The start of a new year in Lesvos has seen the arrival of a paradoxical new challenge: while a bottleneck of asylum seekers applying for settlement has been the problem to date – many wait up to two years for an interview – speed is now the enemy. On 1st January… Read more
Is the right to asylum related to the language spoken by the asylum seeker? Could a victim of torture be deprived of his right to apply for international protection due to lack of interpretation? Not according to international law, but in Lesvos, from 15 to 20 November 2019, 28 asylum… Read more
Access to justice and rule of law are fundamental in securing and maintaining rights for disadvantaged groups in the UK and abroad. As lawyers, our members are able to provide strategic support, both as volunteers and through donations to our Justice Fund, in areas such as refugee rights, women’s rights… Read more
Lawyers Against Poverty were delighted to co-host this inspirational event with Simmons & Simmons. Attended by more than 125 guests including VIP ‘Listeners’ Benedict Cumberbatch, Sophie Hunter-Cumberbatch and Livia Firth, the indigenous leaders gave the audience a moving account of their struggles to retain and protect their lands. Watch this… Read more
According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), with three million at risk every year. FGM is defined as the removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons (whether complete or incomplete)… Read more
With a population of around 7.6 million, Togo is one of the smallest countries in Africa, bordered by Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso. Agriculture accounts for about 30% of its economy and it enjoys a well-developed export sector due to valuable phosphate deposits. Despite this, the country is suffering an… Read more
Research by Amnesty International exposes the inhumane and unsafe conditions that women refugees suffer in the course of transit to Europe and once they arrive. Interviewing 40 women and girls who had travelled from Turkey to Europe through Greece, the organisation recounted the consensus among them of feeling threatened or… Read more
On 10 December 2018, which marks seventy years since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the same day in 1948, Amnesty International issued its annual review of the state of the world’s human rights. One area on which it focused was refugee rights in 2018 and… Read more
Last month, UNICEF issued a statement calling for children stranded in Moria on the island of Lesbos to be transferred to accommodation on mainland Greece. Many of the children are traumatised and vulnerable; they are in need of psychosocial support and at risk of violence in the camp. Conditions have… Read more
On 3 September 2018, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) released a new report showing that migrants making the journey across the Mediterranean are encountering a more perilous crossing than ever before. Thus far in 2018, more than 1,600 individuals forced to flee their homes have lost their lives in transit…. Read more
