EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF
DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ESTABLISHED 1973
Coordinator: Emma Bell
Secretary: Monish Bhatia
SPRING
NEWSLETTER
III
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Website administrator: Gilles Christoph
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I European Group 40th Anniversary
Conference
II Comment and analysis
Conference
Registration
Photo exhibition
Valeria Ferraris discusses the treatment of
North African migrants in Italy.
Dave Whyte, Joanna Gilmore and Waqas
Tufail discuss some of the key issues
addressed at the How Corrupt of Britain?
Conference organised jointly by Liverpool
University and the Centre for Crime and
Justice on 10th May 2013.
Agnieszka Martynowicz defends the right
to protest in Northern Ireland, taking the case
of Barbara Muldoon.
III News from the Europe and the world
EU
France
Greece
Ireland
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
UK
USA
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
I European Group Conference
Critical Criminology in a Changing World: Tradition and Innovation
University of Oslo, Norway
29th August to 1st September 2013
http://www.europeangroup.org/conferences/2013/Index.htm/
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/
Jock Young, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, will be speaking at this year’s
European Group conference in Oslo. Jock’s research focuses on processes of social inclusion
and exclusion and how they relate to the phenomenon of othering. He has published a large
number of books and articles, notably The Drugtakers (1971), The New Criminology (with I.
Taylor and P. Walton, 1973), The Manufacture of News (with S. Cohen, 1981), What's to be
Done About Law and Order? (with J. Lea, 1984), Rethinking Criminology: The Realist
Debate (with R. Matthews, 1992) and The Exclusive Society (1999).
See http://www.malcolmread.co.uk/JockYoung/
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
A news update on the Oslo conference can be accessed on the University of Oslo website:
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/news/welcome-to-oslo.html
A tentative conference programme will be posted on the European Group web page as well
as on the conference web page on 17 June.
Accommodation: For those who would like to stay next to the conference venue, we have made
a special deal with Scandic Edderkoppen. You may book the room through the web page
www.scandichotels.com with the booking code:
BUNI290813. You will then get a room for a special conference price in the period 29 Aug. 01. Sept. For other accommodation please see:
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/europeangrouphotelinfo_oslo.html
Please note that we recommend you to book accommodation no later than mid-June
A photo exhibition celebrating 40 years of the European Group will be organised at the Oslo
conference. If any of you have any photos that reflect the history of the Group, please send
these either electronically to p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no or by mail to Per Jorgen, Postboks 6706
St. Olavs plass, 0130 OSLO.
Registration
Registration for the conference closed on 28th May. All places have been filled. There will be
approximately 150 papers given and over 250 people attending. This promises to be an
extremely successful conference!
Don’t forget that the conference blog can be accessed here:
http://changingworldoslo.blogspot.co.uk/
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
II Comment and analysis
Valeria Ferraris discusses the treatment of North African migrants in
Italy
Shifting Legal Status: A Story from Italy
And indeed, perhaps nothing more graphically illustrates the monstrous relapse the world
suffered after the First World War than the restrictions on personal freedom of movement
and civil rights. Before 1914 the earth belonged to the entire human race. Everyone could go
where he wanted and stay there as long as he liked. No permits or visas were necessary, and
I am always enchanted by the amazement of young people when I tell them that before 1914 I
travelled to India and America without a passport. Indeed, I had never set eyes on a passport.
You boarded your means of transport and got off it again, without asking or being asked any
questions; you didn’t have to fill in a single one of the hundred forms required today. No
permits, no visas, nothing to give you trouble; the borders that today, thanks to the
pathological distrust felt by everyone for everyone else, are a tangled fence of red tape were
then nothing but symbolic lines on the map, and you crossed them as unthinkingly as you can
cross the meridian in Greenwich. It was not until after the war that National Socialism began
destroying the world, and the first visible symptom of that intellectual epidemic of the present
century was xenophobia—hatred or at least fear of foreigners. People were defending
themselves against foreigners everywhere; they were kept out of everywhere. All the
humiliations previously devised solely for criminals were now inflicted on every traveller
before and during a journey (Zweig, 1964).
I love this quotation from Stefan Zweig because it reminds us that things were different not
too long ago. And, needless to say, it reminds us that convergence between immigration law
and criminal law is not new. It is again an example of Giambattista Vico's theory of the
recurring cycles in human history. Zweig is just an opportunity to start, let’s say poetically, a
prosaic story about migrants and legal status.
Italy: February 2011- March 2013
At the end of March 2013, the “North African emergency” came to an end. It started on 12
February 2011, after the significant arrivals of migrants from Northern Africa, when the
President of the Italian Council of Ministries officially declared “the state of emergency in
the national territory regarding the exceptional inflows of North African citizens”.
