Lawyer SocialistMagazine of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers I Number 53 G October 2009 £2.50 THE RIGHT TO SELF- DETERMINATION

Plus: SIXTY HUMAN RIGHTS BLAIR PEACH: IT’S YEARS OF UNDER ATTACK: TAKEN THREE LEGAL AID PHILIPPINES & DECADES Have Has it a future? COLOMBIA we got the truth? Haldane Society ThursdayNovember,London 19th Annual General seeMeeting page 3 Haldane Society PO Box 57055 London EC1P 1AF Website: www.haldane.org Contents Number 53 October 2009 ISSN 09 54 3635

News & comment ...... 4 From Derbyshire to Hanoi, Haldane members have been busy...

Legal aid: 60 years on...... 12 Laura Janes asks for the last to leave to turn out the lights

The Haldane Society was founded in 1930. It provides a forum for the discussion and analysis of law and the legal system, both nationally and internationally, from a socialist perspective. It holds frequent public meetings and conducts educational programmes. The Haldane Society is independent of any political party. Membership comprises lawyers, academics, students and legal workers as well as trade union and labour movement affiliates. President: Michael Mansfield QC Vice Presidents: Kader Asmal, Louise Christian, Tess Gill, Helena Kennedy QC, Imran Khan, Kate Markus, Gareth Peirce, Michael Seifert, David Turner- Samuels, Professor Lord Wedderburn QC Chair: Liz Davies ([email protected]) Vice-Chairs: Kat Craig (katherinec@ christiankhan.co.uk) and Anna Morris ([email protected]) Secretary: Marcus Joyce ([email protected]) Socialist Lawyer Editor: Kat Craig ([email protected]) Treasurer: Declan Owens ([email protected]) Human rights under attack ...... 14 Membership Secretary: Anna Morris on the Philippines and Kat Craig and Marcela Navarrete on Colombia Dave Renton ([email protected]) International Secretary: Bill Bowring The right to self-determination ...... 18-29 ([email protected]) ...for the Basques, the Irish, the Kurds and the Palestinians Executive Committee: John Beckley, Adrian Berry, Dale Brook, It took three decades...... 30 Justine Compton, Rheian Davies, ..but perhaps the truth about the killing of Blair Peach in 1979 is now to be revealed Michael Goold, Margaret Gordon, Richard Harvey, John Hobson, ...... Shakawat Hossain, Marcus Joyce, Reviews 32 Catrin Lewis, Chris Loxton, Stephen Marsh, Books and a film that Haldane members think you should know about... Rob Murthwaite, Marcela Navarette, Carlos Orjuela, Tim Potter, Ripon Ray, Editor: Kat Craig Assisted by: Liz Davies, Brian Richardson, Hannah Rought-Brooks, Declan Owens, Tim Potter, Paul Smith, Kezia Tobin, Nick Toms, Camille Warren, Rebekah Wilson, Joe Williams and Farah Wise Charles Wright, Azam Zia Printed by: The Russell Press Many thanks to all our other contributors

2 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 from the chair

An example to follow...

hy be a lawyer? Many entering the legal profession are likely to answer: ‘because the money’s good’. Those people are unlikely to join the Haldane Society. Our members give very different answers: to make a difference to people’s lives, to challenge arbitrary state power, to use our legal skills as a Wtool that might help change the world. But ask any law student ‘who inspires you?’ the answer is likely to be ‘Mike Mansfield’. Fortunately for the Haldane Society, Mansfield combines his extraordinary legal practice with acting as our President. We review his book Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer on page 32. And, to inspire any law student who might yet be unconvinced, the man himself will be addressing our Annual General Meeting on 19th November (see box below right). Sadly, inspired young law students face a tough future. As Laura Janes explains, legal aid practitioners face countless struggles just to keep afloat. For busy practitioners, the celebrations of 60 years of legal aid feel rather double-edged. The 1945 Labour Government No, not these two... brought in legal aid as a cornerstone of the welfare state; part of the / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture: assault on Beveridge’s Five Great Evils: want, disease, ignorance, as they develop the Philippine law of amparo which can be used to squalor and idleness. These days, as the Legal Services Commission challenge arbitrary detention and forced disappearances, as well engages in consultation after consultation, payment rates are whittled as requiring the state to explain the whereabouts of a prisoner. away and fewer and fewer solicitors’ firms can survive when working In a special section, we consider the right to self-determination. As at predominantly legal aid rates. Those that do are increasingly pres- Bill Bowring explains, this right is enshrined in international law. surised to cut corners to make ends meet, giving rise to serious con- Nevertheless, governments routinely flout the rule of law. As the expe- cerns about the quality of services for the most vulnerable members riences of the Kurdish, Irish, Palestinian and Basque peoples show, of society. Each political party promises massive public spending the original grievance – lack of recognition of their identity and rights cuts after the general election. Public services will pay for the folly of – is only exacerbated by government crackdowns when national bankers, and much of the public regards lawyers with the same sort identities are asserted, including the criminalisation of legitimate polit- of contempt as bankers. To defend legal aid in those circumstances ical organisations and community groups. means getting the message across that legal aid is not about pay- Paul Lewis, the Guardian journalist who exposed the Metropolitan ing vast sums to fat cat lawyers, but ensuring that ordinary people police’s attempted cover up of their involvement in the death of Ian can protect their rights. Tomlinson, will open our exciting 2009-10 programme of lectures Most of this issue of Socialist Lawyer, however, is about our com- with Philippa Kaufman of Doughty Street Chambers on Thursday rades elsewhere in the world, whose struggles are without compari- 22nd October, speaking on ‘The Right to Protest: Police son. Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade Violence, Kettling and Cover-ups’. On Thursday 10th unionist. Those defending human rights are harassed, arbitrarily December, our ‘Defending Human Rights Defenders’ detained, tortured, killed or ‘disappeared’. The more high-profile lecture will take a fascinating look at the issues in both cases, such as that of Congressman Wilson Borja, Senator Piedad Colombia and the Philippines. Full details are on the Cordoba, or journalist and lawyer Dr Carlos Lozano, are only in part back page. Haldane members, and their friends, protected by their notoriety. They continue to function, at huge risk to are invited to come along to some fascinating themselves and their families, but they have to live in debilitatingly talks. I hope to see you there. restricted conditions in order to remain alive. But hundreds of political G Liz Davies, chair of the prisoners are in Colombia’s prisons – jailed for opposing the regime Haldane Society of Socialist or for defending its detractors, or just for being in the wrong place at Lawyers [email protected] the wrong time. The rule of law is routinely abused. Meanwhile, the UK Government continues to provide military aid to Colombia, whilst refusing to disclose details of what this aid entails and where it is going, citing ‘security’ concerns. What is clear is that elements within the Colombian army with the most appalling track record of human 14 Store Street rights abuses have seen the benefit of the UK Government’s support. at the College of Law We also cover recent arbitrary arrests, disappearances, and the London(nearest WC1E tube7DE extraordinary figure of 991 extra-judicial killings since 2001 in the Philippines. Human rights defenders are asking for global support Haldanefollowing AGM: Mike Thursday19th Mansfield’s lectureGoodge November (6.30pm) Street)

Socialist Lawyer G Otober 2009 I 3 News&Comment

MPs join legal aid campaign egal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) and Young Legal Aid LLawyers (YLAL) have brought together a group of in- terested MPs and peers to form an All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid. LAPG and YLAL believe changes to legal aid over the last few years, intro- duced by secondary legislation, were not sufficiently scrutinised. MPs, through meeting with con- Majorie Cohn, National Lawyers Guild, Vanessa Ramos, Association of American Jurists with Jeanne Mirer, newly elected stituents at their weekly surgeries, are in a unique position to identi- the so-called ‘War on Terror’; the fy failings in the system. It is Hanoi congress elects first spectre of climate change haunting hoped the Group will act as a fo- the lives of hundreds of millions of rum for discussion of the social people; impunity and other issues exclusion issues that surround le- IADL woman president arising from crimes against hu- gal aid, and raise the profile of le- manity and war crimes; and gal aid work in Parliament. ed and gold banners ‘Law and Lawyers in the Context worldwide assaults on the inde- The Group was launched at a festooned the humid of Globalisation: for Peace, De- pendence of judges and lawyers. House of Commons reception on streets of Hanoi to wel- velopment and the Independence The newly-opened My Dinh 2nd June with speeches made by Rcome delegates to the of the Judiciary’. It is hard to International Convention Centre Lord Bach, Michael Mansfield seventeenth Congress of the Inter- imagine a more timely meeting or was an impressive venue. Viet- QC, Louise Christian, Henry national Association of Demo- a more appropriate place. Hanoi, nam’s President Nguyen Minh Bellingham MP and the Group cratic Lawyers (IADL) this past with its thousand year old Temple Triet opened the first plenary ses- chair, Karen Buck MP. The consti- June. The IADL holds Congresses of Literature and its heroic histo- sion together with Pham Quoc tution process was completed on every four years to elect office ry of resistance to imperial wars, Anh, President of the Vietnam 15th July. The APPG’s stated aim holders and discuss international may justly call itself “The City of Lawyers Association. During the is ‘to promote parliamentary and issues confronting lawyers around Peace,” notwithstanding the five days of the Congress, sepa- public understanding of the impor- the globe. Past presidents include streaming shoals of motor scoot- rate Commissions examined the tance of the role of publicly funded René Cassin, one of the principal ers thronging streets, through central issues confronting us. The legal services as a pillar of the wel- drafters of the Universal Declara- which hawkers balancing baskets Commission on the Right to fare state and in reducing inequali- tion of Human Rights and DN on bamboo poles sashay with as- Peace affirmed the centrality of ties in society. To scrutinise and in- Pritt QC, a founding member of tounding nonchalance. the rule of law in international re- fluence any proposals for the reform the Haldane Society. This year the Our agenda covered the right lations, declaring that: ‘If hu- of legal aid provision to ensure that IADL broke new ground by elect- of peoples to live in peace in a mankind is to survive, the law of access to justice for all members of ing its first ever woman president, clean and healthy environment; war must be superseded once and society is preserved and improved.’ Jeanne Mirer of the National the right to economic justice and for all by the law of peace. A war G For more information contact Car- Lawyers Guild, USA. human dignity; challenges to dem- of aggression is a crime; not the [email protected] The Congress theme was: ocratic freedoms in the name of means by which to resolve an in- June 8: Belfast High Court: 9: Chancellor Alistair Darling 10: Women in some areas of 10: Plans for means-testing 15: The names of more than relatives of some of the says that Labour was to the country who are rape in the Crown Courts from 170 misbehaving judges are victims of the Omagh blame for the success of the victims can be 11 times more January 2010 will require to continue to be concealed bombing in 1998 (which killed Nazi British National Party at likely to see assailants found those with a disposable after a Freedom of 29 people) win civil action – last week’s European guilty than in other areas, income of more than £3,398 Information tribunal ruling. It is the right to sue four Real IRA elections. “People felt according to the Fawcett to contribute to their legal known that judges have been leaders for £1.6m in disillusioned with us and Society. In Dorset in 2007 representation. The convicted of drink driving, damages. didn’t vote for us. That’s our fewer than one in 60 women Goverment aims to “save” falling asleep at a rape trial fault. We should be able to saw their attacker convicted. £25m from the legal aid and viewing porn on their inspire confidence.” In Cleveland it was one in five. budget by doing this. official computers.

4 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 News&Comment

The Commission condemned the ism and leads to increased racism unlawful pressures brought to and hostility between ethnic and bear by the United States and Is- social groups. Women experience rael on states whose courts have double exploitation as gender em- received complaints of war crimes powerment is increasingly endan- committed by their citizens. gered. Inhuman treatment of chil- A number of us visited a dren as cheap labour remains an ‘Friendship Village’ housing vic- international scandal. Congress tims of the US Government’s affirmed its determination to fight Agent Orange chemical warfare. against the exploitation of It was both moving and shocking women and children and for the Richard Harvey speaks to conference to discover that, more than three rights of workers to organise decades after the end of the Viet- through trade unions. strengthen its work in publishing nam War, children continue to be The Commission on Develop- reports and in organising solidar- born with toxin-induced congeni- ment and Environmental Rights ity and observer missions. We tal birth defects while the US declared its support for the hu- called upon lawyers around the Government and the corporations man right to a clean and healthy world to provide and strengthen which manufactured this criminal environment; a right which access to justice, particularly for weapon of death and environ- should be incorporated into inter- disadvantaged groups such as mental destruction refuse to pay national, regional and national the poor, ethnic minorities in re- President of the IADL, at the Congress. compensation and reparations. laws and agreements. We recog- mote areas, children, women and The Commission on Globali- nised the particular responsibility people with disabilities. ternational dispute.’ Congress re- sation, Economic, Social and Cul- of lawyers to find new, effective The Haldane delegation newed its call for all lawyers to tural Rights viewed the interna- and speedy legal ways of securing worked hard but we also ex- work for the implementation in tional financial crisis as demon- reparations for damage caused to plored our host city. A visit to every country of the equivalent of strating the unsustainable and un- human beings and the environ- Ho Chi Minh Museum revealed the Japanese Constitution’s Arti- just character of the present ment by state, corporate or indi- a page from the autobiography cle 9; the ‘No War’ clause. world economic order. Millions vidual actors. of DN Pritt QC, founding mem- The Commission on Anti-Ter- of workers and their families face We expressed support for the ber of the Haldane Society and rorism Laws noted that the so- poverty, hunger, forced migration UN Climate Change Summit in past president of IADL. It de- called ‘War on Terror’ has en- and other social evils as a result Copenhagen in December 2009 scribed how in the 1930s he re- couraged torture and extra-judi- of unregulated greed and irre- and called for increased priority ceived the brief to represent Ho cial executions; allowed rendition sponsible financial mismanage- to be given to the expertise and Chi Minh in a case where the and extensive detention without ment. This imposes a dispropor- advice of NGOs and other repre- Hong Kong Government was charge or trial; criminalised sub- tionate and life-threatening im- sentatives of civil society in for- trying to send him back to Indo- stantial minority population pact on people in developing mulating and implementing inter- China where he faced immediate groups; and imposed civil disabili- countries as well as on the poor in national policy on this issue. execution. Stranger still, the ties on members of peaceful and the industrialised world. Many The Commission on Inde- colonial government briefed Sir law-abiding organisations. developing countries remain crip- pendence of Lawyers and the Ju- Stafford Cripps, another found- The Commission on Account- pled with debt resulting from diciary deplored increasing ing member of the Haldane Soci- ability for International Crimes conditions imposed by interna- threats in places such as Colom- ety. The case settled on the basis stressed the increasing importance tional financial institutions. bia and the Philippines to of an agreement that his ‘of- of holding war criminals to public Workers’ rights are increasing- lawyers and human rights work- fences’ were clearly covered by account and expressed concern at ly compromised by labour dereg- ers, who are being imprisoned, the political offence exception the International Criminal Court’s ulation and policies of importing beaten and even murdered by and enabling Uncle Ho to leave bias against investigating crimes cheap migrant labour, leading to death squads merely for defend- Hong Kong under his own steam against peace when committed by gross exploitation of workers and ing the rights of the people (see and to continue the work of lib- powerful states in the Northern undermining family life and social pages 14-17). IADL resolved to erating his people. Hemisphere, while focusing ex- structures. This further under- create a centre for the protection G Richard Harvey For more cessively on the African continent. mines the goals of multicultural- of lawyers and judges to information see: www.iadllaw.org

16: Study commissioned by 17: Foreign Secretary David 18: Tony Blair knew of the 18: Gordon Brown is 19: A landmark ruling on press London Mayor Boris Johnson Miliband tells MPs that he will existence of the secret forced to open up the freedom: Belfast journalist says an amnesty for an not allow the public to see interrogation policy, devised terms of the newly Suzanne Breen wins the right to estimated 618,000 illegal the secret interrogation after 11 September, which announced Iraq war withhold material from the state immigrants in Britain would policy that is at the heart of effectively led to British citizens inquiry after facing hostility relating to the Real IRA. The provide a £3bn boost to the allegations that MI5 has being tortured during counter- to his plans for the inquiry judge rules her life would be at economy, including £846m a been colluding in the torture terrorism investigations. Jack and that hearings would risk if she handed over interview year in raised taxes. of British citizens. Straw and David Blunkett are be conducted behind notes and other information from also accused of knowing closed doors. an interview in March with Real about the policy IRA members.

