Haldane 2012-13 Human Rights Lecture Series

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Each year the Haldane Society arranges its popular Human Rights Lecture Series, on a diverse range of subjects, with important speakers from across the legal landscape.

All of the events in the 2012-13 series take place at The College of Law on Store Street, London, and begin at 6.30pm.  Lectures last about an hour and a half to two hours.

All lectures are free. CPD available for practitioners, £10.

11 October 2012: David Renton & Dave Smith

“Struck Out: Why employment tribunals fail workers and what can be done”

David Renton (barrister) and Dave Smith (Blacklist Support Group) will speak on the why employment workers, and how workers can respond through collective action outside the legal system.

15 November 2012: Michael Mansfield (followed by AGM)

“Palestine, Putney and Planet”

Michael Mansfield will be speaking on a diverse range of subjects including Palestine, the Putney Debates from the Civil War, and eco-cide. 

Haldane Society AGM

The lecture will be followed by Haldane's AGM, open to all members of the Society.

13 December 2012: Owen Jones & Lois Austin (PCS)

“The Injustice of Privatisation”

Owen Jones (author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class) and a comrade from the PCS trade union will be speaking on the subject of privatisation, particularly as it affects the legal system.

17 January 2013: Michael Chessum (NUS/NCAFC) & Adam Gearey (Birkbeck School of Law)

“Higher Education for Sale”

Michael Chessum and Adam Gearey will be speaking on the privatisation of higher education.

21 February 2013: Tessa Gregory (Public Interest Lawyers) & Andy Greene (Disabled People Against the Cuts)

“Back to Work Schemes, ATOS, Forced Labour: the Fight in the Courts”

We will hear from a solicitor from Public Interest Lawyers and one of their clients about the government's controversial back to work schemes, their interrelationships with the concept of forced labour, and the human rights aspect of this subject.

14 March 2013: Jamila Duncan-Bosu (solicitor Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit) & Kate Roberts, (community advocate Kalayaan and campaigner for domestic migrant workers)

“Trafficking: Law and Politics”

We will hear from speakers involved in the fight against human-trafficking.

Joint Seminar with CAMPACC and CASE

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21 November 2012: Justice and Security Bill: Covering up State Crimes

Wednesday 21 November 6.30-8.30pm at Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A

Chair:
Louise Christian, civil liberties and human rights lawyer; Vice-President of The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.

Speakers:
Dinah Rose QC, Blackstone Chambers, who specialises in human rights and public law
Richard Norton-Taylor, journalist and writer on defence and security, The Guardian
Clare Algar, Executive Director, Reprieve

Open justice is a centuries-old principle of British law. The right to a fair trial is a feature of the common law and is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. These values of fairness and transparency are now under threat in the Justice and Security Bill, which will introduce closed courts and secret evidence for any case which the government says relates to ‘national security’.  Such restrictions threaten the very fabric of the civil legal system.

With increasing allegations of British government collusion in torture abroad over the past decade, the government has gone to great lengths to withhold evidence relating to such claims. Under the guise of growing ‘national security’ concerns in an increasingly global context, the government has also introduced a number of measures to protect the interests of the executive and its agencies.

Applied at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission since 1997, closed courts have failed to ensure fairness and proportionality in proceedings, evidenced by the sizeable related case law. 

So. why extend ‘secret evidence’? Who stands to gain? If this Bill is enacted, where will it leave the legal system and the judiciary?

For background information: The Justice and Security Bill: An Affront to Open Justice by Aisha Maniar http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/justice-and-security-bill-an-affront-to-open-justice/ 

All Welcome.  For further information contact:
Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)
Web: www.campacc.org.uk,
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
Tel.: 020 7586 5892

Lord Bill Wedderburn

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The Haldane Society is sad to announce the death of our Vice-President, Lord Bill Wedderburn, QC. Bill Wedderburn was an eminent labour lawyer, whose books included The Worker and the Law and other publications pioneering the concept of workers' rights. He worked at the University of Cambridge and was Cassell Professor of Commercial Law at the London School of Economics. He was appointed a life peer in 1977. The name Baron Wedderburn of Charlton reflected his football allegiance. He was a Distinguished Patron of the British Humanist Society. He was a committed supporter of the Haldane Society and, less than two years ago, appeared with Jim Mortimer and John Hendy QC "in conversation", jointly organised with the Institute for Employment Rights and held at the TUC. We appreciated the physical effort he made to join us then and the mental acerbity and wit that had not diminished. Our thoughts are with his family and his friends.