What elsewhere was referred to as “the Arab Spring”, in Italy was framed as “the North
Africa emergency”.
Lampedusa, the tiny island in the extreme south of Italy (70 miles from Tunisia and more
than 100 from Sicily) was the stage of this emergency.
Between February and September 2011 about 61,000 migrants from Tunisia (mainly
Tunisians) and from Libya (mainly Sub-Saharan migrants) reached the shores of Lampedusa.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Le Monde, 10/01/11
There are a number of key points that could be highlighted during those months. The Italian
government fabricated the emergency to push the Tunisian Government to sign a bilateral
agreement to successfully perform forced returns, and the European Union to offer support
and to implement the principle of solidarity in the field of Border Checks, Asylum and
Immigration under article 80 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
(TFEU).
Moreover, the centres for migrants existed in a legal no man’s land during most of
the emergency period. The centres for primary assistance to migrants intercepted and rescued
at sea became detention centres that hosted migrants for one to two weeks without any
judicial or even administrative act. Furthermore, three new temporary administrative
detention centres – i.e. a number of tents in the suburban areas – were established, as a result
of a highly questionable procedure; three ships were used as temporary detention centres,
ironically named “floating CIE”; and two new facilities not formally defined from a legal
point of view were created. These are just the most relevant examples to highlight the
absence of rule of law by the State in the management of the inflows.
The flourishing of reception centres of unknown legal nature is not the only astonishing
violation of human rights that emerged in 2011. Indeed, the most astonishing effect of the
Italian management of the “North Africa emergency” is the shifting in the legal status that
migrants experienced.
In fact when the emergency started, Tunisians were targeted as illegal migrants and,
therefore, moved to the administrative detention centres in mainland Italy. Since the capacity
of the detention centres was clearly not adequate - even if previous detainees had been
released to vacate room for the newly arrived - soon the centres were full. Then some of the
Tunisians were taken to detention centres for asylum seekers and consequently channelled
into the asylum seekers system too, not being asked about their intention to apply for that
status. In the locations where both administrative detention centres and asylum seekers
detention centres existed as neighbouring centres in the same facility, migrants could be
either channelled into one or the other depending on the bus they got on during the transfers.
Being defined as asylum seekers or illegal migrants depended, then, on odds.
Then, all of a sudden, newly arrived Tunisians were no longer illegal immigrants to be hosted
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
somewhere, but foreign citizens with a Temporary Protection Permit, free to move not only
on Italian soil, but also to cross the borders, thanks to the decision of the Italian government
of April 5, 2011 when the bilateral agreements with the Tunisian government were signed.
On the contrary, all the Tunisians (and also migrants from other North African countries such
as Egypt) arriving after 6 April faced administrative detention and were forced to return as
soon as means of transportation were available. There was no access to asylum procedures
for them. They were all profiled as illegal migrants.
Migrants coming from Libya were managed in a different way. They were relocated
all over Italy in the several facilities according to the “Plan for the reception of migrants” run
by the National Emergency Management Agency1. After arrival in the reception centres,
migrants were automatically channelled into the asylum system, and were allowed to submit
applications to the Police Headquarters of the areas where they first settled. But this was not
the end of the story as most of the people arriving in Lampedusa were not Libyan nationals
but migrants from other countries who had been living in Libya for years, and who turned out
to be a problem for the Italian authorities. In fact, the European and national legal rules on
international protection refer only to foreigners fleeing from their own country; consequently
Third Country Nationals living in Libya did not comply with this legal requirement to receive
international protection. Most of the applications were, therefore, rejected and many migrants
appealed against that decision. Months passed and a growing number of rejected asylum
seekers waiting for appeal found themselves stuck in facilities all over Italy without any
chance of future integration. This chaotic situation made clear the risk faced by Italy, i.e.
having thousands of irregular migrants irregularly living in Italy following failed asylum
applications.
In order to avoid this situation, in September 2012 the Italian Government issued
“Guidelines to overcome the North African Emergency” which expressed the official desire
to end the emergency status declared during the massive arrivals of migrants in 2011 and to
identify assistance measures for rejected asylum claimants. The Italian Government issued a
circular letter to specifically grant one year residence permits for humanitarian reasons to all
rejected asylum seekers who had arrived in Italy during the “North African Emergency” and
who were still being held in the reception centres. To obtain a residence permit, a migrant
from Libya had to withdraw all former applications and start a new asylum application
procedure. Once a residence permit had been granted to all migrants, in March 2013, the
Government closed all reception centres. It thus set free (and made homeless) all migrants
and gave them 500 euros each.
