London, 20 November 2012 

On 6 November 2012, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the United Kingdom’s failure to allow the family reunion of a refugee and his wife under its pre-2011 immigration rules was unlawful discrimination. Although the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) does not require states to provide a right to “family reunion” for spouses of immigrants, once such a right is provided, and as it falls within the general scope of the Convention’s protection of family life, it must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner.

On 20 January 2012, a jury in Britain’s Derby Crown Court delivered a guilty verdict to three out of five men charged with the offence of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. The defendants Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed, Razwan Javed, Mehboob Hussain, and Umar Javed were charged under Section 29C of the Public Order Act 1986. Three of the accused - Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed – were found guilty. The other two accused persons, Mahboob Hassain and Umer Javed, were both found not guilty.

London, 6 January 2012

On 3 January 2012 two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were found guilty of the racially-motivated murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence (R v Dobson & Norris). The murder, described by the head of the judiciary of England and Wales as a crime “which scarred the conscience of the nation”, occurred in April 1993. Yet police failings in investigating the crime meant that until 2012, no one had been brought to justice. ERT welcomes the convictions, which mark the latest stage in a chain of events which have fundamentally changed the landscape of race relations in Britain.

London 11 November 2011

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) has responded today to the Commission on a Bill of Rights Discussion Paper entitled Do we need a UK Bill of Rights? The Commission was established to investigate the creation of a UK Bill of Rights and this Discussion Paper marked the beginning of the process of public consultation on this issue. 

London, 7 July 2011

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) has written to David Cameron MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, calling on him not to repeal or emasculate the Equality Act 2010, stating that such a move would both damage the UK’s international reputation and limit the UK’s ability to meet its international law obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights to equality and non-discrimination.

The letter comes in response to the inclusion of the Equality Act in the Red Tape Challenge – a consultation on the impact of regulations which are perceived to affect business performance – and focuses on the international dimensions of any decision to repeal or emasculate the Act.