Latest News and Events

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers invites you to three human rights lectures:

Thursday 18th February 2010: "Holding multi-nationals to account through litigation"

Speaker: Peter Frankental, Amnesty International and second speaker to be confirmed
6.30pm, College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE.
Admission free. CPD points available to practitioners (£10 charge).

Wednesday 10th March 2010: "Binyam Mohammed and the application of commercial law principles to the human rights context"

Speakers: Jamie Beagant, solicitor at Leigh Day & Co and lawyer for Binyam Mohammed and speaker from the London Guatanamo Campaign
6.30pm, BPP Law School, 68-70 Red Lion Street, London WC1R 4NY, nearest tube Holborn.
Admission free. CPD points available to practitioners (£10 charge)
(Note change of venue)

Thursday 18th March 2010: Clive Stafford-Smith, Director of Reprieve

Download the poster for our "2010 Human Rights Lectures" here.

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers press release 1st February 2010

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is deeply concerned at reports (The Guardian, 1st Feb 2010) that a 15-year-old girl, a Turkish Kurd, named Berivan, has been jailed in Turkey for nearly eight years after being convicted of "terrorist" offences. She was arrested at a demonstration in the south-eastern city of Batman in October 2009. The 13-and-a-half-year sentence originally imposed on her was later reduced on appeal to seven years and nine months because of her age. She was found guilty of "crimes on behalf of an illegal organisation" after prosecutors alleged she had hurled stones and shouted slogans. She was also convicted of attending "meetings and demonstrations in opposition to the law" and "spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation". There are substantial concerns as to the fairness of her trial and conviction.

The Society understands that under counter-terrorism legislation introduced in 2006, Turkey has been trying juveniles as adults, and jailing them for up to 50 years. Recent official figures have revealed that there are currently 2,622 minors in Turkish prisons. According to the Diyarbakir Human Rights Association, some 737 minors have been charged under the counter-terrorism legislation since its introduction. Out of 267 tried in Diyarbakir last year, 78 were given extended jail terms.

According to the European Court of Human Rights, between 1959 and 2009 Turkey was the worst violator of the European Convention on Human Rights, with almost 19% of all violations, and 2,295 judgements issued against it. Turkey also had the highest proportion of violations in 2009, with 347 out of 1,625 negative rulings. The right most commonly violated was the right to a fair trial. Turkey was also condemned in 30 cases of inhumane or degrading treatment.

Turkey ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 4 April 1995. Berivan is a “child”, whose rights are protected by this Convention. Article 37 (c) of the CRC provides that

“(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;”

The Society considers that an 8 year sentence on conviction for the crimes reported is grossly disproportionate, and appears to be a violation of Turkey’s treaty obligations under the CRC.

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF CLIMATE DEFENDERS BY HALDANE SOCIETY OF SOCIALIST LAWYERS

16th December 2009

As practising lawyers committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, we are deeply disturbed at reports of excessive use of force and arbitrary mass arrests of climate activists by police during the course of the peaceful climate demonstration in Copenhagen on Saturday 12 December.

Both the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee the right to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and the rights to receive and impart information. We urge the Danish Government to uphold those rights and to support the just demands of civil society for climate justice.

We refer to the article by Dirk Voorhoof below.

"Copenhagen police actions in total disrespect of fundamental human rights"
15-12-2009 15:51:08

I'm a law professor from Belgium, teaching at Copenhagen University, Law Faculty. This semester I've introduced the European standards and values on freedom of expression, democracy and human rights to visiting students. In class we have highlighted the standards in Scandinavian countries on these matters. Denmark is a good example on how freedom of expression is guaranteed according to human rights' principles. The last days in Copenhagen I have, beside my work at university, participated in some events related to the Climate Conference. I'm impressed by the commitment of the whole Danish Society in the actual climate policy debate.