So, two years after the first arrivals in Lampedusa the decision taken by the Italian
government was to get rid of the migrants by giving them a fragile residence permit and
probably hoping they would find their way out of Italy. This decision could have been taken
one year earlier. As a result, migrants would not have spent months in unfavourable living
conditions, finding ways to make time pass by (e.g. playing football and cards and, for the
luckier ones, learning some Italian), with no possibilities to work because of their legal status.
The poor management of the North Africa emergency cost many lives and will have life-long
consequences for those hosted in the centres. In 2011, nearly 2,000 died while crossing the
Mediterranean sea and thousands of migrants were inhumanely treated and given legal status
according to the most convenient decision of the moment, with little, if any, consideration of
legal rules and procedures.
1
22.300 migrants were hosted at the end of September 2011, when the migratory flows substantially ended.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Author Biography
Valeria Ferraris teaches the sociology of deviance at the University of Turin and is a member
of the board of Amapola, an agency that carries out research and interventions on security
and urban livability, liberties and rights. She is the author of several research reports and
essays on immigration and crime, trafficking in human beings, urban security and human
rights. Among her publications: "Lampedusa 2011: A Failed Stress-Test For Migration
Control
Policies
(forthcoming)", “Immigrazione
e
criminalità”, “Accoglienza,
identificazione, espulsione: i centri per stranieri in Italia”; “Migrant’s offside trap: a strategy
for dealing with misleading rules and hostile playing field”. She is part of the editorial staff of
the Italian journals Studi sulla questione criminale and Antigone and a reviewer for
Punishment & Society.
David Whyte : How Corrupt is Britain ?
We are in the midst of a sustained moment of exposure for the British state. In the past 18
months, several police forces across the country have been discredited in a string of cases
involving falsification of evidence and bribery, and there has been an almost constant daily
diet of reports of large scale fraud and corruption in business and politics. It is no longer
possible for the business and political class to sustain their cherished myth of Britain as a
society that is relatively free from corruption. In order to discuss this moment of exposure
for the British state, 200 people met in Liverpool last month, at a conference titled How
Corrupt is Britain? The conference explored ‘corruption’ across three areas of public life:
politics, business and policing.
Recent general elections in the UK have been contested in the midst of major parliamentary
corruption scandals. Labour’s election victory in 1997 took place following a major ‘cash for
questions’ scandal. The profligate expenses fraud that engorged members all of the major
political parties provided the backdrop to the 2010 general election. At How Corrupt is
Britain?, speakers addressed a much more deeply embedded notion of corruption, in which
the relationship between systems of political representation and private profit is
interconnected and mutually reinforces the power of both political and corporate elites: in
public/private finance deals, in the funding of political parties which is now dominated by
hedge funds, and in the neutered, brown-envelope driven worlds of media and corporate
lobbying, we heard that corruption is so routine that even finding a definition which draws a
clear line between criminality and normal business practice is almost impossible. Moreover,
the routine or pervasive nature of corruption in public institutions and in business now
questions whether the term ‘corruption’ - which indicates a deviation from the normal way
of organizing public life - is still a useful concept. In other words, is a concept which
describes the corruption of the norm still useful for understanding a system in which
corruption is the norm?
A session on corporate corruption focused sharply on the finance sector. Speakers asked why
the government has not only failed to control the financial sector, but also showed how its
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
active encouragement of speculative banking, its maintenance of collusive accounting
standards, and its tolerance of regular and systemic consumer rip offs has enabled
‘banksterism’ to operate on an unprecedented scale. The discussion demystified those
processes, processes that are normally regarded as too complex for the person on the street to
understand, and showed that our banking and financial services are governed not by a
mysterious set of forces that we cannot understand, but by principles of collusion and
cronyism that are easily recognizable and can be controlled.
The seemingly endless trail of police corruption revelations in the past few months have
included reports of falsification of evidence at Hillsborough, in the Stephen Lawrence case,
in Sapphire Command and even in the Met’s own anti-corruption squad. This was the
context for the panel on policing. One of the key speakers, Carole Duggan, a justice
campaigner, told of how, according to her lawyer Michael Mansfield, an Independent Police
Complaints Commission (IPCC) report into the police shooting of her nephew Mark Duggan
has been plagued by persistent collusion and cover up. In her contribution, Carole Duggan
contrasted the criminal behaviour of the police in the aftermath of the shooting, with the
fabrication of claims about her nephew’s reputation and the attempt to construct him as a
legitimate target of police violence. The illegal fabrication of evidence was a pattern that all
speakers noted in relation to police deaths in custody, collusion between the security forces in
Northern Ireland and paramilitaries, and the criminalisation and demonisation of peaceful
demonstrators. After the conference, a showing of Ken Fero’s film ‘Who Polices the
Police?’ told how Sean Rigg’s death in custody had been followed by a deliberate cover-up.
