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Women Fighting Back: International and Legal Perspectives

International Conference in London 28-29 November 2015

Haldane Feminist Lawyers in collaboration with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers Women's Caucus are proud to announce an international conference, "Women Fighting Back: International and Legal Perspectives" on 28-29 November 2015 in London.

Women activists, trade unionists, lawyers, academics, and all other such women work within an oppressive framework. Even though women traditionally have to fight that much harder to get their voices heard, from the local to the international level, women around the world are fighting back on multiple fronts. They have rich experiences fighting discrimination and oppression on the basis of gender as well as race, class and nationality.

The women’s movement has had a massive resurgence, and 2014 we have seen conferences in London such as The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, as well as the Sexual Violence in Conflict Conference put on by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

What the International Women’s Conference will bring to the dialogue, which distinguishes it, is its unabashedly socialist and intersectionalist approach to the topic of women’s rights, particularly imbued with the legal and activist expertise which The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, & Haldane Feminist Lawyers can contribute.

This conference seeks to highlight the processes, failures, and triumphs of these women.  This conference will look for unifying themes and seek to inspire other women to fight in an age of neoliberalism and austerity in countries around the world. 

Furthermore, a conference which focuses on the theme of female movement building would take the discussion in a new direction, as women are presented as active forces within an oppressive framework, and which would take the conference beyond a mere “talking shop” and into the realm of skill-sharing and mutual inspiration and solidarity.

Donate

If you would like to contribute financially to the conference you can donate online through PayPal (see below).  There is a small commission taken by PayPal.  If you would like to donate without any commission being taken then please contact feminism@haldane.org for details of how to make a bank transfer.

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Housing Rights Flyer

Download the leaflet (PDF).

Defending Access to Justice: Where Next in the Fight for Legal Aid

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Students for Legal Aid

The following article first appeared on Magna Carta 800 Years and is reproduced with kind permission of its authors.

From 21 February 2015, Students for Legal Aid are calling on students from across the UK to protest against the Global Law Summit, an event hosted by the Government to celebrate the 800^th Anniversary of the Magna Carta.

The hypocrisy of commemorating the birth of the rule of law with a networking opportunity for international businessmen – dubbed the ‘Davos of law’ – while at the same time decimating access to justice for ordinary people, cannot pass unchallenged. For that reason, Justice Alliance UK – a coalition of legal organisations, charities, community groups, trade unions and individuals –is planning a series of events to coincide with the Summit:

• a 40 mile Relay for Rights from Runnymede – the site of the charter’s signing – to the Summit’s venue off Parliament Square;
• an assembly on the streets outside, including talks and music in which the theme of justice will actually get a look in;
• capped off with a comedy gig on Monday evening at Union Chapel in Islington featuring Stewart Lee and Sarah Pascoe amongst others.

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