Obituary in Guardian, Monday 12th March

National Lawyers' Guild (US) calls on U.S. to end arm sales to Bahrain, members abused in anti-democracy crackdown

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Just one day after announcing their presence in Bahrain as human rights observers, National Lawyers Guild (NLG) members Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath were arrested at a protest in the capital city Manama and deported back to the United States. Their mission came amid renewed street protests on the one year anniversary of the country's Arab Spring uprising. Their ordeal illustrates the U.S.-backed monarchy's harsh response to its people's continued calls for democracy.

Ms. Sainath, who works as a civil rights attorney in New York, said, "Given the Bahraini regime's treatment of American lawyers one can only imagine the torture and human rights abuses Bahraini democracy activists routinely face - and why the regime is trying to hide it."
Bahraini police arrested Ms. Sainath and Ms. Arraf February 11 near the Pearl Roundabout, the site of last year's Manama protests which were modeled after the revolutionary gatherings in Egypt's Tahrir Square. Authorities confiscated the pair's phones and camera equipment, and deported them the following morning, forcing them to endure the seven-hour flight to London with their hands cuffed behind their backs. During the flight, security officers hit Ms. Sainath on the head three times and told her that if she wanted to go the bathroom she "could go to the bathroom on herself."
"The treatment our members suffered solely for documenting human rights abuse is contemptible and it demands further investigation," said NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian. "Further, we call on the U.S. government to take immediate steps to protect the rights of all Bahrainis by suspending all arms sales to the Bahraini government."
The two women traveled to the country as part of the Witness Bahrain initiative, heeding a call by Bahraini democracy activists for international observers. Six more Witness Bahrain activists now face deportation after their arrests earlier today.
Now in its 75th year, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

www.nlg.org

Contact:
Nathan Tempey,
Communications Coordinator
communications@nlg.org
(212) 679-5100, ext. 15
New York

Haldane Statement of Solidarity with MOVICE (Movement for Victims of State Crimes, Colombia)

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We are writing from the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, the British organisation of lawyers, academics students, legal workers, trade union and labour affiliates, to express our support and solidarity with the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), a coalition of more than 200 Colombian human rights organisations, lawyers' associations and trade unions.

We understand that since the organisation's creation in 2005, MOVICE leaders and the members of its component organisations have been the continuous target of human rights abuses, including assassinations, death threats, false accusations, fabricated judicial cases and unjust imprisonment.

We also recognise that in the face of these intimidations, MOVICE members continue to carry out invaluable work documenting human rights abuses, supporting and defending the rights of victims, and speaking out against those who perpetrate the violations. Their work is integral to the defence and advancement of human rights in Colombia.
It appears that many of these abuses form part of a smear campaign aimed at delegitimising and debilitating their work. Furthermore, we understand that during the first year of President Santos' administration, from August 2010-July 2011 there was a 44% increase in the abuses against MOVICE members, making it more dangerous to carry out their work on the ground.

We have for several years worked closely with the UK NGO, Justice for Colombia and in particular supported their campaign for the release of political prisoners. We specifically campaigned for the release of Carmelo Agamez, former political prisoner and leader of MOVICE Sucre, and we are currently campaigning for the release of imprisoned MOVICE leader David Rabelo.

In response to the increasing threats, and in recognition of the importance of its members work, we have decided to adopt a wider campaign in solidarity with MOVICE, through which we hope to provide increased support for MOVICE members, according to the organisation's demands and priorities. Specifically, by raising awareness within our membership and through our affiliations to the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (EALDH) and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and by calling on the Colombian authorities to fulfil MOVICE requests.

Statement of Solidarity with NUPL Action against Major General Jovito Palparan

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The Haldane Society supports the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers' actions against Maj Gen Jovito Palparan.

