A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.

Policing and criminal justice

22 May: The European Court of Human Rights condemns France for a lack of remedy for degrading detention conditions in its overseas territory of New Caledonia. (Statewatch News Online, 22 May 2015)

 24 May: The family of Kingsley Burrell, who died after being arrested and then left for hours handcuffed on a hospital floor in Birmingham in 2011, urges Theresa May to launch an independent public inquiry into deaths in custody. (Guardian, 24 May 2015)

25 May: After a two-year investigation, the IPCC announces that Humberside police officers could face criminal prosecution for allegedly spying on the family of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in 1998. (Hull Daily Mail, 25 May 2015)

25 May: An internal Greater Manchester Police memo shows how senior police officers ordered intelligence to be gathered on supporters of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence days before a public inquiry into his murder visited Manchester in 1998. (Manchester Evening News, 25 May 2015)

27 May: The mother of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police custody in Fife earlier this month, accuses lawyers of ‘shameful’ behaviour after she received a legal threat demanding the removal of a post on a website set up to demand answers over her son’s death. (Herald Scotland, 27 May 2015)

27 May: Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCSPI) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) publish a: Joint inspection of the provision of charging decisions, May 2015. (Download the report here.)

28 May: An investigation into evidence given to the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry by a former Metropolitan Police chief is expanded to include other senior officers. (Voice, 28 May 2015)

28 May: Amnesty International calls for an investigation into claims on BBC1’s Panorama programme that agents inside Ulster loyalist and republican terror groups were able to kill and target victims with impunity during the Northern Ireland Troubles. (Guardian, 28 May 2015)

29 May: No criminal action will be taken against police involved in the death of Seni Lewis, restrained by officers in a London psychiatric hospital in 2010, the CPS states. (BBC News, 29 May 2015)

29 May: Four police officers and a community support officer appear in court to face charges of misconduct in public office; the community support officer also faces a charge of perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder of Bijan Ebrahimi in Bristol in July 2013. (Western Daily Press, 29 May 2015)

1 June: The Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) Research Network publishes a collection of essays: Beyond 2015: Shaping the future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice. (Download the essays here.)

3 June: Avon and Somerset Constabulary offers an ‘unreserved apology’ to Tajudeen Taiwo and his family for a failure to protect them after ‘appalling racist treatment’. Taiwo’s head was split open in a racist attack in 2012; but when the police arrived they threatened him with a taser, arrested and detained him for 35 hours and charged him with possession of an offensive weapon and threats to kill. (Weston Mercury, 3 June 2015)

3 June: The decision not to charge any police officers with the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes on a London tube in 2005 is to be challenged in the European court of human rights. (Guardian, 3 June 2015)

4 June: Five police officers accused of gross misconduct following the death of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah in High Wycombe in 2008 altered their statements on a ‘breathtaking scale’, a hearing hears. (Slough & Bucks Express, 4 June 2015) 

Extreme-right politics

22 May: A Ukip candidate who was forced to leave the party for ‘anti Semitic slurs’ announces that he will start working with the BNP, stating it is heading ‘in the right direction’. (Liverpool Echo, 22 May 2015)

23 May: Six arrests are made at an EDL demo in Calderdale for offences including breach of the peace, racially aggravated public disorder and indecent exposure. (Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 24 May 2015)

29 May: Two men associated with the EDL are jailed following a ‘very serious and frightening’ mass brawl at a Sheffield city centre pub last year during which one anti-fascist had glass smashed over their head and another was punched and kicked repeatedly. (Sheffield Star, 29 May 2015)

31 May: The Austrian far-right party FPÖ makes significant gains in the state of Styria, winning 27.1 per cent of votes. It is unclear whether the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) can continue to govern. The FPÖ faced criticism during its election campaign for its posters asking if people felt like ‘a stranger in their own country’. (The Local, 1 June 2015)

Education

28 May: Parents of children as young as nine react angrily after schools with large Muslim intakes in an east London borough ask pupils to complete surveys designed to provide clues to possible radicalisation. (Guardian, 28 May 2015)

1 June: At a meeting held in the Oxford Union debating chamber, the motion that the ‘the Oxford Union society is institutionally racist’ is proposed and passed unanimously by the students present. (Independent, 1 June 2015)

4 June: Schools are being offered new software that helps teachers spy on pupils’ potentially ‘extremist’ online activity. It alerts teachers if pupils use specific terrorism-related terms or phrases or visit extremist websites on school computers, laptops or tablets. (BBC News, 4 June 2015)

Violence and harassment

25 May: A man who racially abused and threatened to kill a shopkeeper in Skegness in 2014 whilst brandishing a knife, is given a twelve-month prison sentence. (Skegness Standard, 25 May 2015)

27 May: A sheltered housing complex in Kirkcaldy, occupied by around thirty Chinese households of whom most are elderly, is targeted for the second time in a week in an arson attack, with residents fearing the incidents may be racially motivated. (Courier, 27 May 2015)

Asylum and immigration

27 May: A HMIP report on Tinsley House immigration removal centre says that escort arrangements for families are ‘unacceptable’. (Children & Young People Now, 27 May 2015)

27 May: The European Commission presents proposals for the distribution of 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean asylum seekers among member states over two years. The UK is among the states who object. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin 29 May 2015)

30 May: Around 400 protesters demonstrate at Dungavel immigration removal centre for an end to the detention of immigrants. (BBC News, 30 May 2015)

31 May: Asylum seekers in Scotland say they have been abandoned by private property firm Orchard & Shipman, paid £60 million to house them, with complaints including no proper heating and a front door not fixed for two weeks after it was broken in a burglary. (Daily Record, 31 May 2015)  

2 June: An early day motion is put forward suggesting the government explores ‘alternatives to detention with a view to achieving the closure of Dungavel House and other immigration removal centres’. (See the EDM here.) 

3 June: Legal aid cuts in immigration cases have created a climate of confusion and mistrust in detention centres, according to research by Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group. (Law Society Gazette, 3 June 2015)

Party politics

27 May: The government confirms in the Queen’s speech that plans to repeal the Human Rights Act have been put on hold. (Guardian, 27 May 2015)  

1 June: The anti-immigrant Northern League’s share of the vote surges in regional elections across Italy. It wins 20 per cent of the vote in Tuscany, and increases its share of the vote in Veneto, the region around Venice, to 50.5 per cent. It is no longer considered a regional party, with 12.5 per cent of the national vote. (Telegraph, 1 June 2015)

Housing

2 June: The Scottish Parliament’s welfare reform committee receives a series of expert submissions which further evidence the impact of sanctions on single mothers, survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, disabled women and refugees in particular. (Scottish Housing News, 2 June 2015)