Dear IRR News subscriber,

This week we publish a briefing paper by Frances Webber on the future of human rights in Britain. We also feature the case of Zulf Shah, the victim of a racist attack, who was recently had charges of ABH against him thrown out of court; he has complained of being treated as a perpetrator rather than a victim. We also have round-ups on racially motivated attacks perpetrated by members of the far-right and deaths in immigration detention.

And in news from across the UK, 75-year-old Mohammed Saleem has died after being stabbed three times as he returned home from his local mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham, in an attack which could be racially motivated. Twenty years on, Crimewatch issued a new appeal for witnesses to the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence which resulted in two ‘significant’ leads. And finally, new research has found that crime has fallen in areas that have seen high levels of immigration from Eastern Europe over the past ten years.

Harmit Athwal

Editor, IRR News