The arrest warrant against Gen. Palparan and three other military personnel was issued by the Malolos Regional Trial Court on December 19, 2011. After a month-long manhunt by government law enforcement agencies and after a P1-million bounty has been put up for his capture, the actual whereabouts of the retired general are yet to be known. Palparan's co-accused and sidekick M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario is also still at large.

The victims and families have been waiting for justice for the longest time. There are prevalent doubts from the victims and their families whether the Pnoy administration itself has in fact made any serious, systematic and concrete effort to initiate the effective and genuine investigation and prosecution of human rights violators of the past and the present. "We hope several other victims will, on their own, persist to throw the book at Gen. Palparan and his kind for the most horrific rights violations," said Liz Davies, Chair of the Haldane Society.

The NUPL is the private prosecutor in the case of Kidnapping and Serious Illegal Detention against Gen. Palparan and his co-accused , involving the disappearance of UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan. The NUPL is also the counsel of human rights victims Raymond Manalo, Oscar Leuterio, Melissa Roxas, Ericson Acosta, and the Morong 43 health workers, among others.

Liz Davies
Chair Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

24th January - International Day of Solidarity with Lawyers in Turkey

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Jeremy Corbyn MP joins UK lawyers protest at the Turkish Embassy: 12-1pm 43 Belgrave Square, SW1

The day of action on 24th January, which saw simultaneous actions by lawyers taking place in major cities across Europe, was marked in London with a protest outside the Turkish Embassy, and organised by CAMPACC and Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, to highlight the intolerable conditions faced by lawyers in Turkey.

Jeremy Corbyn MP and Prof Bill Bowring the President of the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights were joined by lawyers Margaret Owen, Michael Ellman, Hugo Charlton, Ali Has, Arman Banirad and human rights activist Estella Schmid from CAMPACC and Peace in Kurdistan Campaign.

"The Day of the Endangered Lawyer wants to bring to public attention the widespread human rights violations in Turkey against with lawyers seeking to represent victims of are themselves increasingly being subject to arrest and prosecution. We are here today to show our solidarity with our Kurdish and Turkish colleagues who are being arrested and prosecuted simply for carrying out their normal professional duties. Severe restrictions are routinely placed on the way they represent and relate to their clients with, for example, the taping of conversations, which breaches the principle of confidentiality. The broad definition of terrorism under Turkey's anti-terror laws is at the root of the problem and it means that lawyers can be detained for representing clients who are accused of terrorism" said Professor Bill Bowring

The state's actions against the country's lawyers culminated in the mass arrest of some 36 Turkish and Kurdish lawyers during simultaneous raids carried out in several Turkish cities and provinces on 22 November 2011 as part of the continuing KCK operations, which are a key part of the state's oppressive measures against the Kurdish people. The lawyers arrested include members of the legal team of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The lawyers remain in custody.

The petition and letter by the Endangered Lawyers initiative which Jeremy Corbyn MP tried to hand in on behalf of the organisation was refused by the Turkish Embassy. The police officer at the entry of the Turkish Embassy was under strict instructions not to allow the delivery of any letters. For information we attach the petition/letter and urge you to circulate it.

The Day of the Endangered Lawyer was organized this year by three European lawyers' associations: the European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL, www.aed-edl.net), the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH, www.eldh.eu) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE, www.idhae.org). Together they represent lawyers all over Europe.

We urge you to support the main demands of this lawyers' initiative which is calling for the following:

  • Repeal of The Turkish Anti-Terror Law of 1991 which protects the security of the state at the expense of the freedom and security of individuals and violates international human rights law;
  • The immediate release of all lawyers detained for political reasons;
  • A fair trial for defendants in the KCK trial, including permission for foreign legal observers to attend the trial;
  • An international independent investigation into the actions carried out in Turkey against lawyers and other professionals such as journalists in order to hold those responsible for these arrests accountable for violations of basic human rights.

Download the petition here

For further information:

CAMPACC (Campaign Against Criminalising Communities)

e-mail: estella24@tiscali.co.uk

www.campacc.org.uk