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 5 News&Comment

Danish politicians and press embrace islamophobia

he troubled relationship offensive cartoons of the prophet between the Danish Mohammed in a Danish political and media newspaper in 2005. The Testablishment and Islam newspaper defended its actions came to a head again this summer. saying it was an attempt to Maria Mawla, a 27 year old preserve the freedom of the press Danish woman of Lebanese which was endangered by self- origin, joined the territorial army censorship in relation to Islam. and obtained permission to wear The cartoons provoked her head scarf under her helmet. worldwide demonstrations and Maria came to the attention of the economic boycotts. right wing Danish People’s Party In February 2008, three when her image was used in Muslim men were arrested and territorial army publicity. accused of plotting to assassinate The issue of whether she could one of the cartoonists. Two of the wear a headscarf with her men of Tunisian origin were uniform was hotly contested and deported, it is claimed without became a subject of debate in due process being followed or the Parliament. The Danish defence allegations being tested in court. minister has now ruled that In an interview with a Danish wearing a headscarf is newspaper in August 2009 Lene incompatible with military Espersen, the head of the uniform. Maria herself was upset Conservative People’s Party and by the publicity feeling she was the current Trade and Economy discriminated against. Minister, said that the greatest This incident is the latest in a threat against Denmark and series of Islamophobic incidents Danish values comes from within the mainstream Danish militant Muslim extremism. She political establishment and press. also called for a ban on the Since 2002 Denmark has had burka. some of the most restrictive Maria Mawla has not been immigration laws in Europe allowed the freedom of expression limiting family reunion for granted to the Danish asylum seekers and arranged press. The anti-Islam marriages. Denmark was arguments are also one of the first cloaked in rhetoric of nations to join the war an unwillingness to in Afghanistan. assimilate yet it is However the issue difficult to think of a first received world greater degree of wide attention assimilation than joining with the the territorial army. publication G Margaret Police attempt to force a way through anti-fascist protestors at the BNP ‘festival’ in of twelve Maria Mawla: no freedom of expression Gordon July 1: Anyone applying for or 2: Pathologist Freddy Patel, 6: MI5 is accused by 6: Independent inquiry is to be 8: Justice Secretary Jack renewing their passport from who said that Ian Tomlinson Rangzieb Ahmed of held into allegations that British Straw proposes closing a 2011 will have their details died of natural causes at the attempting to pervert the soldiers mutilated and murdered loophole so that war crime automatically added to G20 protests, has been course of justice by civilians in Iraq, and that the suspects who have fled to national identity databases, in suspended from an official offering him inducements Government has been forced to Britain after being involved in upcoming regulations to be Government register and is to drop his allegation that admit that key documents had genocide or crimes against approved by MPs, following a under two separate its officers colluded in not been disclosed. Defence humanity dating back to 1991 review of the ID card scheme investigations into his torture. He had three of his Secretary Bob Ainsworth will face prosecution in UK by Home Secretary Alan professional conduct. finger nails ripped out in “profoundly regrets” the failure courts. Johnson. Pakistan. to disclose relevant documents.

6 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 News&Comment

into the crowd. A number of pro- testers were arrested, with at least Unprovoked police two immediately de-arrested after being removed from the road. response to anti-fascists While observing these events, le- gal observers were filmed, threat- was a legal observer at the police response, with a number of ened with arrest for obstruction anti-fascist demonstration in protesters taking refuge in the gar- and aggressively pushed from the Codnor, Derbyshire, on 15th den of supportive local residents, road onto the pavement. IAugust. For the majority of appalled at the aggressive police From around 12.30pm on- the protest I observed police be- actions taking place on their wards, protesters were kettled on haviour at the road leading to the doorstep. With protesters now one side of the road and prevent- southern entrance of the British split and confined into two ed from dispersing. At 2.00pm, National Party’s ‘Red, White and groups, police ‘evidence gatherers’ mounted police arrived. With pro- Blue’ festival. I recorded my ob- filmed protesters as other officers testers becoming increasingly agi- servations as they were happening pointed out those seen to be ‘giv- tated (protesters inside the kettle on a digital voice recorder. ing instructions’ to the crowd. had no access to food, water or At around 9.30am a coach During this first surge, the po- toilet facilities), one of the protest- from Manchester dropped pro- lice made a number of arrests, act- ers approached the police and testers in Loscoe Village. They ing with apparent disregard for asked whether protesters would then walked, accompanied by two the safety of protesters. One man, be allowed to return to their police officers, towards Denby for example, was thrown to the coaches. The protesters were in- Common where around 100 anti- ground by an officer attempting to formed by the officer in charge fascist protesters were already arrest another protester who was that they would not be permitted blockading one of the roads lead- standing stationary on the proper- to move from the area. When ing to the farm where the rally ty of a local resident, while a fe- asked what legal power the police was being held. Protesters stood male protester standing nearby were using to detain protesters, in rows, arms inter-locked, while was pushed aggressively by two the officer eventually replied the police started to gather behind officers attempting to intervene. ‘common law, to prevent a breach the group. The police eventually issued a of the peace’. After around half an Like something more akin to a warning, announcing that unless hour, with protesters becoming in- military operation than a group of protesters ceased their actions, creasingly uncomfortable, they police officers, the police suddenly which were in breach of the con- were permitted, with a police es- moved into a ‘V-formation’, with ditions, they would be arrested. cort, to join the main demonstra- dog units stationed at each end. Despite earlier endeavours to tion and return to their coaches. ‘DO YOU UNDERSTAND clear protesters from the road, at The Haldane Society can pro- YOUR ORDERS?’ shouted a sen- 11.30am protesters were seeming- vide support for demonstrators ior officer. ‘YES WE DO!’ came ly permitted to move back onto who are concerned about heavy- the unified response, before police the road, thus preventing BNP handed policing in the form of le- charged without warning into the supporters entering the festival. gal observers. Such requests are middle of the group of protesters After appearing to tolerate their considered by the Executive Com- who were standing still in the presence for almost an hour, the mittee on an ad hoc basis. Legal road. Showing little restraint, the police, now with reinforcements, observers are provided with a police forcefully split the protest- again surged forward into the training session on the relevant ers into two groups, one on each group and attempted to push pro- law and given practical advice in side of the road, effectively clear- testers onto one side of the road. advance of each demonstration. If ing the road to allow BNP sup- During this second surge, a num- you are interested in becoming a porters to enter the festival. Pro- ber of protesters were injured, legal observer please contact Kezia testers were visibly frightened by with reports that officers were Tobin at [email protected] Codnor, Derbyshire in August. G the unprovoked and unjustified throwing punches indiscriminately Joanna Gilmore / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture:

15: Hampshire police 20: The Metropolitan Police’s 22: Commons Home Affairs 22: An official review says 23: Director of Public suspends its use of stop and tactic of ‘kettling’ is taken to Select Committee report says Kent police force’s blanket Prosecutions Keir Starmer search powers under the the European Court of Human the treatment of black people use of stop and search announces significant overhaul Terrorism Act after figures Rights by Lois Austin, one of by the police on issues such powers on thousands of of the way prosecutors work, showed that no arrests in the protestors at Oxford as stop and search and the environmental protestors at saying the outdated use of connection with terrorist Circus in 2001 – the first major national DNA database has Kingsnorth last August was paper files, ‘patchy’ standards activity were made despite a protest where the tactic was worsened since the official “disproportionate and and failings in dealing with huge increase in stops. There used. She claims the practice inquiry into the murder of counterproductive” – a total victims and witnesses mean were 36 arrests in 2007-2008 is a fundamental breach of Stephen Lawrence 10 years of 8,218 searches were the justice system needs a after stopping 3,481 people. liberty. ago. carried out on activists. radical rethink.

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 7 News&Comment Below: Liz Davies, Haldane Chair, addressing the audience; bottom: Mike Seifert, Haldane Vice-President and partner at Seifert Sedley representing NUM during strike).

The audience, including Tony Gifford QC and Sarah Burton (partner in Seifert Sedley Williams, solicitors for NUM during the strike) pay tribute to the miners. Pictures: Jess Hurd / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Pictures:

lice 25 years ago in the same way tribution 25 years ago. He de- demonstrators are being con- scribed the strike – for all the Striking memories tained by the police today. hardships and the eventual defeat We were delighted to be – as the most important year of t its summer party in itself in the attempts made to se- joined by Jim Mortimer – Gener- his life. July, the Haldane Soci- questrate the union’s assets. al Secretary of the Labour Party Mike Mansfield QC kindly ety commemorated the John Hendy QC, Louise at the time. Unlike Neil Kinnock, donated copies of The Battle for A25th anniversary of Christian, Michael Seifert, Steve leader of the Labour Party and Orgreave by film-maker Yvette the 1984–1985 Miners’ Strike. Cottingham, Marguerite Russell notorious for refusing to support Vanson, the film providing an ap- As reported in the last issue of and Paddy O’Connor QC all re- the miners unequivocally, Jim posite backdrop for the evening’s Socialist Lawyer, members of the called their experiences before had done everything possible to proceedings. Haldane Society threw them- the various courts, and several provide solidarity: visiting picket- Our Christmas party will be selves into supporting the miners speakers drew comparisons be- lines around the country and or- on Friday 11th December, and during the strike. Our members tween the tactics used by police ganising collections. we will be raising funds for Jus- represented individuals – at crim- during the strike and those being We were honoured to receive tice for Colombia to support hu- inal proceedings as well as em- used now against climate change a delegation from the Durham man rights defenders and trade ployment and welfare benefit tri- and anti-capitalism protesters. At Miners’ Association, and their unionists there. Make sure you bunals – as well as the National Orgreave and other picket lines, General Secretary, Davey Hop- put the date in your diary now! Union of Mineworkers (NUM) miners were ‘kettled’ by the po- per, thanked Haldane for its con- G Liz Davies August 4: Leading construction firms 11: Proposals from the 13: Israeli soldiers shot dead 13: Youth courts are putting 18: Official reviewer of are named and shamed by Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, 11 unarmed Palestinian offenders as young as 12 terrorism legislation criticised an official watchdog for to change the law to enable civilians carrying white flags behind bars unnecessarily, the Metropolitan police after it unlawfully blacklisting trade the prosecution of overseas during Israel's offensive in breaking Government emerged that the force had union activists. Construction war criminals and torturers Gaza earlier this year, guidelines, a charity warned stopped and searched 58 group Balfour Beatty was living in Britain for crimes according to a report from today. A study by children's children aged nine or prominent on the list of 14 dating back to 1991 fail to go Human Rights Watch, which charity Barnardo’s found too younger in 2008 using companies published by the far enough, according to Joint said Israel had failed to many 12 to 14-year-olds are terrorism powers designed to Information Commissioner. Human Rights Committee investigate the killings being locked up. ‘fight al-Qaida’. report. adequately.

8 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 News&Comment Pictured from top: Davey Hopper, Secretary, Durham Miners’ Association; middle: John Hendy QC, Haldane Vice-President and standing counsel to NUM during the strike; bottom: Jim Mortimer, Labour Party General-Secretary and stalwart NUM supporter during the strike. Control orders: an unwinding regime?

ecent litigation in the tions to his legal representatives in High Court for re-consideration in English and European order to address such allegations line with the procedural and evi- courts seems finally to fairly. If this requirement was satis- dential measures made mandatory Rhave brought the control fied, the controlee’s Article 6 rights in the Law Lords’ ruling. order regime to its knees. would not be infringed and proce- Yet, rather than having to place The final (legal) nail in the cof- dural fairness could be assured in previously secret evidence before fin of control orders may finally control order proceedings. The one of the appellants, the Home have been hammered in as a result Court held that such a requirement Office decided to let AF free of the of the recent outcome in the case of would not be met, however, in a order. The decision looks set to be Secretary of State for the Home case where the evidence against the followed in many of the remaining Department v AE, AF and AN, controlee was solely or decisively 19 cases, with the Home Office brought by three men subject to ‘closed’, thereby made unavailable prepared to let the control orders such orders for their suspected in- to the accused. However, bowing lapse rather than reveal certain evi- volvement in terrorism-related ac- to the UK Government’s submis- dence in open court. tivities. The men (‘controlees’) had sions on national security, the EC- By maintaining the system of been under control orders since tHR accepted the view that ‘suffi- control orders now conclusively May 2006 and July 2007 after a cient information’ need not consti- held to be incompatible with hu- closed hearing in which a judge tute the detail or the sources of the man rights, while simultaneously had determined the strength of evidence forming the basis of the releasing controlees from their fet- their cases based largely upon se- allegations. ters, the Government’s position cret evidence undisclosed to the ac- At paragraph 84 of the judg- looks increasingly irrational. cused, and sought to challenge the ment, Lord Hope insists that ‘the The current controlees must legality of the orders, arguing that slow creep of complacency must be now be either formally charged and their rights to a fair trial had been resisted. If the rule of law is to prosecuted for some crime or re- violated. mean anything it is in cases such as leased and compensated for the dis- The House of Lords, in a unani- these that the court must stand by tress caused. The control order mous ruling by nine of the law principle. It must insist that the per- regime must be abandoned in its lords, agreed with the men and in- son affected be told what is alleged entirety. They direct what Liberty sisted that the control order regime against him.’ These statements of has called ‘dehumanising sanctions’ brought in under the Prevention of principle are all the more striking upon potentially innocent persons Terrorism Act 2005 did indeed in- given the explicit recognition by condemned on the basis of suspi- fringe the rights of controlees. The the Law Lords that terrorism poses cion, while providing inadequate decision to allow the three men’s a continuing threat that is of para- sanctions against genuine terrorists. appeals was due in large part to mount importance for the Govern- If our criminal system is able to judgment handed down by the Eu- ment to tackle. The judgment is counter terrorism in a just way, the ropean Court of Human Rights hugely significant in helping to dis- Government must be compelled to (ECtHR). This occurred a short miss once and for all the notion create new mechanisms which deal time before proceedings in the that methods such as control or- fairly and adequately with the pro- House of Lords, in the case of A v ders are the way governments tection of individual liberty as well United Kingdom, which estab- should deal with suspected terror- as the safeguarding of national se- lished that for a control order to be ists in a democratic society. curity and public safety. Anything compatible with a controlee’s Arti- The effect of the House of less will simply mean a continua- cle 6 rights, the controlee had to be Lords’ ruling is now to compel the tion of the stream of rhetoric and given sufficient information about Government, in cases in which they poor legislation that has lead to the the allegations against him to en- wish to keep control orders in sharp decline of civil liberties. able him to give effective instruc- place, to remit the cases to the G Christopher Loxton

18: Home Office statistics 18: Human rights charity 21: Legal Aid Minister Lord 24: The Equality and 30: Figures show that hundreds of show Taser stun guns have Reprieve begins legal action Bach announces proposals Human Rights children are being held been used in 4,818 incidents against the UK Government to cut defence barristers fees Commission issues unnecessarily in immigration since their introduction in involving two alleged victims in Crown Court cases by up proceedings against the detention centres, many of them April 2004, and actually fired of rendition in Afghanistan to 23 percent, a 20 percent British National Party, under the age of five. A third of 1,407 times. The Tasers who may have been tortured, cut in the £192million a year claiming its membership them were held longer than 28 deliver a disabling 50,000 volt in an attempt to force the budget spent on expert criteria breaches human days, which means that in each shock and Amnesty Ministry of Defence to have witnesses and a single flat rights law, believed to be case a Minister had to sign an International has warned their identities and details rate legal aid fee for all police the first such action authorisation to keep them these stun guns are lethal. about their welfare disclosed. station work. against a political party. detained.

