Events
PANEL DISCUSSION on State Surveillance, Counter-Terror Powers and Global Securitisation Strategies Tuesday 10 December 2013, 6.30-8.30pm. Venue: National Union of Journalists, 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP. For full details and information on how to book see: http://www.nuj.org.uk/events/state-surveillance-counter-terror-powers-and-global/Articles & resources
CAMPACC has produced 5 new briefings, available to download (pdf format):
Somali communities targeted by UK 'counter-terror' measures: the need for solidarity
Baluchistan under state terror: The UK ban on the Baluchistan Liberation Army
Euskal Herria: The struggle for independence in the Basque Country and the impact of ‘terrorist’bans
The UK ban on the PKK: Persecuting the Kurds
The Tamils of Sri Lanka - oppressed at home and persecuted in the UK
CAMPACC statement: UK anti-terror regime: creating hatred of Muslims as a suspect community
NUJ Ethix Council Guidelines on reporting terrorism
Opposing the UK 'Terrorist' List: Persistence as Resistance CAMPACC paper, February 2009 (pdf file)
Read papers and reports from a series of seminars on "Terrorist lists", proscription, designation and human rights.
"Our tragedy and pain is part of the series of pains that is felt by people in cases like ours when laws are destroyed and flames ignited by politicians whose only desire is the achievement of their tyrannical subjugation and the spreading and domination of their lowly thoughts engulfs any notion of human rights."
Anti-terrorism laws: unjust powers
Do anti-terror laws make us safer? Whom do they protect?
- define terrorism more broadly, thus blurring any distinction between anti-government protest and organized violence against civilians;
- label numerous organisations as ‘terrorist', as a basis for placing entire communities under suspicion of associating with ‘terrorism';
- use ‘intelligence' obtained by torturing detainees abroad;
- and detain and prosecute people for suspected activities which could just as well be handled under other laws. Read more
What's new
The Guardian - 2 December 2013: “They know virtually everything about us, but we know almost nothing about them” - Tim Berners-Lee, Alan Rusbridger and Jonathan Freedland on the Snowden files
Acknowledgement that plain-clothes British soldiers shot unarmed civilians in Northern Ireland will come as no surprise - Morning Star, Editorial: 22 November 2013
Monthly radio show - Le Mur a Des Oreilles speaks to palestinian activist and poet Rafeef Ziadah.
CAMPACC is extremely concerned about the loss of legal aid for; appeals against deportation (aid only allowed where article 3 of ECHR, regarding potential torture, is at issue); civil cases brought against police, prison staff or immigration detention/removal personnel; and cases concerning abuse of authority or connivance with ill-treatment by UK agents where the plaintiff is not resident (e.g. Binyamin Mohamed). We consider it vital that legal aid should continue to be available to challenge deportation to countries where the deportee could not obtain a fair trial, and also to challenge violence at the hands of the UK authorities.
The Development & Conflict Group at the University of Westminster, CAMPACC, the International State Crime Initiative at King’s College and Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers co-hosted a successful screening of the documentary The Advocate on 23 October 2013 at the University of Westminster’s Cavendish Campus.
Seventy free speech, human rights, internet and media freedom organisations from around the world have written to the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, to voice their concern about the erosion of fundamental rights and freedoms in the country.
The Guardian, 1 Nov 2013: For 30 years Michael Mansfield QC has been fighting the underdog's corner in court. But now legal aid cuts are forcing his chambers to close – and he's furious about it.
Philippe Sands, who publicly resigned his membership from the Lib Dems this year, joins representatives of the Justice Alliance outside the Lib Dem HQ in London at 10.00 am today demanding that Nick Clegg halts the government proposals to slash legal aid, in accordance with his party’s vote at conference this year. The move is supported by other high profile resigners, including Dinah Rose QC and Jo Shaw.