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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.
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- 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
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UN Backs Call to Halt Big UK Gypsy Eviction, April 14, 2010
By Grattan Puxon
THE UK GOVERNMENT must shortly answer concerns expressed by the UN over plans to evict hundreds of Gypsies from their own land.
UN special rapporteur on adequate housing Raquel Rolnik has delivered a letter to the UK Permanent Mission in Geneva following a complaint that the accommodation rights of Gypsy and Traveller families are being violated by a local authority.
The complain refers to large-scale direct action eviction operations being prepared by Basildon District Council against so-called illegal Travellers' communities at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, and Hovefields, Wickford, Essex.
It was submitted by Essex University Human Rights Clinic on behalf of the Dale Farm Housing Association, which has been attempting for five years to legalize the situation. Dale Farm is the biggest Travellers' settlement in Britain.
The effect is likely to be heightened attention by British authorities to a situation which has been deteriorating for more than a decade. Since the l994 Criminal Justice Act ended the obligation on local councils to provide caravam sites, many thousands of Gypsies have been thrown off their own plots and thereafter constantly moved on.
Driven to desperation, Gypsies are now making a final stand at Dale Farm. Despite repeated enforcement notices, some 90 families and more at nearby Hovefields have refused to quit unless acceptable alternative locations for their caravans and mobile-homes are sanctioned by Basildon council.
So far, the response of Basildon has been to create a war-chest of four million euro and engage a notorious private security company, Constant & Co.,to cleanse the Gypsies and Travellers from the district. A dozen Gypsy-owned plots at Hovefields have already been bulldozed.
While talks between Traveller representatives and council officials are still ongoing, neither side is backing down. Residents at Dale Farm have been told to leave voluntary or face force. None have done so.
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This week Gypsy Council president Richard Sheridan said if families were ejected and their properties destroyed they would have no choice but to occupy other land in Basildon and take their case to the Court of Human Rights.
"We own several pieces of land in the area where we pasture our horses," said Sheridan. "We won't move more than a mile."
Sheridan further explained that in recent weeks doctors have been issuing Traveller patients with three months' supply of medication, saying this will be needed as they are to be evicted in June.In one case a small boy with learning difficulties has had his application for special schooling rejected because the educational authorities felt it was too much trouble to process it when his family was about to be moved away.
"I have told the council we don't need the extra medication," commented Sheridan."Neither will our children be leaving local schools - because we'll still be here no matter what they do with us."
The Travellers hope the UN will follow up with an urgent appeal to halt the eviction. They also point out that large amounts of public money, as well as much human misery, could be saved by granting them permits to live where they are on their own land.
All could soon be decided by British justice. Basildon council is mounting a challenge in the high court against a Government requirement that it provide land for 62 pitches by 2011 and a further 52 pitches between 2011 and 2010.
The case is to be heard on 25 May and Travellers intend to stage a mass demonstration outside the court.
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