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 9 News&Comment

US) have condemned the coup, demanding the return of Zelaya Honduras to office and Michelleti’s regime has become increasingly isolated. coup d’état: Yet the de facto government says its actions were in accordance with the rule of law and demo- what next? cratic principles and a presiden- tial election has been called for n 28th June, on the or- 29th November. der of the Honduran Remarkably, Zelaya re-sur- Supreme Court, the faced in the Brazilian embassy in Odemocratically elected Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capi- President Manuel Zelaya was tal, as world leaders gathered in suddenly replaced by a de facto New York for the UN General government led by the Speaker of Assembly. The response of the se- Congress Roberto Michelleti. curity forces was brutal for those Soldiers overwhelmed the presi- who came out onto the streets in dential guard before bundling support of the deposed President. Zelaya onto a plane to exile in Electricity and water were cut off Costa Rica, soon followed by a to the embassy and a curfew was number of cabinet members. The imposed across the city. military’s arrest of the President A delegation of lawyers, in- pre-empted a non-binding poll cluding members of Haldane’s on whether to add a ballot box sister organisations the IADL and to the November election that the US National Lawyer’s Guild, would have asked about the de- visited Honduras in August. sirability of convening a con- They concluded that: ‘on 28th stituent assembly to change the June 2009, the rule of law and Is New Labour’s time up? constitution. the institutional order in Hon- As president, Zelaya had be- duras were both interrupted… gun to embrace a leftist rhetoric serious and systematic violations and stance more closely associat- of fundamental human rights, Brown’s agenda: shallow ed with Venezuela’s Hugo such as the right to life, physical Chavez. The last attempted coup integrity, freedom of expression id the sombre Labour on that front: there can be few d’état in Latin America had been and association, rights to health Party Conference mark remaining on the progressive left the failed attempt to unseat and work, have been committed.’ the end of the New who think that New Labour is Chavez in 2002, thanks to a This has been echoed by the UN DLabour project? capable of delivering the type of large popular pro-Chavez upris- and the 47-nation Human Rights Gordon Brown’s attempt to radical agenda that might breathe ing and the army remaining loy- Council, which unanimously en- rally the centrist faithful for one new life into the party. So why do al. There has been no such re- dorsed a proposal by Latin more general election, was we still feel disappointed by buffing of the coup in Honduras. American countries calling for notable for its attempt to garner Brown’s plans? Instead civil liberties were effec- “unconditional respect” for all some positive headlines with a First, the timid approach to tively suspended on 1st July as a human rights and fundamental scatter-gun of policy initiatives. electoral reform, with a promised state of emergency was declared freedoms. Can the governments Most of these are not destined to referendum on an alternative by the regime. Demonstrations of the so-called ‘pink tide’, which see the light of day until after the voting system, represents not only were met with fierce reprisals by swept through Latin America in election – and in all likelihood a missed opportunity to overhaul the military and security services. the last 10 years, exert their in- will end up in the dustbin of the flagging parliamentary The region’s predominantly fluence to return democracy to history. system, but is symptomatic of leftist governments (and even the Honduras? G Tim Potter There is little to be sad about Labour’s failure to think big. September 1: Lesbian couples who have 4: Shaker Aamer, the last 7: BBC decides to allow 9: Home Office ethics group 15: UN investigation, led by children through fertility British resident held at British National Party leader on the national DNA former South African judge treatment can now register Guantánamo Bay, has been Nick Griffin to appear on database warns police Richard Goldstone, finds that both their names on the birth reportedly tortured and Question Time, saying it was officers who take ‘voluntary’ Israel’s offensive against certificate after a change to prevented from seeing his obliged to treat all political DNA samples from children Gaza last January was ‘a the law, conferring legal lawyer. Another detainee says parties registered with the under 16 without their written deliberately disproportionate parenthood on a biological Aamer was assaulted by Electoral Commission with consent or that of their attack designed to punish, mother’s female partner for military guards who also cut due impartiality. parents are legally humiliate and terrorise a the first time. off his clothes using ‘rough committing an assault. civilian population’. shears’ leaving him naked.

10 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 News&Comment

severs that link between cause and effect, but also demonstrates his fundamental lack of ...but this conference was understanding of the rule of law in our society. informed and incisive Over the last twelve years we have witnessed the demonisation n 26th September, a Caroline Lucas (Green Party of thousands of young people, day before the Labour MEP), representatives of the religious groups, immigrant Party Conference in many left political parties, as well communities, asylum seekers, OBrighton, the ‘Con- as various trade unionists. One protestors and activists through vention of the Left’ held a one of the highlights was the passion- swathes of terrorism and anti- day conference, which the Hal- ate address from one of the Ves- social behaviour legislation, with dane Society attended. tas workers who had travelled little attention paid to whether An opening plenary session from the Isle of Wight. The local these laws are morally justifiable. invited discussion on the current cause celebre was the EDO So, when people have found economic situation and the sug- protest which was a subject of themselves in breach of gested response of the Left, fol- much support from activists in oppressive laws by exercising lowed by four parallel sessions the ‘peace’ session where sugges- their civil and political rights, it is which focussed on the impact of tions were put forward for fur- not because the laws are not clear, the economic crisis on ‘People, ther direct action such as with- or do not carry sufficient Planet, Peace and Politics’. Final- holding tax that was attributed punishment, but because they are ly, the closing plenary sought to the wars in Iraq and not just. In this sense it does not unity among the Left in the cur- Afghanistan. matter how many new offences rent economic climate. While there was no clear the Government introduces to It was refreshing to listen to roadmap of how the Left would deal with ‘anti-social behaviour’ informed and incisive criticism of respond in a unified manner, it or ‘domestic extremism’; immoral the Government’s bail-out of the was encouraging that laws used capriciously to banks and financial institutions. there were optimistic suppress people’s rights will not The scale of the injustice also voices to be heard be obeyed. brought raw anger and emo- which will at least Finally, Gordon Brown’s tion from delegates, especially provide voters with acceptance that ‘markets need with the prospect of public an alternative in the and doomed morals’ will strike many as too service cuts imminent. Some of general election. little too late from the man who the figures presented on the day G Declan Owens Sadly, rather than channelling his espoused the ‘light-touch’ were shocking: the UK National energy before leaving office into regulation that brought the debt is over £800bn and the achieving real change, Gordon banking system to its knees. bailouts have cost the public Brown instead took the well Brown may not yet be ready to over £30,000 per household. trodden path of pronouncing accept his culpability in plunging There was a general recogni- vague new initiatives around soft Britain into financial crisis, but tion from delegates that the frag- political targets such as teenage his belated recognition that social mentation of the Left in the UK mothers and the elderly. justice requires the State to create undermined the effectiveness of a Second, New Labour built its a level playing field to allow significant political response to criminal justice policy on being everyone a stake in society the fait accompli that was pre- ‘tough on crime, tough on the regardless of their economic sented to the British public. causes of crime’. Brown’s promise status should be a keystone for There was also a determination in his conference speech that any revived Labour movement among delegates to unite against there would continue to be a following the next general the fascist BNP. strengthening of the law against election. Contributions came from Vestas: G those who break it not only Anna Morris Labour MP John McDonnell, passion / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture: October 18: No charges are to be 24: Director of Public 25: Employers will still be 28: CPS rules that a police 2: No police officers involved brought against police Prosecutions Keir Starmer able to force workers to retire officer who allegedly struck in the shooting of Jean marksmen who shot dead QC acknowledges that new at 65 after a High Court Nicola Fisher during the G20 Charles de Menezes in July barrister Mark Saunders last guidelines on assisted judge, Mr Justice Blake, protests in London will be 2005 will be punished, year after a siege at his home suicide could lead to an turned down campaigners’ charged with assault. according to the solicitors in Chelsea. Crown Prosecution increase in number of people attempts to have the UK’s Sergeant Delroy Smellie acting on behalf of his family. Service considered charges of choosing to die at home in default retirement age faces up to six months in murder, attempted murder Britain rather than travelling to scrapped. prison if found guilty. and manslaughter against Switzerland, but that Dignitas- seven officers. style clinics are still illegal.

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 11 As we celebrate sixty years of legal aid, Laura Janes looks at new Government plans to restrict access to justice for public law cases and asks whether there is any glimmer of hope for the future

WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE LEGAL AID PLEASE TURN OUT THE LIGHTS?

arious events this year have cele- Legal Services Commission include the negli- they contain some of the most devastating pro- brated the fantastic achievements gence cases brought by victims of thalidomide posals yet. For instance, the Government has of legal aid over the last sixty poisoning, the Gurkhas’ challenge, and the in- recently announced plans to slash the budget years, but practitioners have also quiry into the Clapham Junction rail crash. for prison law and further reduce fees for crim- had to settle into the reality of The Commission proudly displays these land- inal practitioners. Further, and despite its con- fixed fees, and the evidence is that mark cases on its website. Yet the display is stant emphasis on the need to provide quality Vit is a grim, hard-nosed reality. Complaints of sullied for practitioners who are all too aware services, it issued proposals in June to over- corner-cutting and poor quality have been sur- that they sometimes have to fight more vigor- haul quality assurance, effectively abandoning facing in various forums. Concerns about the ously with the Commission to secure funding peer review and transferring the administra- quality of advocacy in the criminal courts than with the other side to win the case. Less tive and financial burden to the profession. peaked when a Crown Court judge told a famous, but equally important, are the many The most devastating blow of all, the Min- court that he came close to discharging a jury cases in which diligent legal aid practitioners istry of Justice’s plans to restrict funding for because of concerns that a solicitor lacked the defend the vulnerable from losing their liberty public law cases, complaints in prison law and competence to represent his client properly. and their homes and challenge the arbitrary small damages claims, under the euphemistic YLAL’s recent survey revealed widespread and decisions of the state on a daily basis. banner of ‘reprioritising civil cases’, deserves growing fears about quality by junior lawyers The impact made by legal aid practitioners further attention. The proposals appear to sug- who are increasingly thrown in at the deep end in defending the ordinary person against the gest such a fervent reprioritisation that it will with little or no supervision. state is both great and cheap. At just £2 billion become nigh on impossible for vulnerable or- Yet more disturbing is that while purporting or 0.4 per cent of national public expenditure, dinary people to challenge public authorities. to proudly highlight the great value of legal aid legal aid ensures that the vital constitutional Instead of courts deciding whether the person in facilitating legal progress and social change, check of judicial scrutiny is available to all re- has a strong case to argue, the Government this summer the Ministry of Justice announced gardless of wealth. Research has shown that may now only fund cases that it thinks are new plans to clamp down on public law, prison early legal intervention prevents problems very likely to be successful. This is all on the law cases and small damages claims. The pro- from snowballing with great social and eco- basis that a 1992 judgment which found that posals in Legal Aid: Refocusing on Priority nomic costs. In times of recession, legal aid the test for funding should be similar to the Cases appear to open the door to restricting continues to be excellent value for money! test for permission. As the Government itself access to justice for the ordinary person against Given its great value and its proven track admits, things have moved on considerably in the state to the extent that the rule of law is record, it is outrageous that in its sixtieth year that past decade and a half. Yet the Govern- likely to be totally undermined. and in the thick of a recession, the Govern- ment is using this judgment to justify taking Of course, it is undeniable that the sixtieth ment has continued to churn out yet more pro- on the role of the courts by restricting access to anniversary of legal aid gives us real reason for posals to further reduce and restrict the justice for borderline cases. In deciding celebration: without legal aid and its practi- efficacy of legal aid work. Unfortunately, for whether to fund judicial reviews, it plans to tioners many of the most famous and impor- many burnt out practitioners, this final flurry seek the views of the bodies being challenged. tant law-changing cases could never have been of consultations have simply fallen into the If it decides not to fund cases, there will no brought. Great achievements hailed by the TLDR (too long, didn’t read) category. Yet longer be an independent person to review

12 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 “The most devastating blow of all is the Ministry of Justice’s plans to restrict funding for public law cases, complaints in prison law and small damages claims, under the euphemistic banner of ‘reprioritising civil cases’ ”

Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw, pictured at the Labour Party conference last month. Picture: Jess Hurd / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture: that decision. Even though many of these cases before judicial review claims are brought, the scrutiny of their legality. are brought to challenge the actions of public Government also plans to stop funding for so- If these proposals go ahead, using the law bodies, the Government itself will have the licitors to help prisoners make complaints. as an effective tool for change will only be final say in whether a person can access the Prisoners are not only, in the words of Lord available to the super rich. Sixty years of great courts – unless the applicant can pay privately. Woolf, ‘…peculiarly vulnerable to arbitrary achievements will be undermined and over- Currently, the courts play an important role in and unlawful action’ but they require ‘a shadowed leaving the most vulnerable in soci- considering wider interest or ‘test’ cases where number of avenues of redress open to them ety without guaranteed means of redress. the decision can have important consequences whereby the illegal exercise of power may be With an election on the horizon, parties will for lots of people. Funding for these cases will challenged’. Prisoners often need professional be vying with each other to introduce tough be severely restricted if these plans go ahead. help to formulate complaints effectively. A new measures to deal with law and order. Cuts The proposed restrictions for funding for Social Exclusion Unit report on reducing re- in public services that will inevitably follow judicial review cases are justified on the basis offending amongst prisoners highlighted that one of the deepest recessions of our time will of the sharp reduction in the number of cases ‘Many prisoners’ basic skills are very poor. 80 make ordinary people more vulnerable to poor granted permission by the High Court in the per cent have the writing skills, 65 per cent the or financially motivated decision-making in re- last ten years. Although the High Court now numeracy skills and 50 per cent the reading spect of the provision of vital services. At such grants permission in fewer cases than it did skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old a time, the prospect of restricting access to ju- previously, it is not necessarily the case that child… Over 70 per cent suffer from at least dicial scrutiny is terrifying. the Commission has been funding unmeritori- two mental disorders’. The complaints systems Access to justice for everyone is essential to ous claims. There are no statistics for the pro- in prisons are notoriously ineffective without making our constitution, with its intricate portion of legally aided applications that have professional legal help to navigate them. system of checks and balances, work. The vast been granted permission and the reduction In 1910 the Home Secretary Winston majority of new and aspiring legal aid lawyers may in fact be on account of the Commission Churchill said that the civilisation of a society are motivated to do legal aid work by a strong refusing to fund certain cases, prompting a rise can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners. desire to promote social justice and use the law in litigants in person who are more likely to The proposals contained in this consultation as a tool for change. If we want to look for- fail. The paper also proposes to restrict legal reveal a total disregard for the rule of law. The ward to the next sixty years with any sense of aid for non residents. ability of the courts to review the legality of pride, achievement or justice, the Government Compensation claims against public author- state actions is often the best last hope for the needs to reconsider its priorities urgently. I ities will no longer be possible under the new ordinary person. Over the last decade and es- proposals unless the payout is likely to be over pecially since the introduction of the Human Laura Janes is chair of Young Legal Aid £5,000. Although this is on the basis that the fi- Rights Act in 2000, judicial review has been Lawyers (YLAL), see www.younglegalaid nancial cost might outweigh the financial bene- recognised as an effective mechanism for chal- lawyers.org for more information. The MOJ’s fit, it undermines the principle that public bodies lenging unfair laws. New Labour has intro- consultation Legal Aid: Refocusing on Priority that are at fault should be penalised financially. duced over 3,000 new laws – not all of them Cases is available at www.justice.gov.uk/ Although the paper implies that more use have been sufficiently thought through and consultations/legal-aid-refocusing-priority- should be made of the complaints systems legal challenges have provided crucial close cases.htm

