Human Rights

William Hotham gives an insider’s commentary on justice and accountability in Thailand’s troubled criminal justice system.  

Contemplation of Thai justice and its correctional system conjures connotations of lawlessness — not only amongst its criminals but amongst the law enforcers themselves. My prior conceptions, however, were fundamentally challenged when I undertook a legal internship in South East Asia with Bridges Across Borders South East Asia (BABSEA), an NGO formed to address humanitarian issues in the region. 

The Bar Council and the Bar Human Rights Committee have expressed concern at reports of the arrest and detention of magistrate Livingstone Chipadze in Mutare, Zimbabwe, as a “serious breach” of the principle of judicial independence. 

In his first interview as DPP, Keir Starmer QC reveals his vision for a 21st century service to Ben Silverstone.  

Biography 

Keir Starmer was called to the Bar in 1987 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002. He practised from Doughty Street Chambers since its inception in 1990 and was appointed Head of Chambers in 2007. His main areas of practice were human rights, international law, judicial review, extradition, criminal law, police law and media law. 

Following the systemic rape suffered by Sierra Leonian women during its civil war, Stephanie Farrimond reports on work to investigate the sexual offences and improve the rights of women.  

Teaching advocacy began in my Inn but has also taken me to the other side of the globe. Rarely, though, has it seemed so relevant as it did last year in Sierra Leone where I assisted in a programme which addressed sexual offences. Nothing much new there for the English Bar, but this was in a country where it is thought that up to a third of all the woman were raped during the 10-year civil war. I went out in October with my husband, Simon Carr, and DC Andy Lawrence of the Metropolitan Police, under the auspices of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an American-based NGO which specialises in providing humanitarian relief to countries ravaged by war. Focus in recent years has been made in relation to gender-based violence on women in West Africa. 

Sensible maternity provision is the first step to female retention, finds Sarah Grainger, in the first of a series on the opportunities and risks for women taking leave from the Bar.  

We’ve certainly come a long way since Hannah Cross, called to the Bar in 1931 and the first woman member of the Bar Council, had to promise to use the public toilets in Lincoln’s Inn Fields before she was accepted by 1 New Square. But not so far that female representation at the senior levels of the Bar can be taken for granted. Last year’s Sex and Power Report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (September 2008) revealed that a snail could crawl around the M25 nine times in the time (55 years) it will take women to be equally represented in the senior judiciary: traditionally drawn from the senior Bar. 

Flexible working—hardly revolutionary, but underused at the Bar—is the answer to female retention. But it must be adequately rewarded, writes Melissa Coutino.  

Justice for those who have suffered at the hands of war can be hard won. John Cooper explains how the Bar provides an essential pro bono service to those who have suffered through armed conflict.  

The legal profession does not have the luxury of living in a vacuum, either socially or politically. Sometimes the human consequences of political decisions requires from us a committed and extensive reaction. 

Marper has profound implications for the future of DNA retention, but it is not the last word, says Timothy Pitt-Payne 

Martin Bowley QC separates fact from fiction and marks the 40th anniversary of the abolition of theatre censorship 

Desmond Browne QC reviews the state of the profession in 2009