Since the conference, we have witnessed the emergence of further corruption scandals in
politics, business and policing. The revelation of a new series of ‘cash for lobbying’
relationships involving MPs and Lords is a sign that the next general election may also be
preceded by the emergence of routine parliamentary corruption. A major investigation has
indicated the true scale of tax fraud and tax avoidance in the City, revealing that a total of 98
companies in the FTSE 100 operate more than 8000 subsidiaries in tax havens. Also in the
week following the conference, a review prompted by the inquest into Sean Rigg’s death has
criticized the IPCC investigation and has demanded that the investigation be reopened.
The routine and endemic nature of those never ending, constantly repeating stories tell us that
we now live in a Britain in which unchecked corruption is not merely a means of enriching
the few, or an unfortunate side-effect of power, but that unchecked corruption is itself a
primary mode of power and domination.
Author biography
David Whyte is Reader in Sociology at the University of Liverpool. To read ongoing series
of blogs by contributors to How Corrupt is Britain?, visit the conference webpage here:
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/ .
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Joanna Gilmore and Waqas Tufail
explain how individuals,
groups and communities can collectively challenge corrupt policing
practices and monitor instances of police violence and harassment.*
Police corruption has traditionally been conceptualised as an abuse of power and authority by
individual officers. Such definitions have tended to result in a restrictive understanding of
'rogue' officers operating within police institutions.
In recent years, a series of high profile cases of police corruption have suggested that such
practices are an institutional rather than individual phenomenon. In January 2011 the trials of
six environmentalist activists charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass
collapsed following allegations that the Crown Prosecution Service had deliberately tried to
suppress evidence that might have exonerated them. Allegations that the group had planned
to occupy the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station were withdrawn after the defence discovered
that one of the one hundred and fourteen activists that had been arrested in a pre-emptive raid
was PC Mark Kennedy - an undercover police officer who had infiltrated the group and
secretly recorded activists' conversations.
As the network of police spies planted inside protest groups began to unravel, allegations that
police officers operated as agent provocateurs, attempted to 'fit up' activists in criminal
proceedings, sexually exploited women in order to boost their credibility with activists and
used the identities of dead children as aliases, caused a serious crisis of legitimacy for an
organisation supposedly founded upon a principle of 'policing by consent'.
These cases have also called into question the legitimacy of official state organisations that
ostensibly exist to hold the police to account. We know, for example, that in the last three
decades, the numbers of those who have died in police custody have increased; however, no
police officer has ever been successfully prosecuted for these deaths, despite the existence of
official investigative bodies such as the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
We also know that legal reforms such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - an
attempt to regulate police behaviour - have legitimised existing practices and resulted in less
rather than more accountability.
A radical alternative is the establishment of independent police monitoring groups to track
instances of police deviance and corruption and hold police forces to account. The recent
creation of the Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP) suggests that such spaces of
resistance can be found. Launched following a vibrant meeting in Moss Side, Manchester in
October 2012, the NPMP acts as a forum from which individuals, groups and communities
can collectively challenge corrupt policing practices and monitor instances of police violence
and harassment in our communities.
The NPMP works within communities suffering from undemocratic and unaccountable forms
of policing to provide advice, advocacy and access to specialist legal assistance and to
support emerging campaigns as and when they are established. The NPMP aims to provide a
genuine challenge to the official narrative around crime and policing in our communities and
thus operates entirely independently from the police and other official state agencies.
Author biographies
Joanna Gilmore is a Lecturer in Law at the University of York whose research focuses on
public order policing and counter terrorism.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Waqas Tufail is a Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University whose
research focuses on policing and urban marginalisation.
The NPMP is an independent grass-roots organisation based in Greater Manchester that
provides advice, support and advocacy to communities suffering from undemocratic forms of
policing.
*This article was originally published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. See
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/
Agnieszka Martynowicz defends the right to protest in Northern
Ireland using the case of Barbara Muldoon
Protected by Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Article
21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the right to peaceful
protest is fundamental in any democracy. While it is not an absolute right, and can be
restricted in certain circumstances, such restrictions must not go beyond what is lawful,
necessary, proportionate and done for a legitimate reason (Article 11.2 of the ECHR).
This short article discusses a case against a colleague of ours, the Belfast-based anti-racism
activist Barbara Muldoon, pursued currently by the Public Prosecution Service, and its wider
implications for the protection of the right to protest in Northern Ireland. It exposes the gaps
in the legal framework regulating police powers that create the potential for such powers to
be used in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner.