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 13 humanrights Anna Morris, Kat Craig and Marcela under attack

THE PHILIPPINES t this year’s seventeenth Congress of the Interna- tional alliance of women’s organisations), Anakbayan (national tional Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) alliance of youth and student organisations) and Karapatan in Hanoi, a group of Filipino human rights (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights). They were lawyers made an impassioned plea not to ignore all labeled as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines, the plight of their colleagues and fellow human listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation. rights activists, trade unionists and leaders of po- Under Arroyo’s administration, a total of 270 political pris- Alitical groups and student movements. The delegation from the oners have been imprisoned. There have been a total of 201 National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) from across the enforced disappearances. But most disturbing is the report that Philippines was one of the most vocal and dynamic groups rep- 991 people have been summarily executed since she came to resented at the Congress. The delegation included Congress- power. man Neri Colmaneres, who was himself imprisoned for four There was a call for Arroyo’s impeachment in 2005 after years and tortured under the Marcos regime. widespread allegations that she had rigged her 2004 re-election The situation in the Philippines sadly echoes that faced by in what became known as the ‘Hello Garci’ scandal. In the 12 human rights activists in Colombia and many other countries months surrounding this scandal, extrajudicial killings reached around the world but is one that has not received as much in- their all time high. Of the 187 extrajudicial killings recorded for ternational recognition. That changed in 2007, when the UN that period, 62 per cent of them were in the last three months Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary ex- of 2005. ecutions, Professor Philip Alston issued a damning indictment In 2006, Arroyo declared a state of emergency and 51 men of President Gloria Arroyo’s administration and its role in the and women were charged with rebellion, including leading ac- deaths and disappearances of almost 1000 people since coming tivists and human rights lawyers. Of those charged, one has to power. Professor Alston criticised the Philippine military and been assassinated and three were abducted and remain missing. Government for not doing enough to solve a wave of political In 2008 those killed included Celso Pojas, the Secretary Gen- killings and stated many of these killings could be linked to eral of the Davao City Farmer’s Association, who was gunned government security forces. He also commented that the recent downed in front of his office by assassins on motorbikes. Sh- increase in extrajudicial executions can be attributed to the mil- eryln Cadapan and Karen Empeno were students at the Uni- itary’s intensified counterinsurgency programme, another versity of the Philippines researching workers’ rights in Central painful parallel with the Colombian human rights crisis. Luzon. They were abducted from the house of Manuel Merion, President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001, after Joseph Estrada was deposed by massive public demonstrations How can you help? reminiscent of those that finally ended the dictatorship of Fer- Haldane’s December lecture at the College of Law in London will focus on defending dinand Marcos. No doubt conscious of how easily ‘people human rights defenders (see back page for more details). In addition, the Haldane power’ could equally remove her from office, Arroyo quickly Society is hoping to bring together lawyers from various jurisdictions such as the allied herself with Bush’s post 9/11 ‘war on terror’ rhetoric and Philippines, Colombia and Turkey in the next 12 months to share ideas and work together to strengthen the rule of law within their respective jurisdictions to protect began to tighten her grip on power by using the military and those who speak out against oppressive regimes and speak up for vulnerable police to silence her opponents. minorities. For more information or to find out how you can get involved, please She began by targeting of the opposition Bayan Muna party, contact Anna Morris at [email protected] the KMP (peasant movement of the Philippines), Gabriela (na-

14 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Navarreteon two countries with a striking disregard for justice and freedom

a grass roots organiser. All three are still missing, their where- The Court also ruled that the writ could apply to activists abouts unknown. whose liberty was merely threatened, in order to include those In December 2008, a total of 72 high profile regional and who had not actually disappeared but had been ‘invited’ to provincial leaders were arrested in South Tagalog along with attend military or police camps. This invitation was a common political activists and human rights lawyers. All now face false prelude to arrest and disappearance. The Court also ruled that allegations of either murder or attempted murder. The group the writ could apply retrospectively. included five female members of Karapatan. Karapatan itself NUPL lawyers immediately filed a number of writs naming has constant problems in collecting data on these disappear- amongst others a number of their own colleagues. The case of ances and trying to protect those at risk. Its regional offices are Sheryln Capadan and Karen Empeno is currently pending with frequently raided and burned with members branded commu- the Court of Appeal. The lower courts have been reluctant to nists and staff constantly being threatened with violence. confirm the use of the writ and have sought to undermine its use But human rights defenders in the Philippines have fought by dismissing cases brought on the basis of a lack of evidence. back. In 2003, a delegation from Karapatan attended the 79th It is clearly vital that this developing norm is strengthened Session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva and through precedent and NUPL lawyers are looking to the inter- presented a report on the Arroyo Government’s systematic fail- national legal community to assist them through the bringing ure to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and of amicus briefs and by raising awareness of the availability of Political Rights (ICCPR). In 2005, human rights defenders this remedy. There is also a need for lawyers with experience of formed the Task Force on Political Repression and launched a cases that involve invoking the procedural obligations under nationwide campaign to stop extrajudicial killings. Article 2 ECHR to share their knowledge with lawyers from In 2006, under intense pressure, Arroyo set up the Melo NUPL in order for them to utilize the jurisprudence from the Commission headed by a retired Supreme Court Justice to in- European Court of Human Rights to give weight to their sub- vestigate and report on the deaths of journalists and activists. missions in the domestic courts. This call for support that Amnesty International had concerns about the independence cannot go unanswered. of the Commission from its inception and called for the role of the state to be the main focus. Although the Melo Commission Anna Morris is a Barrister at Garden Court Chambers and Vice did implicate several powerful military and police figures, it Chair of the Haldane Society stopped short of indicating any direct involvement by the Arroyo Government. Those figures that were identified by the Commissions were not subject to any further investigation or prosecution by the Government, and most remain in post or have been promoted. Professor Alston’s report in 2007 was scathing of the Gov- ernment’s inability to properly investigate disappearances and extrajudicial killings and bring those responsible to justice. He made it clear that the only way that justice could be delivered was through convictions following fair trials. However, the fundamental problem remained that the fam- ilies and advocates for the disappeared had no power to find out where their loved ones were or who was responsible for their disappearance. Habeas corpus applications were simply met with a blanket denial by the state that the individual was in their custody. In response to this problem of state impunity, the Supreme Court of the Philippines took a radical step. The Court held a consultative summit in July 2007 to which a number of human rights lawyers and members of NUPL were invited. At this summit, the NUPL recommended to the Court that judicial in- tervention was urgently required in cases where human rights COLOMBIA were being violated. Following this summit, the Supreme Court promulgated a ituated on one of the world’s political fault lines set of rules, introducing a doctrine into its common law known and forming an involuntary buffer between the as the writ of amparo, which appears to originate from the ju- US and various burgeoning socialist Latin Amer- risprudence of countries such as Mexico, Argentina and ican states, the Colombian people have been sub- Nicaragua. The writ of amparo is similar to the procedural jected to international interventionist policy and obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention of a domestic armed conflict for decades. Colombia Human Rights (ECHR). It is defined as a remedy ‘available to Sboasts some unenviable statistics: the most dangerous place any person whose right to life, liberty or security is violated or in the world to be a trade unionist, the country with the threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission by a second highest number of internally displaced persons in the public official or employee or by a private individual or entity’. world (after Sudan) and one of the most precarious places in For the first time, lawyers were able to demand that the state the world to be a human rights defender. account for the location of someone held in their custody and For over 50 years Colombia has been embroiled in a force them to provide all relevant information and evidence in bloody civil war which pits the Revolutionary Armed Forces their possession that would allow the court to determine their of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, location, or their fate. against the Colombian Government and right wing paramil- The rules set down by the Supreme Court meant that a writ itary death squads. But with domestic and international could be lodged not just by the party concerned, their family or media focussing mostly on FARC kidnappings and the coun- their lawyers but also by an individual citizen if no known try’s widespread and lucrative narcotics problem, it is per- family member was known. In this way, campaign groups could haps no surprise that the state’s pivotal role in the conflict is have standing to demand the release of whole families who had often overlooked.

been taken together from marginalised and impoverished com- This article aims to demonstrate that many of Colombia’s L munities. complex problems can be traced back to state actors, and

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 15 This criminalisation takes the form of fabricated allegations humanrights of collusion with the FARC against senior opposition politi- cians, journalists and human rights defenders. Prosecutions under attack for offences such as rebellion and terrorism are mounted against individuals, placing them under huge amounts of

L stress and sapping resources from their campaigns. that this conflict can only be resolved by pressing the Colom- The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human bian state to enter into peace negotiations with the FARC. rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, visited Colombia on a The criminalisation of the opposition must end, as must the fact finding mission in September this year. Speaking from horrific human rights abuses committed by the state, army Bogotá, Ms Sekaggya made a statement on 19th September and state controlled death squads, which are overwhelmingly 2009 expressing ‘serious concern’ about the arbitrary arrests met with impunity. and detention of human rights defenders, as well as the un- Indeed, under right-wing president Alvaro Uribe, Wash- founded criminal proceedings brought against them. Ms Sak- ington’s top ally in South America, the human rights situation aggya further concluded that: is the worst in the western hemisphere and in November last ‘...patterns of harassment and persecution against human year the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights defenders, and often their families, continue to exist in Rights accused the Colombian army of carrying out "wide- Colombia. Journalists, trade unionists, magistrates, lawyers, spread and systematic" murders of civilians. student and youth activists, women defenders, indigenous and One of the reasons given by human rights groups in Afro-Colombian leaders, and LGBT activists have been killed, Colombia for these killings is that they are intended to inflate tortured, ill-treated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily ar- the combat count and bolster the impression that the state is rested and detained, judicially harassed, under surveillance, winning the ‘war on terror’ against guerrilla groups. Young forcibly displaced, forced into exile, or their offices have been men and women, particularly members of peasant commu- raided and their files stolen, because of their legitimate work nities, are brutally murdered then dressed in guerrilla fatigues in upholding human rights and fundamental freedoms.’ after their death. This has led to this most recent trend in ex- Although the most high profile cases such as those of Con- trajudicial killings being termed the falsos positivos or, false gressman Wilson Borja, Senator Piedad Cordoba and jour- positives, scandal. These brutal deaths give rise to tragic tes- nalist and lawyer Dr Carlos Lozano have not yet seen them timonies from bereaved family members across the country; convicted or imprisoned, the stigma of these prosecutions stories of loved ones leaving the house in the morning to tend alone means their lives are now gravely at risk. Association to their land, their bodies later to be found mutilated, dressed with the FARC, particularly when allegations are made in in shiny new boots four sizes too large, with bullet holes that such a public way, causes those subjected to these allegations have left no trace on the clothes in which they have been to be stigmatised and targeted by the right wing paramili- posthumously clad. taries. Wilson Borja is forced to live in a bomb-proofed house These extrajudicial killings by the Colombian Army have with his family, for whose safety he constantly fears. Dr Lozano, who incidentally is a Govern- “Repression of the opposition ment-appointed negotiator for the release of hostages and was recently awarded the still occurs and those who Légion d’Honneur by French President Sarkozy for his efforts in attempting to speak out against state secure the release of Ingrid Betancourt (and therefore openly accepts he has had sponsored human rights contact with members of the FARC in this capacity), has twice had the offices of abuses are criminalised, his opposition newspaper Voz bombed. Other victims tell of funeral wreaths with or otherwise silenced” their children’s names being sent to their been openly condemned by many high-ranking Government houses, threatening phone calls and other forms of intimida- officials. However, it would be wrong to understand these tion. Lawyer Rodolpho Rios, who has represented many de- killings as rogue operations. Rather they appear to be the fendants accused of links to the FARC and who has been the result of a considered policy of the Colombian Government, target of repeated and explicit threats, now lives away from with some evidence pointing towards financial benefits being his young daughters, such is his concern that they will be offered to soldiers who kill ‘guerrillas’. In April this year, harmed. He cannot ever see them in public places and only Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos admitted meets with them on occasion in closely confined and con- cash rewards were being conferred on soldiers who delivered trolled conditions. arms caches, although he denied financial benefits were The stigmatisation and danger resulting from these state awarded for bodies. allegations is well known to the Colombian Government, yet Although internal opposition to the Colombian Govern- public figures appear to go out of their way to ensure sus- ment is fervent, Uribe continues to enjoy a certain amount of pects are prominently identified. But the Colombian Gov- Colombian trade undeniable popularity, and criticism of his regime is not as ernment is more significantly implicated in the victimisation union leader Carlos prevalent as one may expect. Perhaps this is best explained by that often follows such allegations. In recent years, more and Rodriguez on a Colombia’s bloody history of repression of the opposition, more evidence has come to light demonstrating clear ties be- protest in support of which not only goes some way to understanding why guer- tween close supporters of President Uribe and paramilitarism. the victims of rilla groups were formed, but also why the left in Colombia In the most recent scandal, known as the ‘parapolitica’, 64 violence in is relatively weak compared to other Latin American coun- pro-Uribe congress people have been investigated, with some Colombia at tries. In the 1980s the Patriotic Union (UP), a coalition of left- convictions already handed down by the court, of funding Parliament Square ist parties and organisations, put forward a credible and and even orchestrating the most serious of human rights vio- in London. progressive alternative to the existing regime. The response to lations being carried out by paramilitaries. Translated into this democratic threat was brutal: two presidential candidates British politics, this would equate to over 200 Members of and virtually all mayoral and local council candidates were Parliament being linked to killings and other illegal activities assassinated. An estimated 5,000 members in total were mur- by a prominent terrorist organisation. Last year, the head of dered and many more tortured and disappeared. Colombia’s secret police force Jorge Noguera, who also Repression of the opposition still occurs in modern day served as Uribe’s campaign manager, was arrested for ‘giving Colombia, and those who speak out against state sponsored a hit list of trade unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who human rights abuses are criminalised, or otherwise silenced. then killed them’. These shocking examples point towards

