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International legal support team

International legal support team | 22.09.2004 12:45 | European Social Forum | Migration | Repression | London | World

We are there for each and every one
We are the spokesmen/women for human rights but first and foremost for prisoners and for those found guilty.Our work is based on the international conventions on human rights an arrest and police control siyuations-both governed by the United Nations anti-torture resolution signed most European countries,including United Kingsdom
We are creat in Heidelberg(germany)Montpellier(France) Barcelona( Spain) and now in London

International Legal Support Team

We are the Spokesmen/women for human rights but first and foremost for prisoners and for those found guilty.

During the large scale anti-globalization happenings, at the No Border camps, in the alternative anti-G8 villages, as well as the social fora, and above all at various actions and demonstrations we created the Legal Teams.

What is the aim of the collective Legal Teams?

The Legal Teams are there to inform people of their rights. They co-ordinate between protesting activists and the legal representatives. They seek information on those missing as a result of arrests during actions by contacting police stations, regional authorities (préfecture) and hospitals, either by phone or by going personally to these places, accompanied by lawyers and interpreters able to translate several languages.

The Legal Teams distribute the phone number of their base widely, by leaflets and by oral information, to maintain constant presence.

The Legal Teams operated this way until the Anti-G8 action in Evian, France. At this event, in the so-called VAAAG village (the alternative, autonomous, anti-war and anti-capitalist village), we created for the first time the mobile Legal Team.

What is the mobile Legal Team?

The mobile Legal Team was present at almost all demonstrations, squats and street sit-ins. It not only informed people but tried to stop the violence and the constant and unfounded police brutality. This we did by placing us peacefully between the activists and the police.

Our work is based on the international conventions on human rights in arrest and police control situations - both governed by the United Nations anti-torture resolution signed by most European countries, including France.

The mobile Legal Team is always in contact with the permanent Legal Team. At the Evian Anti-G8-rally the co-operation between the Legal Team and the international lawyers worked very well. We wore a T-shirt with International Legal Team and the base phone number on it.

Before any demonstration and civic disobedience action we went to meet the State representative (Prefect), the Head of the French-Swiss riot police and the local press to explain who we were and what our action consisted of. We negotiated with the Prefect so as not to have police presence or intrusion in the alternative villages and their immediate surroundings during the G8.

Unfortunately, in the present context of daily police presence in the European Union, we were forced to create the International Legal Support Team.

What is the International Legal Support Team?

First of all, the Legal Team are activists, we are not there to stop or judge militant actions but to help avoid and denounce criminal police action (bavure). The police forces (anti-criminal brigade, riot police, mobile police) are largely protected by laws that are in favour of them and by the media, the judges and the attorneys general - unlike the demonstrators, the foreigners, the illegal immigrants, the strikers, the protesters and the poor.
The International Legal Team is an absolute necessity and must be developed in every European city and know long before the events of 11 September, the people of the Third World knew what it was like to live under a permanent state of terror

Since the beginning of political repression, support committees have been created to rise up against the arbitrary action of police-judiciary co-operation. However, there is no permanent support structure formed by lawyers for those found guilty. We propose to collect funds that would permit us to act as a continuous relay to the media concerning the evolution of the trials.

We propose :

a) For every European city to create a Legal Support Team and to work closely with the lawyers.
b) To create a Web site where the rights of the demonstrator would be translated into several languages, detailed according to the national law of each country.
c) That in each action (street sit-ins, squats, demonstrations etc.) the activists form themselves a mobile Legal Support Team and establish direct contact with the permanent legal support Team.
d) That the priority of the Legal Team is to observe and to intervene non-violently against all inhumane arrests.

About the significance of the International Legal Support Team :

We are there for each and every one.

If, for example, a police identity control is performed in a brutal, unrespectful or insulting manner, we intervene. We propose the following Modus operandi :

a) Write down the name and address of the person subject to control, ask the name of the controlling police officer, write down the details of the events and ask to which police station the person is being taken to. Inform the person of his or her rights, and write down the exact time and place and the circumstances of the arrest.

b) Call up the Legal Team or directly the lawyer working with us.

c) If possible, go with the person.

The most important is that everyone can be part of the Legal Team (suburb youth, school children, students, workers, the unemployed, the poor, the retired …).

When laws are misleading, it is everyone´s duty to denounce them and to claim, to gain ownership of and to lean on the European and the Universal declarations of human rights.

The world will be saved and a better place when we no longer need the police.

You can take action now !
Join us 02073779088  e-mailfree_ilst@yahoo.de
LARC/International legal support team
Alain Charlemoine
62 Fieldgate Street
London E1 1Eh

International legal support team
- e-mail: free_ilst@yahoo.de