AGENDA
9.30 -10 am Registration, tea and coffee
10 -10.15 Opening remarks
10.15 -12 Session one: FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE AND SERVICES: what are the laws on asylum and immigration? how are they implemented? who is opposing them and how?
12 - 1 pm light lunch
1 - 3 Session two: FIGHTING FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: what are the anti-terrorism laws? how are they implemented? who is opposing them and how?
3 - 3.30 Refreshments
3.30 - 5.00 Session three: STRENGTHENING OUR MOVEMENT: how are we working together as immigrants and asylum seekers, professionals and campaigners? how can we change the political climate?

We will provide reasonably priced refreshments, sandwiches and samosas for lunch.
Call by 28 June to book place in Creche

At a time when millions of people are forced to move country to escape the extreme poverty and devastation imposed by wars, the arms trade and global exploitation, the British government is propagandising for even more draconian legislation which, among other measures, would make asylum seekers and their families destitute. Mothers from the All African Women’s Group (asylum seekers based at the Crossroads Women’s Centre) have already been threatened with having their children taken from them because they have nowhere to live. People claiming asylum face brutal racist and sexist HO decisions, and are then routinely turned down by biased and unaccountable adjudicators, despite the most compelling cases. Now it is being proposed that asylum seekers work for nothing – otherwise known as slavery.

The situation is more critical since organisations which previously provided independent advice and support, have accepted Home Office contracts to implement asylum legislation which limits the provision of legal advice and housing, orders dispersal, and even requires them to “co-operate with the deportation process”.

The government/media witch-hunt and the racism it encourages is unabated, despite asylum seekers’ courageous efforts to tell the public the truth about their situation, and grassroots campaigners’ efforts to provide services in defence of basic human rights, starting with the right to life.

This determined and varied but largely hidden movement, beginning with the women who are central to it (a fact widely known but rarely acknowledged), has accumulated great skill, knowledge and insight. It can be even more effective if it is more visible and aware of its own successes. The conference will draw on the expertise of professionals whose thorough work and commitment to grassroots people are a great resource. We will look at the best way to combine the expertise of both the organiser and the professional in order to demand justice from the legal system and greater accountability from professionals beginning with those in the media.

The Conference will discuss: How to combine legal work on individual cases with campaigning? What has been won in different places? What legal and other precedents have been achieved, how were they achieved and how can they be used to win more? Can we evaluate the obstacles and problems we all face to see how we can effectively address them?

We will have contributors from networks in Europe who face similar crises and are organising against them. We hope that the conference can also be a preparation for the European Social Forum so that these issues and concerns are integral to what is discussed there.

Some key issues:
· Refusing Section 55, removal, detention (including of children and families), forced dispersal, destitution, family break up, denial of healthcare, racism – organising through the courts and outside.
· Demanding that rape is recognised as torture and therefore grounds for asylum, and that women are entitled to protection under the UN Convention against Torture – giving the women’s movement against rape a wider and more global focus, so it is useful to all women.
· Opposing the criminalisation of immigrants and Muslim people generally by anti-terrorism legislation, including detention without charge and the impact of this persecution on women, families and the communities – establishing that the human rights of any individual are not negotiable.
· The widespread but often hidden community support for immigrants’ and refugees’ right to be here, and against draconian immigration legislation – the voice of opposition to segregated “education” for children seeking asylum must be heard.
· “Anti-trafficking” legislation – an excuse for deportation.
· The implications for everyone’s human rights of the persecution of asylum seekers – it divides communities, paves the way for extremist parties and invites violence and other racism by individuals and the police
· How destitution and discrimination force people to accept any job, pushing down wages and undermining efforts to improve working conditions – this drives down expectations for society as a whole.
· Dealing with legal aid cuts and lawyers who are negligent and corrupt -- what to do about the chronic shortage of lawyers you can trust.

Contact: Legal Action for Women, Crossroads Women’s Centre
230a Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB Tel: 020 7482 2496 Fax: 020 7209 4761
email:  law@crossroadswomen.net