Frances Webber, human rights lawyer, examines Lord Carliles’ report on five years operation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Next month sees the fifth anniversary of the control order regime, introduced in haste in March 2005 after the strategy of internment, which applied only to foreign terror suspects, was declared unlawful and discriminatory. Now, control
Theme: Violence and harassment
Peaceful hunger strikers speak of mistreatment
Four women, who were taking part in a peaceful hunger strike against the conditions of their immigration detention, have been moved to prison following scenes of alleged chaos and mistreatment. Aminata Camara, from Guinea, Gladys Obiyan, from Nigeria, and Sheree Wilson and Shellyann Stupart, both from Jamaica, were moved from Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre
How the extreme Right hijacks direct democracy
The IRR European Race Audit (ERA) publishes today two briefing papers on the Swiss referendum against minarets and the ways in which direct democracy can be hijacked by the extreme Right. On 29 November 2009, Switzerland became the first country in Europe to vote to curb the religious practices of Muslims when a referendum, banning
ID and the final exclusion
Biometrics and surveillance are set to make life virtually impossible for those without legal status here. On 6 January 2010, skilled workers from outside the EU became the latest group to need a biometric identity card in order to extend their stay in the UK. This involves attending one of the dozen or so ‘biometric
Exposed: more government illegality in the ‘war on terror’
On 27 January, the UK Supreme Court held that fundamental rights of suspected Islamist terrorists should not be violated without explicit parliamentary approval and the UN confirmed the UK’s complicity in rendition and torture. Asset-freezing orders illegal Between 2005 and 2007, out of the blue, a number of Muslim British citizens and residents received letters
The reality behind the ‘knife crime’ debate
The media portrayal of, and government response to, the ‘knife crime epidemic’ creates a distorted image of the reality on the ground, according to new research undertaken by the Institute of Race Relations. The evidence suggests that, whilst some marginalised young people are carrying knives, the image of violently nihilist, feral, often Black or ethnic
Putting John Denham’s speech in context
How progressive is John Denham’s apparent shift from ‘race’ to class strategies? At last. Thirty years after the IRR had pointed out the weaknesses in government-sponsored ethnic programmes and ethnic funding.[1] New Labour, in the person of John Denham, seems to have woken up to it. Class must, John Denham said in a speech assessing
Deportation policy breaches human rights
The new decade has started with a rebuff for British deportation policy from the European Court of Human Rights. On 12 January 2010, the Court in Strasbourg ruled that the proposal to deport 34-year-old Abdul Waheed Khan, who had lived in the UK since the age of three, breached his rights to private and family
Spirited away
UK Border Agency (UKBA) proposals to remove more people from the country without giving them a realistic chance to challenge their removal are causing anger and concern. Being forcibly removed from the country is a distressing and frightening experience. From 11 January 2010, it will be even more distressing and frightening for those people who
Sivanandan: writing and fighting
Below we reproduce a review of the IRR director’s most recent book, Catching History on the Wing, which first appeared in the journal Concept. The overthrow of the Institute of Race Relations in 1972; transforming it in the process from a capital serving research unit into a radical think-tank is a pivotal moment in Britain’s