The Hirsi ruling and its implications

by Julia Antone In its 2012 landmark judgement Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) set a precedent by establishing that European Union (EU) law applied not just within EU territorial borders, but extended to the high seas. With the subsequent migration crisis and illegal sea crossings totalling more than…

Priti Patel’s Asylum Reform: What will come of it?

by Viviana Biasco   Photograph by Julie Ricard on Unsplash In response to the UK’s asylum process, which many refer to as an “embarrassing failure,”  Home Secretary Priti Patel is putting forward a new proposal to deal with the issue of asylum and migration in the UK. If Patel’s plan is held up, we would be…

The Case of Alexei Navalny

by Beth Cosgrove In 2011, anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny nicknamed the ruling United Russia party the Party of Crooks and Thieves and has since continued to redefine electoral competition throughout the country. He has become a prominent figure in the fight against Putin, with last month’s events demonstrating his growing influence in the difficult world…

Quo Vadis, Aida?: The Srebrenica Massacre

by Sophie Smars Last Monday, Quo Vadis, Aida? was nominated for an Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The highly acclaimed movie directed by Jasmila Zbanik covers the events in July 1995 leading up to the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian war, through the eyes of Aida Selmanagic (Jasna Duricic) a translator working for the UN. 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed during this massacre by the Bosnian Serb…

Sarah Everard and violence against women: Too close for comfort

By Caroline Gretton Sarah Everard’s murder is far too close to comfort for so many women. Women have been conditioned to be hyper vigilant in public spaces with good reason. However, they should not have to bear this burden. Safer lives for women come with the deconstruction of patriarchy and misogyny.  Over the past couple…

The Future of Protests: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

by Beth Pritchett Edward Colston, empty pedestal by Caitlin Hobbs (licensed under CC BY 3.0)  To say this has been an eventful week for the police would be an understatement.   Questions over police power have been circling prominently since the Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year. It must be acknowledged that within communities of colour, these conversations have been happening for years. However, these discussions must be continued…

The State of Emergency in France: A history of its repressive and discriminatory use

by Lou Khalfaoui In the wake of the coordinated attacks that swept through Paris on November 13, 2015, the French government instituted a formal state of emergency. Two years later, it officially ended. However most of the special powers and legal ‘short-cuts’ it reserved for the state were enshrined in the Anti-terrorism Law passed in…

The Pandemic and Gender Economic Inequality

by Caroline Gretton The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced that the “enforcement action against employers failing to report their gender pay gap will start on 5 October 2021”. The gender pay gap reporting enforcement was suspended by the EHRC in March 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, meaning that the enforcement…

Innovation fuels the change to Green Energy

by Kofo Babalola Imagine living in a society where all the electricity is generated from solar, wind, water and geothermal energy. This is a complete shift to green energy which is dependable on the weather that is continuously fluctuating. There is no way of determining the reliability of this source of energy. What if there…

When foreign investors control domestic policies

How trade deals allow private sector interests to hinder development by Léa Brette In December 2019, the Netherlands passed legislation to shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2030. The adopted law supports the Netherlands’ commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 49% in 2030 and 95% in 2050, based-off its 1990 levels. However, far from…

We come together in advocacy for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to return to the UK

by Viviana Biasco Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter, Gabriella, outside the Iranian Embassy in London last week Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA on The Times  Who is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?  Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual British and Iranian citizen, who, prior to her arrest, lived in London alongside her husband, Richard Radcliffe, and daughter Gabriella. She worked as a project manager for the charity Thomson Reuters…

Ugandan Elections

By Yousef Abu-Ghazaleh The year is 1986, Uganda has seen been at civil war for 6 years. By the time the dust has settled, 500,000 people are dead, and at the helm of the country is a new leader, risen from the National Resistance Army: Yoweri Museveni. 35 years later, on the 14th of January…