1. The case:
Barbara Muldoon’s case arises from her participation in a protest against Nick Griffin, the
leader of the BNP, appearing on BBC’s Question Time in October 2009. The protest in
Belfast was one of many organised across the UK on that day and was attended by over 200
anti-racism campaigners. It is acknowledged that the protest at the BBC offices was entirely
static and lawful and that a group of BNP supporters turned up to counter protest.
Those present at the demonstration stated that BNP supporters gave Nazi salutes and hurled
racist abuse, forcing the police to form a line between the two groups. According to
witnesses, at the end of the protest, police advised Barbara that the safest way to deal with the
winding down of the demonstration was for the anti-racism protesters to make their way to
the City Hall and disperse from there while the police ensured that BNP supporters remained
behind. As the anti-racism protesters began to move towards the City Hall, the police stated
that they were taking part in an un-notified procession and were therefore in breach of the
Public Processions (NI) Act 1998. At this point Barbara and Peter Bunting, the Assistant
Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, were arrested. The remaining protesters
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
made
their
way
to
the
City
Hall
without
any
difficulties
or
incident.
Almost two years later Barbara received a summons stating that she was to appear before the
Magistrate's Court in Belfast charged with the offence of taking part in an un-notified
procession under section 6 of the Public Processions (NI) Act 1998 which introduces a
notification requirement and gives the Parades Commission the power to impose conditions
on public processions. Similar charges were brought against Peter Bunting; however his case
has been dismissed. Peter Bunting waited for over three years for his case to be resolved.
Barbara Muldoon’s case is on-going, three and a half years after the event.
2. The human rights implications of the case to the protection of the right to protest.
A campaign in support of Barbara was set up at the end of April 2013. An on-line petition
(available here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/drop-the-charges-against-barbara/) calling
on the Director of Public Prosecutions to drop the charges against her has so far gained nearly
900 signatures, including from local MLAs, MPs and city councilors; the comedian and
activist Mark Thomas and a singer-song writer Damian Dempsey. A copy of the petition,
together with a copy of a resolution adopted by the European Group in support of Barbara
(see: May Newsletter), has been delivered to the PPS on 3 May 2013. The PPS decided to
press ahead with the criminal charges, the hearing now set for 10th July 2013.
The campaign is working with local politicians, activists, human rights groups, the trade
unions as well as the local media, to raise awareness of the case and its wider implications for
the protection of the right to protest in Northern Ireland. Those supporting the campaign are
concerned that the PSNI and the PPS are effectively extending the reach of legislation that
was introduced mainly with an aim of regulating contentious communal parades to include
events where no such contentious element exists.
Barbara has been charged with a single offence under section 6 of the Public Processions (NI)
Act 1998. This is related to purely administrative requirement that any procession taking
place in Northern Ireland must be notified and approved by the Parades Commission in order
to be lawful. In Barbara’s case, we question whether ‘a procession’ in fact took place at all.
The Commission’s Code of Conduct does not provide any guidance in relation to a situation
where persons are not parading or marching per se but rather move from one place to
another for the purpose of static assemblies. Static assemblies more generally do not come
within the remit of the Commission.
The decision to deal with any un-notified parades or processions, including the decision as to
whether an event qualifies as such and the decision to bring charges for breaches of the 1998
Act, is left solely to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.2 Where discretionary powers are
conferred on the police, the law must indicate with sufficient clarity “the scope of any such
discretion […] and the manner of its exercise” (Gillan v UK, 2010, 50 EHRR 45, at para.77).
As far as we aware, there is no publicly available guidance used by the Police Service of
2
See evidence by the Chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Peter Osborne, on 6 February 2013 (available
here:
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/Assembly-Business/Official-Report/Committee-Minutes-ofEvidence/Session-2012-2013/February-2013/Parades-Commission/
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Northern Ireland in respect of dealing with cases where participants of a ‘static protest’ move
to another location to disperse. This situation has recently been raised by the Committee on
the Administration of Justice (CAJ) in their submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Assembly with reference to the widely publicised flags protests which took place
at the end of 2012/beginning of 2013.3 Neither does there appear to be any Public Prosecution
Service guidance, at least it is not publicly available, for bringing criminal proceedings
against those who have been charged under Section 6 of the 1998 Act.4
While the right to peaceful protest and assembly under Article 11 of the European
Convention on Human Rights is not absolute, any limitations on such right must be imposed
‘in accordance with the law’ (Article 11.2). This means that the law has to include sufficient
safeguards to ensure that criminal sanctions for breaches of any legislation are not exercised
in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner. The current lack of legal certainty as to what
constitutes an ‘un-notified procession or parade’ and when criminal proceedings are brought
against those alleged to be taking part in such a procession creates the potential for the net
widening of police powers, especially in the absence of any requisite guidance for the
prosecuting authorities.
