News & events
A new report details how corporations are increasingly spying on nonprofit groups they regard as potential threats. The corporate watchdog organization Essential Information found a diverse groups of nonprofits have been targeted with espionage, including environmental, antiwar, public interest, consumer safety, pesticide reform, gun control, social justice, animal rights and arms control groups. - Democracy Now, 25 November 2013
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.
CPDR press release - This is the most recent CPDR fact-finding report of custodial violence against women prisoners in Mumbai. It is one more in a long history of endemic and systemic violence against women in India. According to statistics a woman is raped every twenty minutes in India. India is a big country by any measure.
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.
Former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden had a statement read at the “Stop Watching Us” Rally against mass surveillance in Washington,DC. It was read by Justice Department whistleblower and attorney with the Government Accountability Project, Jesselyn Radack.
The Guardian, 25 October 2013: Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers show UK spy agency fears legal challenge if scale of surveillance is made public.
Peace in Kurdistan - Meeting report of 24 October 2013: Turkey’s anti-terror legislation has come under fire once again as five lawyers who recently returned from Istanbul gave a damning critique of one of Turkey’s now notorious ‘KCK trials’ at a public event held a Garden Court Chambers.
Reuters, 23 October 2013: French investigators trying to solve the murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris have collected evidence about the chief suspect's connections to Turkey, four sources with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
Le Mur a Des Oreilles Palestine interviews David Barsamian, founder of Alternative Radio and author of numerous books (with Noam Chomsky, Edward Said…) on Wednesday 16th October via skype.
Morning Star - 15 October 2013: Comedian Mark Thomas spoke yesterday of his fury after discovering his name among thousands on a construction industry blacklist.