A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
- News Service
- Bulletins
- By Country/Territory
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Bosnia
- Brazil
- Czech Republic
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- France
- Guatemala
- Iran
- India
- Iraq
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Macedonia
- Malaysia
- Nepal
- Nigeria
- Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel
- Peru
- Russia
- Serbia
- Sri Lanka
- Trinidad
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- Fear and Uncertainty as Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction, August 30, 2011
- Dale Farm Eviction: Report Claims Council May Be Acting Unlawfully, June 13, 2011
- Dale Farm May Be Saved By New European Plans, May 30, 2011
- MPs Want Dale Farm Eviction Called Off, April 26, 2011
- Dale Farm: NO PASARAN!
- Dale Farm Legal Challenge to £13 Million Eviction Operation, March 15, 2011
- Council of Europe Visit Raises Dale Farm Spirit, February 16, 2011
- MP Seeks Dale Farm Talks as Eviction Plan Falters, December 28, 2010
- Dale Farm: Labour Party Oppose Forced Eviction, December 8, 2010
- Dale Farm May Be Winning Battle For Commonsense, November 11, 2010
- Dale Farm: Judgment Reserved on Homeless, October 24, 2010
- Dale Farm Prepares to Meet Constant Eviction, October 5, 2010
- Travellers Under Pressure to Abandon Community Living, September 20, 2010
- UK Gypsy Homes Bulldozed as UN Deadline Approaches, June 30, 2010
- The Dale Farm Eviction May be a Criminal Conspiracy, June 27, 2010
- Cameron Tested by Dale Farm Proposal, May 14, 2010
- UN Backs Call to Halt Big UK Gypsy Eviction, April 14, 2010
- Travellers' Genocide Protest Upsets Basildon Council Head, October 30, 2009
- UK: Then They Came For the Gypsies, October 25, 2009
- Dale Farm Eviction Contract Attracts Notorious Bailiffs, July 19, 2009
- Lords Won't Hear Dale Farm Appeal, May 14, 2009
- UN Backs the Dale Farm Travellers in Their Fight Against Eviction, April 29, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction After UK Appeals Court Ruling, January 22, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Racism and Prejudice as Court Mulls Appeal, December 19, 2008
- Dale Farm Community Center Faces Demolition as Eviction Threat Resurfaces, September 26, 2008
- Britain's High Court Lifts the Threat of Eviction from the Dale Farm Travellers, May 13, 2008
- Defiant Travellers Open Community Center as Britain's High Court Prepares to Rule on Their Eviction, May 5, 2008
- Dale Farm Eviction Crisis Reaches the British High Court, February 14, 2008
- Dale Farm Travellers Win Key Concession as Eviction Deadline Approaches, December 11, 2007
- Success for Traveler Advocacy in UK As Eviction Threat Lifts at Dale Farm, July 9, 2007
- AP Peace Fellow Defends Traveler Rights, Arouses British Ire, June 12, 2007
- Urban Sprawl Trumps Minority Housing Rights in UK as Dale Farm Travelers Again Face Eviction, March 2, 2007
- Traveler Evictions in the UK Are ‘Hazardous to Environment and Children’s Health’ Claim Advocates, November 1, 2006
- Travelers Face Eviction Despite Intervention, July 29, 2005
- Showdown Looms as Advocates Seek to Avert Violent Eviction of 600 Travelers in the UK, July 13, 2005
- English Gypsy Women Warn of Possible “Deaths” from Forcible Evictions, and Appeal for International Mediation, April 8, 2005
- Roma Evictions Erupt Across Europe as New ‘Decade’ Seeks to End Discrimination January 31, 2005
- Dictionary.com Removes Offensive Gypsy Definition in Response to Grassroots Campaign, September 22, 2004
- New Funding Grants $8,000 to International Roma Women’s Network, June 1, 2004
- Roma: Roma Women Activists Challange European Governments Over Health Crisis, September 11, 2003
- The International Roma Women's Network is Launched, March 8, 2003
- Vietnam
- Other
- By Issue
- By Date
- Newsletters
- Multimedia
- Global Issues
- AP Diaries and Staff Blogs
The Impact of Service
|
Translate this page:
Lords Won't Hear Dale Farm Appeal, May 14, 2009
from Grattan Puxon
Save Dale Farm CampaignOnly hours after a UN agency launched an urgent plea for a freeze on plans to bulldoze Britain’s biggest Gypsy community, Dale Farm residents learnt that the House of Lords has refused to hear their appeal.
Lawyers acting for Dale Farm say the case may now go to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. But with a likely two year wait before the court could rule on the matter, it will be necessary to seek a prolonged protection from eviction.
Meanwhile, Basildon District Council has yet to consider the homeless applications submitted by over 90 Dale Farm households. They include a joint homeless application seeking to be re-accommodated together as a community.
Permission has been refused (14.5.09) “because the petition does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by this House at this time, bearing in mind that the cause has already been the subject of judicial decision and reviewed on appeal.”
Outlining its preliminary findings at the meeting in the House of Lords (14 May) Brazilian lawyer Leticia Osorio said UK local councils should not only stop evicting Gypsies and Travellers but also refrain from criminalizing those living on their own land without planning authorization.
While visiting Dale Farm, at Crays Hill, Essex, an estate of some ninety families facing eviction by Basildon District Council, Osorio had been impressed by their seven-year campaign to legalize homes and gain stability for the future.
“All attempts to obtain retrospective permission have been rejected,” she told her audience, which included Lib-Dem Lord Avebury and Labour peer Baroness Whitaker. “We hope now that the Lords will agree to hear their case.”
The Brazilian Lawyer asked that the House of Lords support the UN recommendations and back efforts to expand the commission’s work. She commented that should Dale Farm residents fail in their present appeal it would be open to them to take the issue to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Lord Avebury responded that such an appeal might take two years. But he was confident the Save Dale Farm Campaign now had wide enough support to deter Basildon from taking any pre-emptive action.
Mission organizer Joseph Jones, UK delegate to the International Roma Union, confirmed that members of the UN Mission would be present as observers should an attempt be made by bailiffs to force their way up the private Oak Lane approach to Dale Farm for the purpose of destroying homes there.
Several hundred supporters have pledged to join Dale Farm residents in forming a human shield to stop bulldozers reaching their recently-built social centre and chapel, as well as the l32 chalets, mobile-homes and caravans that comprise the estate.
Last month UN Habitat, the United Nations housing agency, authorized the setting by its Advisory Group on Forced Evictions of a special mission to the London region. The mission, headed by AGFE’s French-born chairman Yves Cabannes, recently toured 18 trouble-spots in five English countries.
“We found provision of sites totally inadequate,” explained commission member Cllr. Candy Sheridan, who co-chairs Britain’s 40-year-old Gypsy Council. “More and more families are buying their own land and settling themselves but planning consent is being withheld.”
The preliminary report suggests that the UK through its failure to curb the racially-motivated harassment of its Gypsy population is in contravention of human rights legislation. It states there is undeniable evidence of de facto exclusion from accommodation, education and welfare provision, leaving thousands of families homeless and without medical care.
After an expected endorsement by UN Habitat next month, the recommendations will be officially presented to Downing Street.
Back