation to a statement he made in the course of his duties as counsel in court on 16 November 2012. No complaint was made by either the judge or the prosecutor at the time he made the statement, however, six months later, on 13 May 2013, the prosecutor placed him under formal investigation, alleging a violation of article 125 of the Turkish Criminal Code, namely “offending the dignity of a public authority in the performance of its duties”.

The alleged statement was made in what is known as the “KCK Press Trial” in which 44 journalists stand accused in Silivri. Adv. Demir on behalf of his client requested that an expert witness should be appointed. He stated the self-evident fact that it is not open to a prosecutor to simply assert that journalists lacked “independence” or behaved in any way inappropriate to their profession. Such an allegation must be proved by expert evidence on issues such as journalistic ethics and the international human rights guarantees of freedom of expression.

On the basis of his request, we understand that Adv. Demir now faces prosecution for an offence of “insulting or offending the dignity of a public authority in the performance of his duties.”

We will be bringing these matters to the attention of the appropriate United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. We will continue to monitor any further attempts to undermine the abilities of Adv. Demir and his professional colleagues to provide the professional representation to their clients and international standards of human rights require.

Download the full letter (PDF).

Haldane Society Welcomes Criminal Bar Association's Call for Direct Action

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The Criminal Bar Association held a national delegates conference at Lincoln’s Inn on Saturday 16 November. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers welcomes the Criminal Bar Association's determination to oppose Government's cuts to legal aid. We look forward to the calling of a day of action in protest in accordance with the resolution proposed by Mark George QC and Haldane Secretary Russell Fraser and passed unanimously. We will call on our members to support the Day of Action.

The Conference approved the following text:

The calling of a day or days of action on which no members of the criminal bar will undertake work in either the magistrates or crown courts. We will ask for the support of the representative bodies of the solicitor’s profession in standing by us on that (those) day (s). The purpose will be to demand that the government stays all its current proposals for legal aid and that the justice secretary engages with us meaningfully.