The outcome of Barbara’s case will have an impact on how the right to peaceful protest is
exercised in Northern Ireland – be it in the context of the protests against the current austerity
measures, welfare reform, at the upcoming G8 summit or those organised to highlight other
issues of social importance in the future. In recent years, a range of public order, antiterrorism and anti-social behaviour legislation created a myriad of restrictions on the right to
peaceful protest in the UK. The Public Processions (NI) Act 1998 already imposes significant
restrictions on this right, including formal notification requirements. The Code of Practice
issued by the Parades Commission includes further guidance on routes, timings, behaviour
and the dress code, to name just a few.5 Any extension of powers to restrict the right to
protest, and in particular the use of police discretion, should be stringently opposed. This is
why the campaign will continue to support Barbara and her legal team in their efforts to have
the charges dismissed and will continue to monitor the implementation of any legislation that
imposes restrictions on peaceful protests here.
Find us on Twitter @DropTheChargesB and on Facebook ‘Drop the Charges against
Barbara Muldoon’
Author Biography
Agnieszka Martynowicz is an independent researcher in human rights and criminal justice,
with a particular interest in prisons and immigration detention. In the past, she has worked for
the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in Belfast and the Irish Penal Reform Trust
Committee on the Administration of Justice (‘CAJ’)’s Submission No. S401 Briefing Paper to UN Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly & Association, Mr. Maina Kiai, January 2013 (available at:
http://www.caj.org.uk/files/2013/01/21/S401_CAJs_Briefing_paper_to_UN_Spec_Rapp_on_Freedom_of_Peac
eful_Assembly_Assoc,_Mr_Maina_Kiai,_Jan_2013.pdf)
4
Unlike
in
England
and
Wales
(CPS
Guidance
available
here:
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/public_protests/).
5
Parades Commission (2005) Public Processions and Related Protest Meetings: A Code of Conduct, Belfast:
Parades Commission.
3
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
in Dublin. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ulster, School of Criminology, Politics
and Social Policy.
In April, the European Group passed a resolution in support of Barbara Muldoon and the right to
peaceful protest. It can be accessed on our website.
III News from Europe and the world
Australia
Documentary on life inside Manus Island immigration detention centre available to view
here: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/
EU
Austerity, democracy and civil liberties: The new issue of the Statewatch Journal (volume 23
no 1) is now available to download: http://www.statewatch.org/contents/swjournal23n1.html
The Journal has been redesigned and each issue will now have a thematic focus. This issue
focuses on the nexus between austerity, civil liberties and democracy.
Contents
Discipline and discontent: coalition government extends “slave labour” welfare policy, by
Chris Jones
Kick ‘em all out? Anti-politics and post-democracy in the European Union, by Leigh Phillips
Austerity policies also cut rights and liberties in Spain, by Peio M. Aierbe
Using the Italian crisis to impose control: a shift towards a fiscal surveillance state? by Yasha
Maccanico
Golden Dawn and the deafening silence of Europe, by Jerome Roos
Collective punishment and pre-emptive policing in times of riot and resistance, by Nick Moss
Belgian ‘municipal fines’ cause growing dissent, by Kees Hudig
Report
Amnesty International’s latest annual international report on the state of the world’s human
rights notes that tough economic conditions and austerity policies in the EU are stoking
hostility towards immigrants fleeing wars and poverty. Greece and Italy in particular are
accused of harsh treatment of refugees, including those fleeing the Syrian civil war. See:
http://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/amnesty-report.pdf
France
Award
The Gabriel Tarde Award is open to all authors of a criminological work in French first
published after 1st June 2011. The Prize may be awarded to an edited edition. For more
details, please contact jouvetlucie@yahoo.fr or visit the following web page: http://www.afcassoc.org/?q=node/29
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
News
The French Minister of the Interior, Manuel Vals, has seized on the violent murder of British
soldier Lee Rigby in London to play up the terrorist threat. He claimed that those responsible
for the attacks were not ‘lone wolves’, declaring, “National borders are not hermetically
sealed: the enemies within and those without are joined together in a global fight to destroy
democracies in the name of radical Islam, preaching a discourse of hate”. See:
http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/05/24/les-terroristes-ne-sont-pas-des-loups-solitairesselon-valls_905361
25th April 2013, the ECtHR ruled that France is in breach of article 3 of the ECHR
concerning cruel and degrading treatment. Severe carceral overcrowding has meant that time
out of cell is extremely limited (in some cases limited to just an hour a day), forced cellsharing and poor physical conditions. See:
http://www.oip.org/index.php/component/k2/item/1071-la-france-épinglée-par-la-coureuropéenne-des-droits-de-lhomme-pour-sa-surpopulation-carcérale
For the third time in just 10 months, a court has ruled that authorities at Fresnes prison are in
breach of the law by systematically subjecting prisoners to full-body searches following
prison visits. See: http://www.oip.org/index.php/derniers-communiques/1069
Media
Some interesting videos have been posted on-line by the Observatoire International des
Prisons
http://www.oip.org/index.php/conferences-et-entretiens
Seminar
The next Interlabo meeting of the Groupe des Recherches sur les Normativités (GERN)
entitled “Between Research and Expertise: The experience of the Regional Observatory on
Crime and Social Context” will take place in Aix-les-Bains on 21st June, 2013. Please sign up
here : http://enquetes.univ-cezanne.fr/index.php?sid=39388
Greece
Campaign
The presumption of innocence, a vital element of all European legal institutions, is under
threat by Laws 4093/2012 and 4111/2013 in Greece. Many Greek academics, including a
Vice-Rector, are about to be suspended from their duties prior to any judicial decision simply
upon a call from a public prosecutor. We urge the international academic community to
support our petition. The petition text is available in English, French, German, Italian and
Spanish.