The events of Saturday 12 December 2009, and more precisely the absolute unacceptable way the Danish police treated and arrested nearly 1000 demonstrators during the Climate demonstration, have shocked me. I have seen a lot of people being inhumanly treated by the police, being kept for hours pushed on the ground in the middle of the streets on a cold winter evening. It was obvious that hundreds of them had done nothing wrong, except from just being there, participating in the demonstration.

It is necessary and appreciated that the police isolates and arrests violent activists, but the intervention by the police forces at Amagerbrogade and the arrest of hundreds of innocent demonstrators was out of proportion. The police action was in total disrespect of the principles in the European Convention of Human Rights.

How can Denmark be an example to the rest of the world when so many people participating in a peaceful demonstration coming up for a sustainable development of the planet are inhumanly treated and arrested as criminals by the police forces?

Tomorrow I will leave Denmark for a while, hoping that when I come back around Christmas the Danish political authorities explicitly have condemned the police actions during the Climate demonstration of Saturday 12 December, unworthy for a democracy.

If the Danish authorities take no clear action against the police interventions of last Saturday, Denmark will undoubtedly loose credibility in the international human rights' community. A society that leaves a too big gap between the theory and practice of human rights cannot uphold the perception of being truly committed to these values and principles.

Author: Dirk VOORHOOF

Archive News and Events

Thursday 21st January 2010: 'Human Rights Act or a Bill of Rights'

Friday 11th December 2009: Christmas Party "Celebrating and defending human rights defenders globally"

Haldane Society with Justice for Colombia and Young Legal Aid Lawyers invite you to their Christmas party on the theme of: "Celebrating and defending human rights defenders globally".

6.30pm to late, Garden Court Chambers, 57 - 60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LJ. Admission £10 (£5 concessions including students and trainees).
Wine, food, music and some politics included in the ticket price.

Download the poster for our "Christmas Party" here.

Thursday 10th December 2009: 'Defending human rights defenders in Colombia and the Philippines'

6.30pm, Room S101, College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE, nearest tube Goodge Street.

All welcome. Free entrance. CPD points available for practitioners (£10 charge).

Thursday 19th November 2009: "Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer" followed by Haldane Society AGM.

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers invites you to hear our President, Mike Mansfield QC, speak on his new book "Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer" followed by our Annual General Meeting.

"A fascinating insight into the mind of a man who has devoted his life to securing the liberty of others ...These memoirs benefit from a career spent at the heart of some of the most controversial criminal cases of the past four decades' -- New Statesman reviewing Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer.

"Interspersed with personal anecdotes and recollections, this insightful book is liberally laced with Michael's quirky brand of anarchic humour. Cases range from the Angry Brigade, the Bradford 12, the Birmingham Six, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Angela Cannings, Jill Dando, Ruth Ellis, Dodi Fayed, the 'Fertilizer' conspiracy, Iraqi hi-jackers, Stephen Lawrence, Fatmir Limaj (Leader of the Kosovan Liberation Army), the Marchioness Disaster, the Price sisters, the 'Ricin' trial, Risley prison riots, Tahira Tabassum, Judith Ward, Arthur Scargill and the miners to the Jean Charles de Menezes inquiry, and many more. Issues of public concern, human rights and innovative attempts to construct a democratic legal system are discussed in full, but Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer also unveils with honesty and wit a man who has put as much passion and energy into his life as his work, one of the great personalities of our time." - Publisher's description.

The talk will be on Thursday 19th November, 6.30pm and 8.00pm, at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE, nearest tube Goodge Street. Admission free. CPD points available for practitioners (£10 fee).

The lecture will be followed by our Annual General Meeting at which members of the Haldane Society can vote on motions and elect a new executive for 2009 - 2010. Motions and expressions of interest in standing for the executive should be submitted to the chair (Liz Davies) by 6pm on Wednesday18th November at lizdavies@riseup.net.

Download the poster for our "2009-2010 Human Rights Lectures" here.