16 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Support Colombia, affiliate to JFC Justice for Colombia (JFC) is a British NGO that campaigns for human rights, workers’ rights and the search for peace with social justice in Colombia. JFC are currently running four main campaigns: G Stop the EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Colombian trade unionists are ruthlessly targeted, with security forces implicated in the violence. Whilst 2008 saw a 25 percent increase of trade union murders on the previous year perpetrators continue to enjoy almost total impunity. The FTA should be stopped and workers’ rights should be recognised and protected. G Stop the criminalisation of the Opposition The false accusations and baseless prosecutions against dissenting voices in society should end, as they place legitimate and significant social actors in real danger of assassination by paramilitary death squads. G End UK Military Aid The UK gives military aid to Colombia despite the fact that the Colombian Army regularly violates the human rights of the Colombian people. There are no strings attached to the aid – so even as the abuses get worse, the aid still flows. G Free Colombian Political Prisoners Haldane members have taken part in two recent delegations to Colombia, visiting political prisoners in appalling conditions. This judicial attack is little more than an effort torestrict democratic debate and discredit political opponents. Lawyers in the UK can provide vital support and help JFC fight for the freedom of innocent people. For more information and to affiliate to the JFC see www.justiceforcolombia.org

terrible conditions in overcrowded jails. In August 2008 and April 2009 Haldane members visited three of Colombia’s pris- ons and were appalled by the inhumane conditions. It is apparent that the Colombian Army, and the Colom- bian Government as a whole, has much to answer for. In these circumstances, one would be forgiven for expecting govern- ments in ‘civilised’ countries to take a critical stance against Colombia’s Government and its appalling human rights record. Yet quite to the contrary, the UK continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with its ally in the ‘war on terror’, and further provides military aid to the Colombian Army. Very little detail about this assistance has been made public, though the UK is reportedly the second largest donor of military aid to Colombia after the US. Indeed, the only military unit that the Government has publicly confirmed re- ceives UK assistance, the High Mountain Battalion, has a well documented history of involvement in the torture and murder of trade unionists among other abuses. Further, despite the overwhelming threat faced by trade unionists in Colombia, the UK is currently pressing ahead with plans to enter into the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the EU and Colombia. The US and Canada have both already delayed their FTA’s with Colom- bia as a result of human rights concerns. The Colombian trade union movement has rejected proposals of an EU agree- ment, stating that the Colombian Government and big busi- ness should not be rewarded whilst workers continue to be murdered simply for standing up for their basic rights. The UK and EU trade union movements have supported the cam- Picture: Jess Hurd / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture: paign to cease negotiations. state collusion of the highest order. At its Annual General Meeting last October the Haldane Yet not all those accused of collusion with or membership Society passed a motion to support peace and social justice in of the FARC manage to maintain their liberty. There are hun- Colombia and to work with Justice for Colombia (JFC) to dreds of political prisoners currently languishing in Colom- support Colombian trade unionists, human rights defenders bia’s jails including numerous trade unionists, student activists, and others subjected to criminalisation by the Colombian gov- community and indigenous leaders, teachers and human rights ernment. Since then, Haldane members have participated in defenders – all imprisoned for their opposition to Colombian delegations to Colombia, met with senior Colombian human Government policies. Other political prisoners are peasant rights activists in the UK and abroad and provided legal and farmers who simply happen to live in an area of conflict. The political assistance to our Colombian counterparts. But there army regularly carries out arbitrary ‘mass detentions’ during is much more to be done. For more information please con- which they round up civilians in certain areas in their tens or tact Kat Craig on [email protected] I hundreds, accuse them of being guerrilla sympathisers and im- prison them for long periods. Kat Craig is a solicitor at Christian Khan Solicitors and Vice- Many Colombian political prisoners have not been charged Chair of the Haldane Society. Marcela Navarrete is a trainee with any crime and some suffered appalling abuses, including solicitor at Wilson & Co Solicitors and a member the Haldane torture, when they were originally detained. They are kept in Society’s Executive Committee

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 17 THE RIGHT SELF-DETER

FORTHE BASQU

KURDS???????? AND PA Bill Bowring, International Secretary of the Haldane Society, introduces the concept of ‘the right to self-determination’

he four articles prepared for this issue In the first chapter of my recent book, of Socialist Lawyer bring to life the The Degradation of the International Legal contemporary struggles of the Order: The Rehabilitation of Law and the TBasques, the Irish, the Kurds and the Possibility of Politics, reviewed by Richard Palestinians to vindicate their right to self- Harvey in Issue 50 of Socialist Lawyer determination. Although international law (September 2008), I described the right of has developed no definition of a ‘people’, peoples to self-determination as the ‘revolu- there can be no question that all of these tionary kernel’ of post-Second World War communities, each of which has a tragic and international law. The burning question of heroic history of oppression, a shared des- our times is how that right is to be exercised. tiny, and a passionate commitment to a In order to answer that question, it is first better future, are indeed a ‘people’. It is now necessary to understand the historical ori- established beyond any doubt that a ‘people’ gins, context and content of the right. is the bearer of the legal right to self-deter- The two UN International Covenants on mination. Human Rights of 1966, the International

18 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 TO RMINATION

UES,IRISH, ALESTINIANS Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ation to enforce it. And by virtue of Article (ICCPR) and International Covenant on 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICE- Treaties of 1969, any treaty which violates SCR) are the key legally binding components the right is null and void. of the International Bill of Human Rights. So how did this extraordinary right come They are also the firm foundation of the to be enshrined in Article 1 of the two right to self-determination in international Covenants? The answer is that this was the law. This right is stated in identical terms in crowning legal achievement of the heroic Article 1 of each Covenant and has subse- struggle for freedom from colonial oppres- quently been unequivocally confirmed in a sion that led inexorably to the end of the series of judgments and opinions of the Western colonial empires. Three of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), most founders of the UN, Britain, France and the notably the East Timor judgment of 1995 US, still permanent members of the Security and the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Council, were each colonial powers at the Territories advisory opinion of 2004. end of the Second World War. Success in the The ICJ confirmed that the right has the bitter fight for independence from each, cap- status of jus cogens, the highest form of tured in Pontecorvo’s classic film The Battle international law, binding all states whether of Algiers, led to a doubling of the number they have ratified any treaty including the of members of the UN by the 1960s. In 1960 Covenants or not. Further, it is binding erga the Declaration on the Granting of omnes, meaning that all states have a cru- Independence to Colonial Countries and cial interest in its enforcement and the oblig- People, which did not create a legally L

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 19 L binding right to self-determination, was cases by some form of autonomy, save where voted through by almost every state, with oppression is so extreme as to make auton- only the colonial powers and their close omy impossible. Autonomy is what the allies abstaining. Kurds demand from a state which still does In the intense diplomatic manoeuvres at not recognise their existence or that of their the UN, against the background of wars of language. The Basques aspire to a unifica- liberation in Vietnam, Kenya, Angola, Cuba tion of their historic homeland, located as it and South Africa (to name but a few), the is in France and Spain. In Spain their auton- USSR played a thoroughly contradictory omy is strictly limited, not least by the ban- role. While suppressing movements for inde- ning of their political parties. Repression of pendence within its own territory, it gave their movements is severe. Sinn Fein’s key unstinting material and diplomatic support legal demand prior to the Good Friday to the national liberation movements in the Agreement was that the UK recognise the Western world. right to self-determination of the people of Why did the USSR lead and support the Ireland, a topic on which Haldane’s Richard fight for a legally binding right of peoples to Harvey wrote a key text for the New York self-determination? The answer is not hard to Law School Journal of International and find. The political leader and theorist who Comparative Law, which will shortly be first promoted the right of nations to self- available on Haldane’s website. determination was Vladimir Lenin. Lenin The European Lawyers for Democracy advanced the principle in the fierce argu- and Human Rights (ELDH), of which ments within the international social democ- Haldane was a founding member, counts as ratic movement before the First World War, one of its members the Progressive Lawyers and before US President Woodrow Wilson, of Turkey, which includes the leading who is usually given credit in the textbooks. Kurdish lawyers. Julen Arzuaga, mentioned When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, in Tim Potter’s article on the Basques, and Lenin put the principle into practice, with his colleagues, are also members of ELDH. independence for the three Baltic states, Haldane has a principled and proud record Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as of solidarity and support for the Basques, Finland: all colonial possessions of the old Irish, Kurds and Palestinians, and will con- Russian Empire. Lenin’s ‘last struggle’ before tinue to support their struggle for the right his death was fought against fellow Bolshevik to self-determination. I Joseph Stalin, on the question of indepen- dence for Georgia, which was controlled by Bill Bowring is Professor of Law at Birkbeck, the Bolsheviks’ social democratic rivals, the University of London, a practicing barrister Mensheviks: Lenin was for, Stalin against. In and author of The Degradation of the addition, while Woodrow Wilson restricted International Legal Order: The Rehabilitation the right of self-determination to Central and of Law and the Possibility of Politics Eastern Europe, Lenin gave concrete support (Routledge, 2008). to movements for colonial freedom through- out the world. The USSR’s policies after Stalin came to power and during the Cold War were far Battle for identity from consistent. The Chechen and Crimean Tatar peoples were brutally deported from their homelands in 1944, and Hungarian and Czech aspirations were crushed in 1956 endures struggle and 1958. But hypocritical though it was, the USSR’s diplomatic and material support vents in recent months have drawn at- made colonial freedom – and the legal right tention once again to Western Europe’s to self-determination – possible. BASQUES last remaining ongoing armed conflict. Of the national liberation movements, EOver the summer months bombs have the Palestinians and the Western Saharans Tim Potter sets out continued to be detonated by the nationalist are still fighting for the statehood to which organisation Basque Homeland and Freedom they are entitled. The right to self-determi- some of the issues (ETA), most recently in Majorca, which killed nation of the people of Western Sahara was two members of the Guardia Civil. A ceasefire recognised by the ICJ as far back as 1975, around the Basque announced by ETA on 22nd March 2006 was whilst the right of the Palestinians was brought to an end on 30th December 2006 recognised by the ICJ in 2004. struggle for when a car bomb exploded in the early hours Save these cases international law is of the morning in a car park at Madrid’s Bara- reluctant to permit the exercise of the right independence jas Airport. Two Ecuadorian workers sleep- by way of secession. The principle uti pos- ing nearby were killed in the blast. In recent sidetis juris, developed during the South months there have been a series of high-profile American wars of liberation from Spain and arrests of key members of ETA’s hierarchy Portugal, means that existing frontiers are to which have attracted significant media inter- be respected wherever possible. The princi- est. Large demonstrations for and against sep- ple has balanced the right to self-determina- aration from the Spanish state have taken tion in the case of the states emerging from place in Bilbao, the region’s largest city. The the former Yugoslavia (the Badinter fractious issue of Basque autonomy continues Commission advising the EU on recognition) to provoke strong feeling and debate. and Quebec (the ruling of the Canadian The Basque Country, otherwise known as Supreme Court). Euskal Herria or Euskadi, is made up of the In the contemporary world the right to Spanish provinces of Alava (Araba in self-determination is best exercised in most Basque), Vizcaya (Bizkaia), Gipuzkoa, the

20 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Demonstration against the ‘Trial 18-98’ and in solidarity with those accused in that indictment.

Autonomous Community of Navarra purported to be part of the apparatus of ETA. moved to prisons closer to their families. It (Nafarroa), and the French areas (not recog- Garzón is perhaps best known in the UK for is most often the case that those convicted of nized as administrative regions) of Lower his pursuit of General Pinochet. In Spain he terrorism end up imprisoned hundreds of Navarre (Behe Nafarroa), Labourd (Lapurdi) is a well known public and political figure. He miles away from the Basque Country, result- and Soule (Zuberoa). It is one of the more has pushed for the exhumation of mass ing in their families having to make long, tir- affluent parts of the Iberian Peninsula, famed graves of victims of General Franco’s regime, ing journeys to visit them in prison. The fam- for its rugged countryside, phenomenal food, many of which have remained untouched and ilies see the prisoners as political prisoners. idiosyncratic rituals and mysterious, old lan- unspoken of since the Civil War in the 1930s. Having found himself accused of terrorism, guage, which is said to pre-date Latin. As recently as the start of September 2009, Julen Arzuaga was eventually cleared of any Basques have a distinct sense of identity and Garzón was called to appear as a witness in such wrongdoing. this is most strongly manifested by their a trial in Madrid in which he is accused of Amnesty International recently released its enduring struggle for self-determination. over reaching his remit as an investigating 2009 report on the state of human rights in The parts of the Basque Country on the magistrate. Spain. The report drew particularly strong Spanish side of the border exercise a degree of The Basque prosecutions instigated by media attention within Spain for condemn- autonomy and self-governance. Within the Garzón have been broad in their scope, using ing the Guardia Civil’s interrogation tech- autonomous community, nationalist voices anti-terrorism legislation to encompass nique of holding terrorism suspects incom- call for the full independence of the Basque (amongst others) newspapers, political par- municado. Contained within the 2009 report Country whilst others advocate the continued ties, youth groups and lawyers. There have are the following key observations: unification of the Basque Country to Spain. been convictions after often long, protracted ‘Both the UN Special Rapporteur on ETA, set up partly in response to Franco’s fas- trials. However there have been notable human rights and counter-terrorism and the cist regime, continues to wage its armed cam- acquittals in which innocent members of Human Rights Committee expressed concern paign for Basque independence, but many Basque civil society, some of whom have sep- that the definition of terrorism in some arti- Spaniards outside of the Basque Country are aratist sympathies, have been caught up in cles of the Spanish Criminal Code could unsympathetic to the tactics adopted by ETA. this widely cast net. One victim has been include acts that do not appropriately fall The Spanish state has refused to acknowl- Julen Arzuaga, a coordinator of the energetic under this category. They also repeated the edge that there is nonetheless significant Basque Observatory of Human Rights, oth- long-standing calls on Spain to abolish legis- recognition of a distinct Basque identity erwise known as Behatokia. He found him- lation authorising incommunicado detention within the region itself, and both the self prosecuted for his work in a prisoners of people held on terrorism-related charges. Government and the courts have been singu- support group called Gestorias pro Amnistia. Following the example set by the Basque and larly hostile towards evidence presented of As a campaigner for human rights, Julen Catalan autonomous police forces, the such recognition. Over the last 10 years, the Arzuaga has worked for an end to the prac- national authorities announced that video investigating magistrate Judge Garzón has tice of holding terrorist suspects incommuni- cameras would be installed in the cells at the been at the head of instigating prosecutions cado following arrest, and for those con- National Criminal Court where detainees are L against a wide range of Basque organisations victed of being involved with ETA to be held incommunicado, as a precaution

