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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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Cameron Tested by Dale Farm Proposal, May 14, 2010
By Grattan Puxon
DAVID CAMERON, Britain’s new Conservative prime minister, uniquely backed up by Liberal Deputy PM Nick Clegg, has today promised “good and decent’’ government. But Travellers at Dale Farm, facing imminent eviction, await to find out whether that means they will be allowed to move peacefully to another location they have found for themselves.Conservative-led Basildon District Council has set aside three million euro to flatten the Dale Farm community, the biggest of its kind in the UK. They have been staunchly opposed by a minority of Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors, who have denounced the intended destruction as racially motivated and disproportionate.
What will happen now is anyone’s guess. Re-elected local Tory MP John Barron, while campaigning for the eviction has sought central government help to find an alternative outside the district.
Meanwhile, Gypsy Council president Richard Sheridan, who heads the community-organized Dale Farm Housing Association, has put forward a proposal for relocation closer at hand.
Almost within a kilometre of Dale Farm, on the opposite side of the A127 arterial road, land has been set aside for the construction of 3,500 new homes. However, the site at Gardiners Lane South, will not be built on for at least five years due to financial constraints.
“We want to develop a temporary mobile-home park at Gardiners Lane for everyone made homeless at Dale Farm,” explained Sheridan. “It will save a lot of misery and a great deal of public money.”He has asked for a meeting on 19 May with Basildon council’s project leader Dawn French, who is in charge of engagement talks with the Dale Farm community. So far those talks have excluded discussion of an alternate site for evicted families. Residents have been repeatedly asked to leave of their own accord with nowhere arranged for them.
Sheridan says they are willing to move if an acceptable alternative can be designated. He believes Gardiners Lane offers the best solution. Earlier, the DFHA attempted a relocation to a site recommended by then Deputy PM John Prescott at Pitsea. But that proposal was rejected.
According to housing legislation, the local council must assess the needs of Gypsies. Basildon is required to provide 62 new mobile-home pitches by next year, and a further 52 within ten years. But it is contesting this requirement in the High Court and expects a hearing on the issue starting 28 July.
Technically already homeless, most families have submitted applications for re-accommodation. A number have been offered flats or houses. Every one has declined bricks-and-mortar because it would mean the break up of their community and is unsuited to the life-style of ethnic Travellers. They want the new pitches instead. Whether they will get them through this route will be tested soon in Basildon County Court.
The UN has sent a letter of concern to the UK Government over the Dale Farm eviction and a UN-linked monitoring team is standing by, with other legal observers, to attend the operation. Last month a meeting took place with Essex Police Authority over the policing of the eviction. The heavy cost, put at close on one million euro, was to have been borne by the EPA but it now says the police will bill Basildon for the full amount.While the EPA has guaranteed that police officers will act impartially and ensure bailiffs obey safety laws, complaints concerning the private security company engaged by Basildon are being sent to the Local Government Ombudsman. The past conduct of Constant & Co has been the subject of many allegations, from racial abuse, to arson arising from the burning of caravans and property, and even looting.
Bailiffs uncertified to handle children have been filmed manhandling little girls during evictions, and company head Brian Constant admits no risk assessments were conducted before previous operations done for Basildon.“Our hope is that David Cameron shows the kinder face of conservatism he has promised,” said Sheridan. “We’ll see if Basildon will let us move to Gardiners Lane. The last thing we want is an ugly confrontation of the sort his political allies in in Hungary have instigated against Roma.”
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