James Ekin is a UK staff correspondent for JURIST. New UK Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis CBE MP has been discussing human rights reform at the annual Conservative Party Conference that kicked off on Sunday in Birmingham. Speaking to a Policy Exchange forum, he declared that in Britain “we have something very proud of, which is [...]
Charles III was formally proclaimed Britain’s new king in London Saturday in a traditional royal ceremony televised this year for the first time. At 10 am BST, the Accession Council, comprised of senior UK politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, met for the [...]
JURIST UK staff correspondent James Ekin spoke with Criminal Barristers Association (CBA) Communications Director James Rossiter ahead of the strike actions by criminal barristers now taking place across England and Wales. Why is the Criminal Bar Association taking action? “The Criminal Bar Association has been in a long-running dispute with the Ministry of Justice and [...]
In the last few moments of her term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet’s office Wednesday released a long-awaited report on alleged human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region. This comes despite immense pressure from the authorities in Beijing not to publish the report. The report, titled “OHCHR Assessment of human rights [...]
Barristers practicing criminal law in the UK have voted to strike “indefinitely” in a ballot action, the Criminal Bar Association announced Monday. The walkout will start on Monday, September 5, meaning virtually all criminal court cases in England and Wales will be unable to proceed. Our members have made the difficult decision to adopt the [...]
UK privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch Thursday reported that police are disproportionately using existing stop and search powers to target protesters. This comes as the Government is planning even more protest crackdowns through the Public Order Bill, the human rights group said on Twitter. According to the UK Government, the bill aims to “give police the [...]
Police officer Thomas Robertson was sentenced Thursday to 87 months in prison for his participation in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. According to court documents, Robertson, 49, and co-defendent Jacob Fracker, were both officers with the Rocky Mount, Virginia, Police Department and were off duty when they headed for Washington, DC, in Robertson’s [...]
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Friday filed a declaration of intervention in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case of Ukraine v. Russian Federation. Human rights experts in Ukraine and across the world have accused Russia of genocide during its invasion of Ukraine. Until today, the UK has declined to [...]
Amnesty International Thursday released a report which accused Ukraine of basing troops in residential areas, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to say that the report “tries to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.” The report quoted Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, as saying “We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting [...]