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 21 L against torture and other ill-treatment. Julio Medem’s 2003 film La Pelota Vasca However, their use is not compulsory and (Basque Ball) is a valuable reference point for must be requested by the investigating judge those seeking an insight into the Basque situ- in each case.’ ation. The documentary gives the viewer a The prosecutions brought by Garzón were firm sense of the strength of feeling which sur- initiated in 1998 with an aim to debilitate rounds the political situation in the Basque ETA’s support structure. They became known Country. It caused great controversy on its as Trial 18/98 and drew particular ire from release in Spain and was accused of portray- many sections of Basque society. They ing nationalist sympathies. The centre-right involved a series of trials against youth move- People’s Party, which was in government at ments, a prisoner support group, magazines the time, refused to participate in the making and newspapers (amongst others). Many of the film. One of the more striking voices viewed it as unabashed persecution of Basque in the film is that of the Irish priest Father civil society in which the sweeping prosecu- Alec Reid. Following his work as a facilitator tions inevitably ensnared many innocent par- in the Northern Ireland peace process, he has ticipants in Basque political life alongside worked to promote peace and reconciliation those who were later found guilty of terror- in the Basque Country. He speaks clearly of ism by the Audiencia Nacional (the National the need for dialogue and is critical of the Court) in Madrid. One of the criticisms made closing down of opportunities for discussion against the 18/98 prosecutions was the man- and negotiation between the opposing sides. ner in which separatism or nationalism The question as to the Basque right to self- became confused with terrorism, as the inves- determination and autonomy will continue tigative net was cast far and wide. Human to rumble on for some years to come. There rights lawyers from across Europe who is no sign at present as to there being a fur- observed Trial 18/98 consistently raised perti- ther ETA ceasefire. But the Basque conflict nent questions about failures in due process has not gone entirely unnoticed in the UK. and the political nature of the prosecutions. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sentencing for many of those convicted in Conflict Issues, co-chaired by Simon Hughes Trial 18/98 did not conclude until late- MP (Lib Dem), John McDonnell MP December 2007. (Labour), and Gary Streeter MP In 1998, the radical Basque newspaper (Conservative), had planned to hold a meet- Egin was temporarily closed as it was inves- ing on 3rd November entitled ‘The Basque tigated for alleged connections to ETA. More Conflict, what next?’. The meeting was set to than a year later Judge Garzón ordered it to discuss how dialogue may be restarted. be reopened, by which time the company that However, according to Spanish newspaper El published it was considered bankrupt. País the meeting has been cancelled following In March 2003, the political party an intervention by the Spanish Government. ‘United Ire Batasuna was banned by the Spanish The session on 3rd November is now set to Supreme Court as it was considered to be the discuss Libya instead. One can only hope political wing of ETA. The Political Parties that in the not too distant future space is cre- Law enabled the Supreme Court to make this ated for dialogue and the negotiation of a back on th decision, as it outlawed parties that use vio- peaceful solution which promotes a respect lence to achieve political goals. In 2005, a for human rights by all sides. I new party named Aukera Guztiak (All the Options) was banned by the Spanish Supreme Tim Potter is a barrister at 4 Brick Court and a Court. On the matter of political violence, member of the Haldane Society’s Executive IRISH Aukera Guztiak stated their right not to con- Committee. The Haldane Society, in demn some kinds of violence more than oth- cooperation with IADL, will be planning a Sean Oliver shows ers if they did not see fit. Many of their mem- delegation to the Basque country in the bers and most of their leadership were for- coming months. Please contact Bill Bowring at how, after centuries of mer Batasuna supporters or affiliates. [email protected] for more information. fighting for the right to Demonstration in Bilbao in September 2002 against the banning of the political party Batasuna. 40,000 marched and police shot self-determination, the rubber bullets and water canyons against the crowd in order to dissolve the demonstration. Many were injured but time has arrived for a demonstrators refused to leave and instead they sat in the streets of Bilbao till they had finished their protest. United Ireland

22 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 ple of Northern Ireland voting in a poll held for the purposes of this section in accordance with Schedule 1. (2) But if the wish expressed by a majority in such a poll is that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland, the Secretary of State shall lay before Parliament such propos- als to give effect to that wish as may be agreed between Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the Government of Ireland.” So, as laid out in the Good Friday Agreement, the people living on the island of Ireland will determine their own future, and if – or when – the majority in the north opt for re-unification, there has to be a constitutional process to bring that about. Of course, our quest is to bring this about as soon as possible. As Irish Unity is both possible and, we would argue, likely given the economic, polit- ical and demographic changes in Ireland, it makes sense for all strands of life and opinion, indeed all sectors of society, to begin dis- cussing this outcome now. Central to this is the need to discuss all of this with the union- ists. Those of us who believe in Irish unity have a duty to reach out and to explain why Irish unity is the best way forward, and also to listen to and consider the objections or diffi- culties which unionists may have, and to do our best to talk through them – we must be persuaders for change. Unionism is not a monolith, a solid bloc of people who all come the island of Ireland alone, by agreement at things in the same way. We need to create between the two parts respectively and with- avenues to talk to as many different groups land’ is out external impediment, to exercise their and classes as we can. right of self-determination on the basis of con- Sinn Fein also understands the importance sent, freely and concurrently given, North and of ‘internationalising’ the debate on this South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that issue – across Europe, in the US with its mas- e agenda is their wish, accepting that this right must be sive Irish American population and the politi- achieved and exercised with and subject to the cal sway it can clearly mobilise when needed, agreement and consent of a majority of the and here in Britain, with the huge Irish com- he primary political objective of Sinn people of Northern Ireland; munity and with the Government whose pres- Fein is the re-unification of our country (iv) Affirm that if, in the future, the people ence on our island is the cause of our difficul- – we want sovereignty and indepen- of the island of Ireland exercise their right of ties. Involving all strands of opinion in soci- Tdence for the Irish people. For Sinn self-determination on the basis set out in sec- ety here will be crucial: everyone from Fein, however, it is also about more than that tions (i) and (ii) above to bring about a united Government and the civil service, the trade – our ultimate objective is for an Ireland of Ireland, it will be a binding obligation on both unions, the Irish community, political parties, equals, a democratic, socialist, 32 county re- Governments to introduce and support in people in the legal and human rights fields – public. their respective Parliaments legislation to give all of these can contribute a huge amount to In 2008 Gerry Adams announced the set- effect to that wish.” the debate in Britain – to discussions ting up of an Irish Unity Task Force to plan a The agreement also clearly sets out the around Irish Unity, how it could be imple- programme of work, both national and inter- mechanism by which this will happen – by mented and how it could happen in the best national, to take us towards this objective. means of a ‘border poll’: interests of both islands. This is particularly important in Britain, as “(1) It is hereby declared that Northern So we need to open up the discussion in Adams outlined at a recent Westminster meet- Ireland in its entirety remains part of the Britain about the future relationship between ing to launch the initiative. So why this par- United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so our two neighbouring islands. We must put ticular initiative now? without the consent of a majority of the peo- the issue of Irish unity back on the political Irish unity is not just some vague, fanciful agenda. Of course, Irish unity doesn’t belong notion which might come about at some solely to Sinn Fein – other groups and Irish point in the future. The Good Friday political parties (on paper at least) aspire to it Agreement clearly sets out the political as well, and many of their followers and sup- realities, as agreed by the two govern- porters certainly do. However, Sinn Fein has ments – Irish and British – and the taken the initative, beginning with a major political parties, in that they: conference in London on 20th February “(i) Recognise the legitimacy of 2010, to put the discussion around the re- whatever choice is freely exercised by unification of Ireland firmly onto the a majority of the people of Northern political agenda. I Ireland with regard to its status, whether they prefer to continue to sup- Sean Oliver is Sinn Fein co-ordinator for port the Union with Great Britain or a Britain. Further details of the conference sovereign united Ireland; on 20th February can be obtained from (ii) Recognise that it is for the people of [email protected]

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 23 A marginalised and criminalised people

he Kurdish question is an interna- Kemal’s Turkish nationalist forces changed tional hot potato that no one has the political situation. The subsequent wanted to grasp seriously but which KURDS Lausanne Treaty of 1923 dashed Kurdish Tcan no longer be ignored. Not for Alex Fitch hopes and partitioned Kurdistan condemning many years has the potential for a resolution asks why Kurds to further decades of oppression and been so great nor have the stakes for all those denial of their right to self-determination. involved been so high. the modest demands No decade has passed by without Kurds Governments and interest groups in struggling against the injustice they suffered Brussels, London, Washington and Ankara of Turkish Kurds are at Lausanne. Despite repeated attempts to all want to influence and determine the out- too much for Turkey the contrary by the various regimes under come of the issue. However, it is the Kurds which Kurds have been forced to live, themselves whose rights are affected as oth- and the international Kurdish identity, language and culture have ers try to dictate how they should identify survived. However, survival has been at a themselves and organise their lives. For community great cost. Thousands have died, while many decades Kurds have been marginalised and more have been subjected to torture. criminalised both within geographical Families, homes and land have been lost, and Kurdistan and in exile. The persecution has people have repeatedly been forced to flee been especially severe, yet least known, in the their country as refugees. north-west, the part of Kurdistan falling Until Saddam Hussein’s transmogrifica- within Turkish borders. tion, Kurds were a largely ignored people. The virtual silence about the war in They could be discriminated against and South-eastern Turkey and Northern Iraq has even killed, as long as killings didn’t become to be understood within the context of the too much of an embarrassment (as occurred wider regional geopolitics, which go some during Saddam’s use of chemical weapons way in explaining why for decades Kurdish against Kurds in Halabja in 1988). When the efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to Kurds in Iraq became a useful ally against such a prolonged conflict have been ignored. Saddam Hussain, the international commu- With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire nity created a problem from which it has and the occupation of former Ottoman terri- failed to extricate itself: how to answer per- tory by Western forces there was a fleeting sistent and awkward questions about what moment in which an independent Kurdish made the killing and persecution of Iraqi state looked like a possibility. Indeed the Kurds by Saddam’s regime different to that unimplemented Treaty of Serves provided for by the Turkish state. The problem for the a Kurdish state. However, the rise of Mustafa international community is realpolitik,

24 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 which does not allow for sentimentalism or sons of realpolitik set out above. This leads and as an opportunity to increase its own idealistic notions about how humans should to some tricky foreign policy contortions offensive military activity. live in a perfect world. and, more frequently, an attempt to pretend The Kurdish people have a plan for peace. So Kurds in Iraq enjoy regional auton- the situation does not exist. The primary The Kurdish movement’s People’s Defence omy, operate their own militias and are free objective of Turkish Kurds is to obtain some Force (HPG) are ready to support a ceasefire, to speak their language and enjoy their tra- autonomy within the context of a Turkey disarm and join a just peace process. For over ditional culture. Kurds are also a key part of envisaged as part of the European Union, in a decade the Kurdish people in Turkey have today’s Iraqi Government. Compare this to which the rights of all people are respected. been trying to engage in sincere peace initia- the situation in Turkey where if Kurds are This demand falls substantially short of tives only to be ignored or attacked. officially identified as such it usually means the status of the Kurdish semi-autonomous There can be few examples of a party something very unpleasant is about to hap- Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, being so eager to resolve a conflict yet being pen to them. where Kurds enjoy their linguistic and cul- so consistently ignored or persecuted. From In Turkey Kurds have no autonomy, are tural identity within what is essentially their his isolated prison cell on Imrali Island still not free to observe cultural or linguistic own self-governing territory. Yet this objec- Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the PKK, has preferences (despite supposed reforms), are tive is regarded as a serious threat by Ankara prepared a road map towards a just solution not welcome in national government and are which has tried to draw the Iraqi Kurdish to the Kurdish question and peace in Turkey. most certainly not allowed to operate their leadership into an unholy alliance against But any such negotiated solution will never own autonomous militias. The motivation their fellow Turkish Kurds. Kurds in Turkey be achieved if one of the crucial parties is cri- for internationally proscribing the Kurdistan embarrass the international community by minialised and branded a terrorist organisa- Workers Party (PKK), which since the mid- asking for, in reality, actually a lot less than tion. It is therefore vital that the international eighties has led the Kurdish freedom strug- their Iraqi kin are seen to be entitled. community supports the peace process by gle in Turkey, as a terrorist organisation has The PKK recognised that militarily defeat- calling for the unbanning of the PKK and nothing to do with preventing violence or ing the Turkish state under contemporary other Kurdish organisations in Turkey, by criminality and everything to do with trying conditions was unrealistic. Instead the PKK removing these organisations from domestic to avoid the inevitable confrontation of awk- fought for a respected position of political proscription lists, by supporting the role of ward truths. strength for the Kurdish people from which Ocalan in the peace process and by acknowl- To imagine that it is possible to ban the they could negotiate a just resolution after edging the road map as the Kurdish contri- PKK is as ludicrous as the Turkish state’s years of injustice. The desire for such a reso- bution to that process. I attempt to deny the existence of Kurds lution has been underscored by regular PKK through its policy of linguistic and cultural peace initiatives and unilateral ceasefires. Alex Fitch is a member of the Peace in genocide. In an Iraqi and Iranian setting Turkey failed to respond positively to any of Kurdistan Campaign and the Campaign Kurds are currently categorised as generally these overtures. Instead the Turkish military against Criminalising Communities ‘good’, being foreign policy allies. In Turkey, has taken ceasefires and gestures of goodwill (CAMPACC). For more information visit however, Kurds are ‘bad’ for the same rea- on the part of the PKK as signs of weakness www.campacc.org.uk

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 25 PALESTINIANS Resisting Israel’s illegal occupation

Annie Rosa Beasant examines a recent study suggesting the occupation of Palestine has a colonial and apartheid dimension

ore than sixty years after the cre- and General Assembly Resolution 36/9 of ation of the Israeli state, self-deter- 28th October 1981). mination remains elusive for the The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in MPalestinian people. Israel’s practices its decision on the question of the legal conse- in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) quences of the construction of the Wall in the have recently been examined by a team of in- OPT confirmed the right of the Palestinian ternational scholars, who examined the legal people to self-determination saying: consequences of a regime of prolonged occu- ‘As regards the principle of the right of pation with features of colonialism and peoples to self-determination, the Court apartheid. The study is called Occupation, observes that the existence of a ‘Palestinian Colonialism, Apartheid? A Re-assessment of people’ is no longer in issue… The Court con- Israel’s Practices in the Occupied Palestinian siders that those rights include the right to Territories Under International Law. self-determination, as the General Assembly The study clearly demonstrates that Israel has moreover recognised on a number of has not only been the belligerent occupying occasions (see, for example, resolution 58/ power in the OPT but that its occupation has 163 of 22nd December 2003)’. become a colonial enterprise which imple- ments a system of apartheid. These acts of Facts on the ground apartheid and colonialism constitute a denial While the legal position may be clear, it is ev- of self-determination to the Palestinian peo- ident that in reality the Palestinians are not ple. This article will summarise some of the able to freely determine their political status or findings of this 300-page study and review freely pursue their economic, social and cul- its conclusions on what are the legal conse- tural development as required by the right to quences of the Israeli regime of prolonged self-determination. The territory of the OPT is occupation and denial of self-determination fragmented by the Israeli military occupation. for the occupied people, the occupier and The expropriation of Palestinian land, settle- third party states. ment construction, checkpoints, settler-only roads, the separation wall and the control by International law Israel over natural resources all have en- The existence of Palestine and the Palestinian trenched Israel’s control over the OPT. people, and their right to self determination, is The people of Gaza live under a blockade settled in international law (although not that prevents essential materials and food- without some disagreement from Israel). In stuffs from entering the Strip. Israel maintains 1975, the General Assembly of the United Na- complete control over entry and exit, requir- tions expressed its ‘grave concern’ that no ing even the most serious humanitarian cases progress had been made toward ‘the exercise to obtain prior authorisation. The govern- by the Palestinian people of its inalienable ment there is isolated with no control over rights in Palestine, including the right to self- its borders, airspace or sea. In the West Bank, determination without external interference the Palestinian Authority, notionally in and the right to national independence and power, has no control over its borders or over sovereignty’. It also expressed concern that the who can enter or leave the Palestinian terri- Palestinians had not been able ‘to return to tory. The administrative division of the West their homes and property from which they Bank into Areas A, B and C means that Israel have been displaced and uprooted’. It then es- continues to exercise full control – security, tablished a Committee on the Exercise of the civilian and planning – over most of the West Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to Bank. assist them in exercising their right of self-de- Five years after the ICJ decision that the termination. The General Assembly has re- Israeli construction of the Wall in the OPT peatedly reaffirmed the right of the Palestinian violated international human rights law and people to ‘self-determination, national inde- international humanitarian law, 200 further pendence, territorial integrity, and national kilometres have been constructed. The UN unity and sovereignty without external inter- High Commissioner for Human Rights in a ference’ (see, for example, General Assembly statement on 9th July 2009 reported that Resolution 33/24 of 29th November 1978, ‘The overwhelming majority of the planned

26 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Delegates at the TUC route of the Wall – 86 percent, runs inside conference in the West Bank, not along the 1949 Armistice Liverpool in September Line.... These severe restrictions violate not hold up Palestinian only the right to freedom of movement. They flags during the motion on Palestine. also effectively prevent Palestinian residents Picture: Jess Hurd from exercising a wide range of other human rights, including their right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate stan- dard of living’. The UN High Commissioner also referred to the fact that the ICJ had pointed out ‘that the route of the Wall had been planned to encompass the bulk of the Israeli settlements in the OPT – settlements which are illegal under international law.’ Since 1967, succes- sive Israeli governments have supported the policy of settlement building in the OPT in violation of international law. With more than 86,000 new settlers in the West Bank and 50,000 more in East Jerusalem since December 2000 according to Israeli human rights organisation Bt’selem, there has been a concurrent increase in settler violence against surrounding Palestinian communities. In East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, home demolitions, evictions, settlement building and denial of entry and family reunification to Palestinian families are the outcome of Israeli policies to ensure that Jerusalem remains the ‘eternal and undivided’ capital of Israel. These policies, together with the attacks on the Gaza Strip, the regular mil- itary incursions, arrests and restrictions on freedom of movement impact on virtually every human right of the Palestinian people and their ability to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development including their right to self-determination.