Among the first 50 academics who signed the petition you will find Prof. Costas Douzinas
(Pro-Vice Master for International Links and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the
Humanities), Prof. Yannis Mylopoulos (Rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki),
Prof. Paris Tsartas (Rector of The University of the Aegean), Prof. George Harvalias (Rector
at the Athens School of Fine Arts) and Prof. Angelique Dimitracopoulou (Vice-Rector of The
University of the Aegean). The Greek petition on the same subject has already been signed by
more than 1.500 academics, researchers, PhD students and postgraduates.
Sign at: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/greece-2013-sign-to-defend-the-presumptionof-innocence.html
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Media
Photos depicting the crisis of poverty in debt-striken Greece are available to view here:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/societal-ills-spike-in-crisis-stricken-greece/
Documentary reveals the conditions of refugees and migrants in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMOnuD0SQJs&feature=player_embedded
Greece:
Ireland
Activism
Numerous protests are being organised against the G8 Summit to be held near Enniskillen,
Co. Fermanagh, this month. A Counter-Summit is planned in Belfast on 16th June. Speakers
will include Laurie Penny from the New Statesman, Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit
Level, and many more. See: http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/node/808
Portugal
Report
New report by the Council of Europe anti-torture committee ciriticises prison conditions in
Portugal. See: http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/prt/2013-04-24-eng.htm
Spain
Calls for Papers
A Critical View of Digital Networks and Social Movements: Activism on the Internet has
often been seen as a key factor in consolidating instances of social unrest in examples ranging
from the Zapatista movement to the Arab Spring, as well as protests in Venezuela, France,
the United Kingdom, the Vivienda Digna movement and Indignados in Spain, Occupy, etc.
Scholars and activists have provided both thoughtful insights and simplistic readings either
overemphasizing the role played by digital networks (technological determinism) or
downplaying their importance in relation to citizen participation. In spite of the increasing
number of articles and books dealing with the link between social movements and
communication technologies, it still seems relevant to further this line of enquiry, questioning
critically both positions which resist change as well as those which foreground the role of
digital networks as the avant-garde and origin of each contemporary process of social
transformation; the aim is to look seriously into the chances and threats brought about by the
use of communication technologies. Research is needed in order to review the “digital
revolution” as a sort of degree zero concept, which sidesteps social, political and cultural
structures still relevant in today´s world. In line with previous issues and with the general
interests of research group COMPOLITICAS over the last few years, the current issue of
Redes.com deals with the subject of digital networks and social movements from a double
perspective.
Call for papers deadline: June, 20th 2013
Guidelines for submission and reception of articles: http://revistaredes.com/index.php/revista-redes/about/submissions
Contact: José Candón Mena (US, jcandon@us.es)
The research group on Delinquency and Criminal Justice (http://www.ecrim.es/) at the
University of La Coruna will be hosting a conference entitled Beyond Neoliberalism? Politics
and Punishment in Contemporary Societies on 3-4th October 2013.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
In recent years, a prominent piece of academic literature has analysed the transformations in
the field of punishment through the lens of what has been called neoliberalism. Several
theoretical perspectives, such as the governmentality studies, or a variety of analyses on postwelfarist punishment, have highlighted the influence of economic policies and the neoliberal
mode of government on the recent evolution of penal policies.
These theoretical frameworks appear to be especially relevant to face the current challenges
of the field of punishment and social control. Yet, a crucial historical event has further
strengthened the interest of this sort of analysis. In effect, the study of punishment from the
perspective of politics and political economy has gained momentum with the beginning of
what has been termed the Great Recession. The conference is focused on this theoretical
field, and it aims to reflect on punishment both in relation to and beyond neoliberalism.
