A packed meeting of the Bar Human Rights Committee on 16 June heard Mark Muller QC and Gareth Peirce describe how the provisions of the Terrorism Act 2000 forced the jailing of someone the judge said was a ‘thoroughly decent man’. Mark Muller QC and Gareth Peirce were the legal team representing Shanthan (Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar),
Theme: Health
SOAS occupied after cleaners detained and forcibly removed
Students have taken action after nine cleaners, who campaigned for a ‘living wage’ whilst working at a top London university, were detained in a dawn raid by immigration officers dressed in full riot gear. Six of the workers have since been forcibly removed to South American countries, including Colombia, where gross human rights abuses against
France: academic freedom under threat
A campaign to safeguard intellectual freedom has been formed in France to support a researcher who faces disciplinary action in connection with his work on Islamophobia. Vincent Geisser, a researcher who has worked to dispel anti-Muslim prejudices and authoritarianism, is to appear on 29 June before the disciplinary commission of the government’s National Centre for
Forced returns of Iraqis from Sweden
Deportation charter flights from the UK to the Kurdish controlled area of northern Iraq have been regular occurrences, now, other European countries are carrying out forced returns. On 14 June, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that a total of 111 failed Iraqi asylum seekers have now been deported to Iraq from Sweden. The summary
Universities must not ride the wave of xenophobia
We reproduce below a statement by a number of UK-based academics. ‘We called for labour power’, playwright Max Frisch once said, ‘and human beings came’. The British government has called for higher education fees, and is discomforted by the actual arrival of non-EU students along with their overseas students’ fees. Apparently, it cannot tell the
Family challenge IPCC decision
The High Court has recently turned down an application for judicial review of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) decision to downgrade an investigation into the death in police custody of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah. Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah died on 3 July 2008 after a stop and search by police officers in High Wycombe (read an
J4NW10
The campaign for Justice for the North West Ten is gaining momentum across the country. Is it a code? Is it a reference number? No, it’s the name of the campaign to free the ten Pakistani students who were among the twelve dramatically arrested as terrorists on 8 April. All were released without charge two
No to secret evidence
The House of Lords’ ruling on control orders is a victory for the campaign against secret evidence, but the ruling has yet to be applied to deportations and other areas. On 10 June, an extraordinary legal odyssey culminated in nine judges at the House of Lords condemning as illegal the system of secret evidence underpinning
The BNP’s success reflects the new racism of our political culture
The election of two British National Party MEPs owes as much to new forms of racism in mainstream politics as to alienation from the Labour Party. Over the last few years, much of liberal England has given up on the idea that racism is a significant social problem. Instead the real problem is taken to
Racism: a beginner’s guide
A short, accessible and jargon-free introduction to theories of racism. If, even nowadays, one of the objectives of undergraduate study is to make sense of one’s own experience, how effective are the relevant UK university courses in giving students a framework for understanding racism? To begin with, the word ‘racism’ itself jostles for attention in