Thursday 22nd October 2009: 'Right to protest: police violence, kettling, cover-ups'

Speakers: Phillippa Kaufmann, barrister and counsel for Austin in Austin v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis (House of Lords decision on “kettling”), and Paul Lewis, Guardian journalist, reported on video evidence that showed the death of Ian Tomlinson at the recent G20 protests. 6.30pm, Room S102, College of Law.

Thursday 23rd July 2009: Summer party / fundraising event

Commemorating 25 years since the miners' strike. Speakers will include Michael Seifert, John Hendy QC, Louise Christian, other lawyers, miners and journalists involved in the strike. Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2 (nearest tube Holborn) 7pm to late
Admission £10 practitioners, £5 concessions (drinks included in admission price)

download poster of the event here

New Haldane Society Twitter & Flickr pages.

www.twitter.com/SocialistLawyer

www.flickr.com/photos/haldanesociety/sets

Haldane vice-chair defends Briton accused of drugs smuggling.

Anna Morris, a barrister and Vice-Chair of the Haldane Society, is acting on behalf of the human rights charity Reprieve , to represent Samantha Orobator, imprisoned in Laos and accused of heroin smuggling, for the first time today.

Samantha Orobator, 20, from Camberwell, may face trial in Laos without ever having met the Laotian court-appointed lawyer. The government there has told Britain's Foreign Office that it will not invoke the death penalty. They agreed to this only after Anna Morris pointed out to them that their own law forbids executing a person who is "in a state of pregnancy." Meanwhile, the Haldane Society has written to the Foreign Office to ask them to raise with the Laotian foreign minister the fact that his government, which originally gave assurances that Anna Morris would be allowed to visit Samantha, now refuses to allow the visit.

The Haldane Society is asking the Foreign Office to obtain firm undertakings that Anna Morris will be allowed to visit with Samantha and that all her rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will be guaranteed, including adequate time and facilities to consult with her court-appointed lawyer; to prepare her defence; to call and examine any witnesses required and to receive all appropriate medical treatment. We are also asking that, in the event Ms. Orobator is convicted - almost a foregone conclusion in Laos according to Reprieve, she should be permitted to serve her sentence back in Britain.

Haldane Chair's letter to Bill Rammell MP, Minister at the FCO, demanding justice for imprisoned Samantha Orobator.

Read the letter in full here

Thursday 23 April: Lawyers who go the extra mile.

Speakers: Aamer Anwar, Scottish human rights solicitor, tried and acquitted for contempt of Court for speaking on behalf of his clients.

Frances Webber, barrister specialising in immigration law, formerly at Garden Court Chambers. Download poster of this event.

The lecture is at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE, nearest tube Goodge Street. 6.30pm. Admission is free. £10 charge for CPD points.

Socialist Lawyer 52

Socialist Lawyer commemorates 25 years since the 1984 - 1985 miners' strike.

...with articles by Davey Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, Haldane President Mike Mansfield, John Hendy QC standing counsel to the NUM, Haldane Vice-President Michael Seifert, Pragna Patel from Southall Black Sisters, Gerry MacLochlainn from Sinn Fein, and others. This issue also covers Haldane's delegation to investigate conditions of detention in Turkey in 2008 and the recent publication of our pamphlet, talks to the Haldane Society by Eamonn McCann, Liz Davies, Louise Christian and others, and testimonies from the horror of Gaza.

Haldane lectures 2009:

Thursday 29 January 2009: Forty years on, lessons learned from the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, Richard Harvey and Eamon McCann

Thursday 19 February 2009: human rights in civil proceedings, Louise Christian and Liz Davies

Thursday 12 March 2009: human rights in the criminal courts, speakers to be confirmed

Thursday 23 April 2009, lawyers speaking out for their clients, Aamer Anwar

All events at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC2.
Nearest tube Goodge Street. Admission free.
There will be a £10 charge to legal practitioners requiring CPD points.

National Lawyers' Guild delegation to Pakistan

In January the Haldane Society's sister organisation in the USA sent a delegation to Pakistan. Their report called for the immediate restoration of an independent judiciary.
Read the report