Findings on Apartheid The study examined Israeli practices in light of Articles 2(a-f) of International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, known as the Apartheid Con- vention, which cites six categories of ‘inhu- man acts’ as comprising the crime of apartheid. The study concludes that Israel has introduced a system of apartheid in the OPT. Article 2(a) concerns the denial of the right to life and liberty of the person. Israeli mea- sures to repress Palestinian dissent against the occupation and its system of domination, including practices of murder in the form of extrajudicial killings, torture and other cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees, are found by the study to amount to inhuman acts as set out in Article 2(a). Article 2 (c) concerns measures calculated to prevent a racial group from participating in the political, social, economic or cultural life of the country and to prevent the full development of a group through the denial of basic human rights and freedoms. Again, the study concludes many of the actions of the Israeli state amount to ‘inhuman acts’, such as the restrictions on freedom of move- ment, curtailment of the right of Palestinians to choose their own residence by systematic administrative restrictions preventing spouses living together, the denial of the right to a nationality to many Palestinian refugees,

restrictions on rights to work, obstruction of L right to education, restrictions on freedom

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 27 In respect of the question of whether there are elements of colonialism, the study demon- strates that ‘the implementation of a colonial policy by Israel has not been piecemeal but is systematic and comprehensive, as the exercise of the Palestinian population’s right to self- determination has been frustrated in all of its principal modes of expression.’

Conclusion The study, which includes contributions from academics from South Africa, Palestine, Israel, Ireland and the UK, is comprehensive and ground-breaking. The contributors must be commended for reframing Israel’s practices as colonial and as a system of apartheid as well as violating the Palestinian’s right to self-de- termination. So far, however, the impact of the study has been minimal. The study provides us with an exceptionally thorough legal analy- sis and with findings of the most serious vio- lations of international law on Israel’s part. It is vital now for us to use these findings to hold Israel to account, as well as those other third

L party states that co-operate with these of association and assembly through mili- The first is violating the territorial integrity breaches of international law. tary orders and suppression of peaceful of occupied territory. The study references In its conclusion, the study notes that the protest. The report also concludes that the Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem: an act primary responsibility for remedying the illegal ‘ongoing siege and regular large scale military unlawful in itself but also as an act manifestly situation it has created lies with Israel. It must attacks on the Gaza Strip’ starkly demon- based on colonial intent. Israel’s acquisition cease its unlawful activity and dismantle the strate the prevention of the full development of territory in the West Bank, the construction structures and institutions of colonialism and of the OPT and the participation of of settlements and settler-only roads, and the apartheid that it has created. Further, it should Palestinians in political, economic, social and wall separating Palestinians and Israelis all provide reparation, compensation and satis- cultural life. violate the territorial integrity of the OPT. faction to remedy its unlawful acts. But above The study considers that the targeting, The second issue is the deprivation of the all, the study emphasises Israel has the duty to arrest, imprisonment and ban on the travel population of occupied territory of the capac- promote the Palestinian people’s right to self- of Palestinian parliamentarians, national ity for self-governance. The study concludes determination. Presently, there is little evidence political leaders and human rights defenders, that Israel prevents the Palestinian people that Israel intends to do any of these things. together with the closure of related organisa- from freely exercising political authority over The legal consequences for other states are tions by Israel, amounts to persecution of that territory. The creation of the Palestinian also clear: all states have the obligation to opposition to the system of Israeli domina- National Authority (PNA) and Legislative recognise the situation as unlawful, refrain tion in the OPT, thereby satisfying the Council (PLC) does not affect this conclusion. from assisting or aiding the prolongation of requirements of Article 2(f). The suppression As mentioned, the PNA only controls a frac- the situation and co-operate to bring the sit- of peaceful demonstrations against the wall in tion of the OPT and, in any event, the devo- uation to an end. Failure to fulfil these duties Bil’in and Ni’lin and other villages in the West lution of power to the PNA and PLC has results is a committal of an internationally Bank, as well as the recent arrests and deten- been only partial. By preventing the free wrongful act. tion of the Palestinian leaders of the commit- expression of the Palestinian population’s The authors of the study suggest that the tee organising the Bil’in protests, could also political will, Israel has violated that popula- exact parameters of states’ duties of co-oper- be added as an element of this persecution. tion’s right to self-determination. ation and abstention should be clarified by The study further analyses the other ele- The integration of the economy of the way of an opinion from the ICJ. This, it ments of the Apartheid Convention and con- occupied territory into that of the occupant seems, can do no harm. cludes that Israeli policies and practices are is the third issue that the study considers in Meanwhile we may also wish to act more ‘integrated and complementary elements of this context. It considers that Israel has sub- directly and support the Boycott, Divestment an institutionalised and oppressive system of ordinated the economy of the OPT into its and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The Campaign Israeli domination and oppression over own as a result of the structural economic was launched in July 2005 with the initial sup- Palestinians as a group: that is a system of measures imposed on the OPT, and has thus port of over 170 Palestinian organisations and apartheid.’ deprived the population under occupation of is now co-ordinated worldwide. One of its the capacity to govern its economic affairs. objectives is to strengthen and spread the cul- Findings on Colonialism The fourth issue concerns the principle of ture of boycott as a central form of civil resis- International law indicates that a situation permanent sovereignty over natural resources tance to Israeli occupation and resistance. The may be colonial when the acts of a state have in the OPT. Again the study concludes that BDS campaign now has many prominent sup- the outcome that it annexes or otherwise un- Israel violates this principle through its set- porters, including Desmond Tutu, Naomi lawfully retains control over territory and thus tlement policy, construction of settler-only Klein, Ken Loach and the Israeli academic who aims permanently to deny its indigenous roads and the Wall, denying the Palestinians wrote recently in The Guardian, Neve Gordon. people the right to self-determination. Here control over 38 percent of West Bank land. Co-ordination and solidarity between the BDS the law on colonialism intersects with the law Control over water is also a crucial issue here. activists and lawyers able to make the legal on self-determination: a situation that is de- In respect of both these issues, Israel has vio- arguments on the Israeli practices of colonial- fined as colonial will also be one that aims to lated the Palestinian people’s right to eco- ism and apartheid could create a real momen- deny its indigenous population the exercise of nomic self-determination. tum for self-determination and justice for the its right to self-determination. Finally the study considers that Israeli Palestinian people. I The study considers five issues taken from practices violate the Palestinian’s right to the terms of the Declaration on Colonialism, develop and practice its culture freely; curtail- Annie Rosa Beasant is a human rights unlawful in themselves, to analyse whether ing their cultural development and expres- barrister based in the West Bank in Israel’s rule has assumed a colonial character. sion. the Occupied Palestinian Territories

28 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Never miss an issue

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Please send this form to: Membership Secretary, Haldane Society, PO Box 57055, London EC1P 1AF “My congratulations to all involved in this 30 year battle for disclosure ... it was this awful state of affairs which led those of us who founded INQUEST to set it up. But it is mind-boggling to think that we were still arguing over this report 30 years later.” Terry Munyard, barrister at Garden Court Chambers and founding member of INQUEST, speaking in July 2009 on the decision to release the Cass Report on the death of Blair Peach IT TOOK THREE DECADES

hirty years ago on 23rd April 1979, ‘Blair, a good friend and colleague of mine, Blair Peach died after being struck was killed by officers of the Metropolitan Police on the head by police while demon- at an anti-fascist demonstration in Southall on strating against the National Front 23 April 1979. No-one has ever been held in Southall, west London. No police responsible for his killing. officer was ever charged or prose- ‘The decision to publish the Cass Report is Tcuted despite serious concerns about the use of an extraordinary victory for INQUEST… and excessive force and the lawless behaviour of of- for Celia Stubbs, his partner. Belatedly, it lifts ficers from the Metropolitan Police Special another layer of camouflage from the secrets, Patrol Group. The report of Commander Cass lies and impunity that prevail in large sections into Blair’s death was withheld and has re- of the British state and make such terrible mained unpublished for three decades. evocative and disturbing parallels between the events not merely possible but more likely… It was the negative experience of Blair death of Blair Peach and that of Ian Tomlinson What INQUEST, Celia Stubbs and countless Peach’s family and friends that led them to join nearly 30 years later caught up in the police re- others around the world – say, the Mothers others to set up INQUEST in 1981. sponse to the G20 protests in the City of and Grandmothers of the Disappeared in In June INQUEST and The Friends Of Blair London on 1st April 2009. INQUEST is work- Argentina – keep reminding us is not just that Peach wrote to the Commissioner of the Met- ing with his family and legal team and has writ- the instincts of the powerful are wrong, but that ropolitan Police urging the publication of the ten an extensive briefing on his death. they can also be defeated, however long it Cass Report. INQUEST’s co-director Deborah INQUEST’s first book, Death and Disor- may take.’ Coles met Metropolitan Police Authority der, published in 1986, examined deaths in- G David Ransom, former editor of New (MPA) members Jenny Jones and Joanne Mc- volving the police during – or which sparked – Internationalist, writing in the editor’s blog Cartney with Blair’s ex-partner Celia Stubbs public disorder: Kevin Gately (who died during (http://blog.newint.org/) 26th June 2009 and his brother Philip Peach to brief them prior a protest in Red Lion Square in 1974), Blair to the MPA meeting on 25th June where a res- Peach and Cynthia Jarrett, whose death during Death and Disorder: Three case olution proposed that the Cass Report should a police raid prompted the notorious Broad- studies of public order and policing in finally be made public. The MPA voted unan- water Farm disturbances in 1985 during which London by Tony Ward (now professor of imously to do so. The test for the Metropolitan PC Keith Blakelock was killed. Death Law at the University of Hull) is also Police is to see how much of the report will be and Disorder looks at these three available for its original cover price of disclosed or subjected to censorship. deaths in the context of others involv- £1.95 (+£1 P&P in the UK) from The continuing secrecy surrounding the case ing public disorder, from the infamous www.inquest.org.uk where the briefing undermines family and public confidence in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 to the on the death of Ian Tomlinson is also available as a free download; or by post Metropolitan Police and in light of recent sometimes fatal use of troops and police from INQUEST, 89-93 Fonthill Road, events whether there has been any accountable against strikers in the first half of the London N4 3JH learning in the policing of protests. There are twentieth century. I

30 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Campaigning for justice for Blair Peach: five years on, ten years and twenty years.

INQUEST Working for truth,justice and accountability

…NEEDS YOUR HELP! Looking back over the last year whilst reporting to one of our major funders, I was struck by the incredible amount of work INQUEST has done with such a small team. Thanks to those who have supported us over almost thirty years INQUEST has consistently punched above its weight. We need that ongoing support even more now. We receive a lot of admiration and recognition for the work we do on behalf of bereaved families, but we don’t have the resources to match the increasing demand. Thirty years ago Blair Peach’s family and friends were founder members of INQUEST. Thirty years on we have worked with them again to get the report into his death made public, and in the years between we have supported thousands of family members in their search for answers about how and why their loved ones died. Sadly, the need for the organisation remains as urgent today as when it was founded and in a difficult economic climate, your support is needed even more as the demands on our services are not matched by our resources. If you are in a position to support us in any way, now is the time to do so by setting up a supporter membership or standing order, making a one-off donation, joining the INQUEST Lawyers Group, purchasing our publications or encouraging someone who you think can help us to do so. You can do all that safely online or by cheque, and if you are a taxpayer and you Gift Aid your donation the government will give us 28p for every pound you donate – at no extra cost to you. For more information and to join INQUEST contact Steve Roberts at [email protected]

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 31 Reviews

Mike Mansfield, Ever-optimistic pictured in and inspirational 2000.

Michael Mansfield highlights the Mansfield: controversial Inquest into the Memoirs of deaths of Dodi Fayed and Princess a Radical Diana as one which a family was Lawyer entitled to and rightly sought. Hardcover: The range of subject matters 512 pages. covered within the memoirs is Publisher: impressive. There is a persuasive Bloomsbury case for vegetarianism (as an aside Publishing. to the McLibel litigation) vying £20. ISBN-10: 0747576548 for the reader’s attention along with the more recognisable case rdinary people against the Iraq war and an throughout the world appeal for observance of Ohave been the catalyst for international law. Or maybe the positive change and justice for reader is more drawn to centuries. This truism has been Mansfield’s views on the superbly captured by the inadequacies of legal aid or the symbolic fights for justice that prison system, the ‘politics’ of Michael Mansfield has found terrorism, or the ability of art and himself at the centre of when culture to ‘challenge fixed notions acting as the advocate for and to open people up to fresh families and communities in possibilities and ideas’? countries as diverse as England, In addition to numerous other Ireland, Palestine and Kosovo. references, a chapter is devoted to While reading Memoirs of a a strident defence of the jury Radical Lawyer I experienced a system where Mansfield’s recent range of emotions evoked by the representations of some of the various cases he was involved in, accused in the ‘fertiliser’ and ranging from outrage and relief ‘ricin’ conspiracy trials are / reportdigital.co.uk Jess Hurd Picture: to despair and optimism. outlined for the reader. This There is also a justifiably is a particularly amusing anecdote Having grown up in Ireland I concern for the protection of the righteous polemic against the in this regard for older readers recognise the solidarity and jury system can also be traced death penalty in a chapter entitled regarding John Platts Mills, determination of families and back to a Haldane Society mission ‘The Execution’. These views are Mansfield’s predecessor as communities such as those that to Belfast to examine the use of likely to be endorsed by Socialist President of the Haldane Society. Mansfield represented in the the non-jury Diplock Courts in Lawyer readers. Unfortunately, This epistemological inquiry into Bloody Sunday Tribunal. I was Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It Mansfield’s successful expert evidence was a recurring less acquainted with the detail of is a pity that his fears for the jury posthumous appeal on behalf of theme of the memoirs and the the struggle of the mining system at that time have been Mahmoud Mattan – wrongly most fascinating part of the book communities in Britain who accentuated in the current executed in 1952 after being for me as I was at least aware of were ravaged by the Thatcherite climate. sentenced to death by a British other topics that he covered if not reforms but the similarities in the Accordingly, Mansfield uses Court – mainly serves to conversant with the detail. He experience of injustice are clear. his first hand experiences of the emphasise the bewilderment the forensically deconstructs the However, there is a litany of such merits of the jury system reader will already feel as to why underlying premise of ‘expert’ examples illustrated in these throughout his career to point the countries such as China, Saudi evidence that the police and memoirs, such as the Lawrence way forward for the current UK Arabia and the United States prosecuting authorities sought to family’s steadfastness after the Government and admonish it for persist with such a system. rely upon in the various racist killing of their son Stephen the sins of Belmarsh and other Mansfield’s exposition of the miscarriages of justice cases in and, more recently, the dignity of recent attempts to curtail the right process of forensic science and which he was involved such as the the De Menezes family after to jury trial. He reinforces the expert evidence on, for example, Angela Cannings, Barry George their shockingly tragic loss of efficacy of the jury system with fingerprinting, as well as his and the Birmingham Six appeals. Jean Charles. Most would not various examples of useful ‘unwinding’ of the DNA There appears to be an uneasy immediately recognise the Fayed questions that have come forward mystique struck me as important dichotomy between so-called family within this category but from its members. for criminal practitioners. There objective science and the ‘art’ of