Therefore, we will consider contributions on a wide range of issues that encompass the broad
theme of Beyond Neoliberalism? Politics and Punishment in Contemporary Societies,
particularly on the themes of:
 Politics and Punishment
 Political Economy of Punishment
 Neoliberalism and Criminal Justice
 Great Recession and penal policies
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to dcastrolinares@gmail.com by 15th July
2013.
Sweden
News
Interesting comment on the Swedish riots available here: http://www.truthout.org/news/item/16588-six-nights-of-violence-reveal-inequalities-in-sweden
and
here
http://rt.com/news/stockholm-riots-police-shooting-537/
Afghan asylum seekers on hunger strike. See: http://kabulblog.blog.com/2013/05/13/26/
United Kingdom
News and analysis
The UN Committee Against Torture has scrutinised the UK’s human rights record with
regard to its involvement in extraordinary rendition. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/may/09/uk-human-rights-record
All offenders on short-term sentences of two years of less to be subject to 12 months’
supervision on release from prison. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/09/prisoners-supervision-orders-after-release
Independent Police Complaints Commission ciriticsed over its review into the death of Sean
Rigg who died in police custody on 21st August 2008. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk22554051 and http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/news/Pages/pr_170513_Riggreview.aspx
G4S in the news again for threatening to evict asylum-seekers from their homes
(http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/g4s-asylum-housing-fiascodescends-into-farce) and for taking over responsibility for rape and crime victim support
centres: (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/g4s-set-run-rape-sex-4007378)
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Protests increasingly treated as antisocial behaviour. See http://netpol.org/2013/05/01/protesttreated-as-anti-social-behaviour/
Campaigns
The UK government’s cuts to legal aid are deepening and are now threatening to deprive
most people detained in immigration removal centes of access to free legal representation.
Please support Detention Action’s campaign by responding to the government’s consultation
by 4th June.
See: http://detentionaction.org.uk/timelimit/stop-legal-aid-cuts (petition) and
http://www.younglegalaidlawyers.org/more_legal_aid_cuts (comment) and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/11/privatised-justice-legal-aid
(comment).
Reports
A Ministry of Justice Report has announced that youth custody budgets will not be devolved
to local authorities. This heralds the end of a two-year pilot schemes to reduce the use of
youth custody by giving local councils cash to fund projects to divert under-18s from prison.
See: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/digital_assets/gov-resp-justice-select-comm-youth-justice1_copy.pdf
INQUEST has published an updated briefing on the death of Jimmy Mubenga, the man who
died whilst being restrained by private security guards working for G4S during a removal
from the UK in October 2010. See:
http://www.inquest.org.uk/pdf/briefings/INQUEST_briefing_Jimmy_Mubenga_updated_may
_2013.pdf
Conferences, seminars and lectures
A two-day postgraduate workshop entitled Neoliberalism as Policy, Theory and Practice will
be held at Manchester Metropolitan University on 6th and 7th June. See:
http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/neoliberalmmu/neoliberalism-as-policy-theory-and-practicestudent-workshop/
The Migration Research Unit Student Conference on Forced Migration Global Perspectives
and Practices will be held at UCL on June 12th 2013. All welcome. Please see link below on
the MRU website for more details and registration.
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/research/transnational-spaces/migration-research-unit
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/research/transnational-spaces/migration-researchunit/images/mru-conference.jpg
Web links
Please see new website for the Prison Ethnography Network! The website will provide news
and detail about reearch and forthcoming events.
http://prisonethnography.group.shef.ac.uk/
Life After Deportation allows migrants to tell their stories of their encounters with the
immigration authorities in the UK. See http://www.lifeafterdeportation.com/
Job Opportunities
We are currently looking for a lecturer to teach two Prison modules at UCLan. Obviously
there is some leeway regarding content, but the level 5 module focuses upon issues with in
British prisons (including deaths in custody, children in prison, gendered prison experiences
responses and resistance within the prison) and the level six module looks at the sociological
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
justifications and criticisms (including abolitionist approaches) of prison as a (primary) mode
of punishment. I think someone who has recently completed or is about to complete a PhD
related to (British) prisons would find the content of these modules fairly straightforward, and
could of course bring their own research into the module content.
Contact Dave Orr: DOrr@uclan.ac.uk
Studentships
Forthcoming doctoral studentships in policing at Durham. Closing date for applications 17th
June. See:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/sgia/graduate_study/scholarships/opportunities/
USA
A fascinating article on how prisons in the US are barring inmates’ access to legal news,
literature and letters. See: http://theamericanreader.com/battling-censorship-behind-bars/
Petition against the building of a new women’s prison in Los Angeles:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=
8031
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CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …