Upcoming Human Rights Lawyers Association Event

28 July 2020 by Guest Contributor

Race and Rights in the UK: Do Black Lives Matter Today?

The recent killing of George Floyd at the hands of US authorities has sparked a global outcry, with individuals and organisations demanding accountability and an end to the racial oppression that black Americans face. Within the United Kingdom, a much-needed debate is also taking root in response to these events, which focuses on systemic racism that denies people their basic rights here. From discriminatory policing, to the racism inherent in the Windrush and Grenfell scandals as well as the disparate racial impacts of COVID-19, evidence of systemic racial injustice within the UK abounds.

Drawing on the knowledge and experience of our panellists, this event hosted by the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) tomorrow, will provide a forum to discuss some of these issues and recommend solutions in order to advance this debate at this critical juncture. Presentations will touch on the following four key areas as part of this discussion and will be followed by a live Q&A:

– Discriminatory policing
– Grenfell
– Windrush
– Race and Covid-19

Panellists:

Laurie-Anne Power, 25 Bedford Row (Chair)
Judge Peter Herbert OBE, Co-Founder BMELawyers4Grenfell, Chair of the Black Lawyers’ Society
Dr Nishi Chaturvedi, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at University College London
Martin Forde QC, One Crown Office Row, Independent Adviser to the Windrush Compensation Scheme
Zainab Asunramu, Activist and Writer
Rohan Samuel, @poet_rs Spoken Word Poet

Event lead and Introduction: Tetevi Davi, HRLA Executive Committee

Registration details here.

You might also be interested to hear Martin Forde QC discuss systemic racial inequality on episode 117 of our podcast Law Pod UK or read Michael Paulin‘s look at Racism and the Rule of Law on the UK Human Rights Blog.