32 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Reviews

science that we should all be and the deals with torturing aware of. states which mark national It clearly emerges in these To ‘protect’ is to security deportations. And in the memoirs that Mansfield’s view of final section, ‘the fight for civil the role of a barrister does not rights’, after looking at the way accord with the traditional view dehumanise children are stripped of their of the role as manifested by the childhood in detention and Bar’s cab rank rule. He explains return programmes or demonised that it is crucial that he A suitable Europe to ‘protect’ the continent as criminals, she turns to the understands his clients and enemy: from asylum seekers, whose solidarity movements which have therefore his cases show that he Racism, poverty marked them out as the sprung up to defend, particularly, has a sympathetic understanding migration and ‘enemy’. Then, the ‘war on children from these inhuman of what may have prompted Islamophobia terror’ added the new ‘enemy’ of processes, and the burgeoning some of them to act as they did. in Europe Muslims, targeted by the EU’s civil rights and self-help However, as he points out, his by Liz Fekete speedily developed security state movements set up by asylum reputation is such that BNP London, Pluto through hugely intrusive seekers, migrant and Muslim members are not lining up for his Press, 2009. surveillance, religious profiling groups, whereby new inter-racial services. He would be obliged to £17.99 and a vastly increased role for the alliances are created to campaign point out to such a potential intelligence services. At the same for truly universal human rights. client that he does not appreciate n this beautifully written and time, European states retreated The book is a treasure trove of what the BNP stands for and extraordinarily valuable book, from multi-culturalism into a information about EU and would not be able to get close ILiz Fekete, editor of the stridently anti-Muslim public member states’ immigration enough to represent them. European Race Bulletin and discourse and assimiliationist policies. It also illuminates and I would recommend these executive director of the Institute policies. In the section on makes grim sense of all the rule memoirs to those outside the law of Race Relations, draws on ‘enlightened fundamentalism’, changes and legislative shifts by looking to make sense of the legal sixteen years’ research to show Fekete demonstrates the showing their political and policy process and to political activists. the convergence of European profoundly hypocritical use of purpose in the European and My only ‘criticism’? A mere two immigration and national ‘enlightenment values’ to beat global context. It demonstrates references to the Haldane Society security policies in a new Muslims with, and to restrict or the deathly cynicism and – though we do get a prominent nativism which both justifies deny migration and settlement callousness informing the mention on the sleeve! Of course, closed borders against asylum rights – we have the British policies; but also gives a strong the memoirs are essential reading seekers and demands assimilation example of the use by the UK sense of the movements of for all members of the Haldane as the price of settlement and Border Agency of fears of ‘forced solidarity and humanity which Society as well as for discerning citizenship. The main theme is marriage’ to increase the governments cannot crush, and criminal practitioners throughout how anti-immigrant racism and minimum age of entry for to which our legal efforts in the the country, who will certainly anti-Muslim racism have come spouses from 16 to 18 to 21. courtroom contribute. It makes benefit from the distilled wisdom together in the past decade and a Fekete also examines the very rich, comprehensive and of a legal career at the coalface of half in immigration and national changing nature of citizenship, compelling reading. criminal justice. security policies to exclude poor which has become a precarious G Frances Webber I do not spoil anything by foreigners and Muslims from the and potentially temporary status, informing the reader of the last basic rights and benefits of removable at will from those FILM words of Mansfield’s book: ‘I am European society. deemed ‘undesirable’. MST: Landless farmers and ever optimistic’. It may seem The book first traces the In the section on detention the biggest march in strange to some that this should growth in the 1990s of xeno- and deportation, she describes Brazilian history be the case after recounting a racism, a form of non-colour- the undermining of the 1951 Director: Gibby Zobel catalogue of injustice and coded institutionalised racism Refugee Convention, the Xu Filmes, 2008 institutional intransigence. derived from globalised racism warehousing of rejected asylum However, we are by then familiar (which imposes strict controls on seekers in privatised detention he Brazilian Movimento dos with how he helped to achieve a people to protect the freedom of centres or camps comprising the Trabalhadores Rurais Sem measure of justice for his clients capital). It describes the new ‘asylum prison-industrial TTerra (MST), or Landless over 42 years and it is refreshing processes, familiar to British complex’, the co-option of north Workers Movement, is 25 years to note how he pays tribute to immigration practitioners, of African states into the carceral old this year. During its existence them throughout his memoirs. removal from mainstream process, the target-driven it has campaigned vociferously Ultimately, it is through his focus benefits, dispersal, the voucher deportation policies which bear for much needed land reform in on the strength and courage of system, immigration limbo and disproportionately on the most Brazil. Earlier this summer the the families and the communities fast-track detention, analysing vulnerable – families with British journalist Gibby Zobel that he has represented that one these as part of the process of children and the sick – as the introduced his documentary on can agree with and commend his segregation or ‘quarantining’ of easiest to deport, with disastrous the MST at a special screening optimistic conclusion. It is an the alien presence to better consequences for health and hosted by the London based uplifting and inspirational read control it, and showing how welfare; the secret deportation Brazilian cultural magazine

for socialist lawyers. these dehumanising policies were charter flights, the lack of Jungle Drums. The film gives a L G Declan Owens developed elsewhere in western transparency and due process distinctive insight into the

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 33 Reviews L movement and some of the sprung out of this gross Leonardo Boff, a former priest Conscien- individuals who participated in inequality and a perception that and Liberation Theologian, who tious the 2002 march of 12,000 Brazilian governments down the sums up the uniqueness of the objection: people who walked the 240 years have done little to advance march: ‘... it innovates that which resisting kilometres from Goiana to the interests of Brazil’s four not Marx, not Lenin, not any militarized Brasília. This proved to be not million landless farmers. revolutionary imagined: to unite society only the largest but also the The 2002 march lasted some the fight and marching with by Özgür longest march in Brazilian 17 days. Its intention was to stir study and reflection ...’ Heval Çinar history. up a long-term debate within Zobel accepts that he has and Coşkun Currently, the MST is said to Brazilian society. A four made a film which focuses Üsterci. have some 1.5 million members kilometre column would rise primarily on the MST and the London: Zed in 24 of Brazil’s 27 states, a far before dawn to march along the marchers. He wanted their Books 2009. cry from its initial days as a motorways to Oscar Niemeyer’s accounts to be heard given that 268 and xi pages. grassroots organisation in purpose-built capital. The film the arguments opposing agrarian 1984. Brazil’s colonial legacy depicts the march in its many reform advocated by Brazil’s here were 16,000 has left a vastly unequal guises. This includes accounts of large landowners are heard far conscientious objectors in distribution of land. This the discipline required to marshal more often. The film captures Tthe UK in the First World includes large ranches left some 12,000 people and the some rare interviews with MST War and 61,000 (including 1,000 abandoned and unproductive. education that was offered to participants. We are taken to the women) in the Second World The MST and its demands for marchers en route to Brasília. In modest home of Cabaçinha, who War. This was a significant rise, meaningful agrarian reform this respect we hear from took part in the march and, sadly, the result of active campaigning. recently died. The film captures According to the Peace Pledge Advertisement his hopes for the political impact Union, only 3,000 of the 61,000 of the march as well as for reform were given unconditional under Lula, Brazil’s first working exemption, 18,000 were turned class president, who was first down as not genuine, and the elected in 2002. remainder did alternative civilian Space is also given for the work or were sent to non- expression of the views held by combatant duties. However, by many Brazilians when it comes to the end of the Second World War, the MST. A farmer sums up these about 5,000 men and 500 prevalent opinions, stating that women had been charged with ‘In theory, on paper, it’s very offences relating to conscientious beautiful. I think that on paper objection and most of them were the MST is very beautiful. But, in sent to prison. A further 1,000 or reality, they end up doing nothing more were court-martialled and they are claiming because they given prison sentences for put many people here who don’t refusing to obey military orders. know the rural way of life. People During the Vietnam War there are afraid, people are terrified of were more than 200,000 the MST. There are many people conscientious objectors. in this movement who are being Although the US discontinued the used because they are simple draft in 1973 (the UK did so in people and so they are doing this 1960) according to the Pentagon, march and in their heads they at least 8,000 members of the US have the best of intentions. But military deserted in the first three there are people, I believe, many years of the Iraq war. who are not doing this march but In 1973 the English peace are coordinating it, and they have campaigner Pat Arrowsmith was other objectives’. convicted of offences under Zobel’s documentary is worth sections one and two of the seeking out for those interested in Incitement to Disaffection Act Latin American politics and 1934 and was sentenced to 18 social movements in general. months in prison (she went to There is a trailer for the film at prison 11 times) for distributing www.youtube.com/xufilmes. at an army base leaflets Given the grass roots nature of advocating that soldiers should the film it does not have a leave the forces or refuse to serve distributor beyond the director in Northern Ireland. She himself who can be contacted at appealed to Strasbourg but the [email protected]. Commission held that the G Tim Potter prosecution and conviction

34 I Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 Reviews

should be regarded as a necessary case. The editors point out that philosophy, ethics and history of and spent a total of 701 days in restriction on the exercise of free conscientious objection in Turkey conscientious objection. prison as a result of eight speech in the interests of national is almost foolhardy. ‘Each Turk is ‘Conscientious objection as a convictions. He lives in a state of security and for the prevention of born a soldier’ is a national critique of patriarchy, sexism and ‘civil death’, in which he may be disorder. motto; masculinity is defined heterosexism’ contains some of arrested and prosecuted at any As the feminist scholar, through military service, and the the most challenging papers. The time. Cynthia Cockburn, states in her effects of the 1980 military coup third section, ‘Conscientious Boyle observes that in Sepet Introduction: ‘Conscientious are still prevalent. By June 2008, objection in the world: and Bülbül v Secretary of State objection to state military service however, 69 young people (13 experiences and problems’ for the Home Department (2003) is one of the most meaningful, women and 56 men) had presents studies of conscientious the UK House of Lords took the demonstrative and difficult declared themselves objection movements in South view that conscientious objection forms of non-violent direct conscientious objectors, and one Africa, Greece and Paraguay, had not yet crystallised as a norm action in the repertoire of the of them, Halil Savda, has been comparing experiences in the of international law. However, in world’s anti-militarist, anti-war imprisoned, although he has now three countries; the Americas, Yeo-Bum Yoon v Republic of and peace movements’. It is been released. Chile, Spain, Israel, Greece and Korea (2006) the UN Human impossible to disagree with her As well as a number of Turkey. Finally, ‘Conscientious Rights Committee found that the view that it is a wonderfully Turkish scholars and activists, objection and the law’ contains imprisonment of two objectors productive focus for study, in there are a number of Çinar’s own chapter on was an unjustified restriction on theory and practice. distinguished international international implementation of the manifestation of their Although this is not the only contributors. These include the right to conscientious religious beliefs. Although the book on conscientious objection, Professor Kevin Boyle of Essex objection, as well as Strasbourg Court held that it is probably the best. The two University; Rachel Brett, who is international and European Turkey’s treatment of the authors are from Turkey. Çinar is the leading Council of Europe standards and a thorough applicant had violated Article 3, studying for his PhD at the expert on conscientious analysis of the legal situation in it simply avoided dealing with the University of Essex and Üsterci is objection; the Chilean anti- Turkey. applicant’s claim that his right to a Board Member of the Human militarist Pelao Carvallo; the US The chapter by Kevin Boyle is freedom of conscience (Article 9) Rights Foundation of Turkey. scholars Cynthia Enloe and of special interest. He analyses had been violated. Following the Both have been active in the Matthew Gutmann; and several the case of Osman Murat Ülke v judgment, both the Council of Human Rights Association. objectors, including Tali Lerner Turkey (2006), in which the Europe’s Committee of Ministers The collection of articles of the Israeli organisation ‘New European Court of Human and the European Parliament contained in the book was Profile – the Movement for the Rights avoided, once more, urged Turkey to reform the law published in Turkish in 2008 and Civilization of Israeli Society’. deciding the status of on conscientious objection. it is the result of the International The book is clearly and conscientious objection under This timely book will help to Conference on Conscientious logically divided into four the European Convention of move the process of reform objection held at Istanbul Bilgi sections. The first, ‘Conscription Human Rights. The applicant forward in Turkey and University in January 2007. The and resisting conscription in a was an active member of the war internationally. book is remarkable for the way militarised society’ explores the resisters’ association in Turkey, G Bill Bowring in which it explores all aspects of conscientious objection, but especially as a critique of patriarchy, sexism and heterosexism. The root causes The theme is highly topical. Of the 192 members of the The Spirit their authoritative study The societies (as well as among the United Nations, 168 have armed Level: Why Spirit Level: Why More Equal poor) than among equivalent forces but, according to the More Societies Almost Always Do groups in societies where gaps editors of this book, only 35 per Equal Better. between the incomes of rich and cent recognise conscientious Societies This recently published book the poor are smaller. Japan and objection. The situation is Almost surveys statistics of social the Scandinavian countries, different in Europe. However, Always Do problems (including life which achieve a more equal Turkey was the most relevant Better expectancy, mental health, income distribution, suffer far location for the Conference. Of by Richard homicide rates, drug and alcohol less from social problems than the 47 members of the Council of Wilkinson abuse, educational performance the US and the UK where there is Europe, only Turkey does not and Kate and teenage pregnancy) across a gulf between the income levels recognise conscientious objection Pickett developed nations and concludes of the rich and of the poor. as a right – even Russia has a Allen Lane, £20, 416 pages that there is a startling This concise, readable study constitutional provision, Article correlation between inequality provides powerful ammunition 59 of its 1993 Constitution, conomic inequality has an and the vast majority of serious for those of us who have always which recognises the right to adverse effect on all people social problems. known that inequality has a ‘Alternative Civic Service’, with a Eliving in developed Even more significantly, these corrosive effect on our society Federal Law of 2002. countries, conclude Richard problems are more prevalent almost as damaging as poverty. Turkey is a therefore a special Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in among the rich in unequal G Margaret Gordon

Socialist Lawyer G October 2009 I 35 All welcome Haldane Society of – free entrance. Socialist Lawyers

CPD points available for invites you to: practitionersHuman (£10 charge) Rights Lectures 2009–2010 Memoirs of a Right to protest: Radical Lawyer police violence, Speaker: Mike Mansfield, QC kettling, cover-ups (President of the Haldane Society) – followed by Haldane Society AGM Speakers: Phillippa Kaufmann, barrister and counsel for Lois Austin in Austin v Thursday 19 November Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis 6.30pm (House of Lords decision on “kettling”), and Paul Lewis, The Guardian journalist, exposed police involvement in the death of Defending human Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in April 2009 rights defenders in Thursday 22 October Colombia and the 6.30pm, Room S102 Philippines Speakers to be confirmed Human Rights Act Thursday 10 December, or a Bill of Rights? 6.30pm, Room S101 Speaker: Professor Conor Gearty, barrister and Director of Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, recent publications include Are Human Rights Universal? Thursday 21 January 2010 Lectures later in 2010 will be on Thursday 18 February, Thursday 18 March and All lectures between 6.30pm – 8.30pm Thursday 15 April. at the College of Law Topics and speakers to 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE be announced. (nearest tube Goodge Street)

Further information from www.haldane.org