Confirmed plenary speakers:
Gareth Peirce, Mark Thomas, Craig Murray, Mark Muller, Brian Haw, Bill Bowring, Nafeez Ahmed

Co-sponsored by the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute,
CAMPACC (Campaign against Criminalising Communities), Muslim
Parliament, Garden Court Chambers, Campaign against Racism and Fascism, Haldane Society, Statewatch, Institute for Policy Research and Development


read on for more information...


What about ?
Anti-terrorism measures, detention and repression of asylum seekers and other migrants, new police powers against demonstrators, ASBOs, ID cards and state surveillance; and how foreign policy and new state strategies for social control relate to all of this.


Who for ?
Organisations working on human rights, civil liberties, asylum and refugees; lawyers; researchers; journalists

Cost ?
There will be a very low registration fee, mainly to cover lunch.

Venue ?
London Metropolitan University, Holloway Road

The Programme:
9.30 - Coffee and Registration

10.00 - Morning Plenary
Introduction from Philip Leach - (Director (Acting) of the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute & Director of the Human Rights Advocacy Centre)
Speakers:
Bill Bowring (Barrister, Professor of Law at Birkbeck College) - 'The Terrorist Lists of the UN & EU and the end of some fundemental human rights'
Gareth Peirce (Senior partner at Birnberg, Peirce and Partners) - 'Where next for the anti-terrorism measures & police powers in the UK'
Nafeez Ahmed (Executive Director: Institute for Policy Research & Development) -
'Whose war on whose terror'
Brian Haw (Peace protestor in Parliament Square)

11.45 - Workshops:

(1) Punishment without trial:
Control orders, ASBOs, house arrest under immigration bail, 28-day pre-charge detention of terror suspects, impact of these measures on those restrained.
Chaired by Doug Jewell (Campaign coordinator for Liberty), with contributions from Julen Arzuaga and Ander Larumbe (Basque Human Rights Observatory), Adrienne Burrows and Bruce Kent (Peace & Justice in East London), Anne Gray (CAMPACC) and Saghir Hussain (civil liberties lawyer)

(2) Migrants, Refugees and Terror Suspects
Migrants, Refugees and terror suspects, detention centres, prison without trial under immigration law, deportations, torture, rendition, extradition, SIAC.
Chaired by: Liz Fekete (Institute for Race Relations), with contributions from Carla Ferstman (Director of Redress), Emma Ginn (NCADC), Aisha Maniar (London Guantanamo Campaign & National Guantanamo Coalition) and Frances Webber (Garden Court Chambers)

(3) Freedom of expression and association
Banned organisations, the new crime of association, support of 'terrorist' organisations, 'glorification' of terrorism, the impact of these measures on migrant communities, media/journalists and charities
Chaired by Les Levidow (CAMPACC), with contributions from Paul Donovan (Irish journalist), Tim Gopsill (NUJ), Ali Has (Chair of Haringey Kurdish Cultural Centre), Reza Kazim (Islamic Human Rights Commission), Sophie Redmond (Article 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression), Estella Schmid (CAMPACC), Nagendram Seevaratnam (Campaign for Truth & Justice) and Jagdeesh Singh (Panjaab National History Society and 1984 Genocide Coalition)


13.15 - Lunch Break

14.00 - Afternoon Plenary

'Legality, personal morality and the war on terror' - Craig Murray (Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan)
'How to carry on protesting' - Mark Thomas
'Terrorism Lists and the right to self-determination and democracy - Mark Muller QC (Garden Court Chamber & Chair of Bar Human Rights Committee)

15.00 Workshops

(4) Right to protest
New measures are being used to restrict the right to peaceful protest
Chaired by Emma Sangster (Parliament Sqquare Peace Campaign), with contributions from Maya Evans (Justice not Vengeance), Sian Jones (Block the builders at Aldermaston), Fizza Qureshi (CAMPACC/mass lone demos) and Mike Schwarz (Bindmans & Partners)

(5) Privacy, Surveillance and Ethnic Profiling
Profiling of suspects and how we can resist the threats to civil liberties posed by security/surveillance measures, including ID cards
Chaired by Ben Hayes (Statewatch), with contributions from Fahad Ansari (Islamic Human Rights Commission), Phil Booth (NO2ID), Tony Bunyan (Statewatch), Gus Hossesin (Privacy International), Yasmin Khan (Justice for Jean Charles De Menezes Campaign) and Asad Rehman (Newham Monitoring Project).


(6) Global context of the War on Terror
Imperialism and repression; How & why certain communities and movements become stigmitised as 'terrorists'
Chaired by Liz Davies (Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers), with contributions from Maajid es-Saleemi (Clear Conscience), Arzu Pesman (Kurdish Federation UK), writer Desmond Fernandes, and Imran Hussain (Save Chechnya Campaign), Ian Nisbett (CAMPACC)

16.30 - Afternoon Break

16.45 - Reports from workshops and discussion


17.30 - Finish


Objectives of the conference:

1. To develop a coherent analysis of the political agendas behind the anti-terrorism and other repressive powers, especially their links to foreign policy – e.g., UK government promotion of global state terror, the international ‘war on terror' (involving actions by the USA, EU, and UN), corporate counter-strategies against protest, repressive migration management, etc.


2. To involve a broad array of organisations in order to widen their understanding of these attacks and to develop alliances.


3. To analyse the repression of asylum seekers and illegal migrants, within the overall climate of an assault on civil liberties


4. To encourage and extend everyday defiance of repressive laws, as well as solidarity among the communities affected.


5. To develop common initiatives— for Parliamentary lobbying, for mobilisation of civil society, for mass-media interventions, for work within political parties and trade unions, for protests, etc.


6. To stimulate longer-term collaborations on these issues.


The government has been attacking our basic democratic rights through unjust principles: a presumption of guilt, punishment without trial, and pre-emptive restraints on liberty. These principles enter not only the `war on terror’ but measures against asylum seekers, demonstrators and those accused of `anti-social behaviour’. Having broadened the definition of terrorism, ‘anti-terror’ laws are used to deter, suppress and criminalise political activities. ‘Anti-stalker’ laws have also been used to prohibit and criminalise political protest against companies.

Alongside the `war on terror’ go other measures for punishment without proper trial. ASBOs, like control orders, involve jail for breach of the order, even though no substantive criminal offence has been proven. Detention of `terror suspects’ without trial was rejected by the Law Lords as against international human rights law, but it remains the fate of thousands of asylum seekers.

In these various ways, individuals are readily treated as guilty and punished without a normal criminal trial, or they are prosecuted for political activities. By targeting individuals, the state persecutes and intimidates entire communities. All these measures have met overt defiance and everyday resistance. Indeed, to persist is to resist. Such opposition could be strengthened through broader understandings and alliances.




Contact  campacchelpers@yahoo.co.uk, or the CAMPACC office, 0207 272 4131.