More than 15,000 migrant workers come to Britain every year to earn money to send back to their families. But according to a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, many endure conditions that campaigners say amount to modern-day slavery.

Kalayaan, a charity based in west London that helps and advises migrant domestic workers, registers around 350 new workers each year.

About 20% report being physically abused or assaulted, including being burnt with irons, threatened with knives, and having boiling water thrown at them.

A similar proportion say they were not allowed out alone and have never had a day off. Nearly three-quarters say they were paid less than £50 a week.

Lobby groups and charities say that a large proportion of domestic workers are paid less than £50 a week for working 20-hour days. Others have their wages withheld completely. In some cases, the workers are young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and forced to endure years of violence and forced labour.

The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders. Their workers, unlike those brought in on a domestic worker visa, cannot change their employer and face being homeless or being deported if they escape. The Dispatches study says it is also extremely difficult to prosecute diplomats for treating their workers as slaves.

Accurate figures are hard to establish because the abuse happens behind closed doors. But campaigners say that every year, hundreds of domestic workers run away from employees they claim have mistreated them.

Part of a longer article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/30/migrant-workers-modern-day-slavery

I Am Slave

The story begins when 12-year-old Malia, from the Nuba Mountains, is snatched from the arms of her father during a Muharaleen raid on their village. Sold into slavery, she spends the next six years of her life working for a Sudanese family. Then, aged 18 years old, she is sent to London where the brutality and inhumanity that she experiences continues, only under a different roof.

Hidden in plain sight, Malia’s desperate situation goes unnoticed or uncared for by everyone she comes into contact with. Stripped of her passport and living in terror of what might happen to her family in the Sudan should she speak out, Malia is trapped in a ruthless, alien environment.

Available to view online at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/i-am-slave/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

See also: Does diplomatic immunity breach a victim’s human rights?
If an abused domestic worker’s former employer had raised this doctrine as a defence, she could not have sought redress

Kalayaan – Who we are

Kalayaan is a registered charity (reg. no. 1103847) established in 1987 to provide advice, advocacy and support services in the UK for migrant domestic workers. We are NOT involved in helping people to come to the UK from another country.

Migrant domestic workers are people who have entered the UK legally with an employer on a domestic worker visa to work in a private household.

Kalayaan is the only organisation in the UK providing support services to migrant domestic workers. It works with all migrant domestic workers regardless of nationality, gender, physical ability, religion or age. Kalayaan registers approximately 350 new migrant domestic workers each year.

Our aims

The isolated, dependant and unregulated nature of working in private household, combined with gender-based and racial discrimination means that domestic workers are vulnerable to exploitative practices.

They can face physical, psychological and sexual abuse, discrimination, low pay and long hours. Employers often use passport retention as a means of control.

Migrant domestic workers are often unfamiliar with the UK system and unsure of their rights in this country. Often they speak little or no English and made vulnerable by their dependence on one employer for information about their status in the UK, their job, their housing and their immigration status.

Kalayaan works with its clients to overcome these barriers and improve their quality of life. We also campaign for the rights of Migrant Domestic Workers as workers in the UK and strongly oppose the government’s new proposals for Migrant Domestic Workers as part of “Making Migration Work for Britain”. Unless the proposals are amended the Government’s proposals will effectively remove even the most basic of employment rights for MDWs.

Services

Kalayaan provides:
* FREE, INDEPENDENT and CONFIDENTIAL advice on immigration and employment.
* Support in retrieving passports from employers.
* Training in accessing healthcare and mainstream services.
* English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses.
* Support with reading and writing letters or forms.
* Practical emergency assistance to clients who have recently left abusive employers.
* Social space where clients can come and meet friends, have tea or coffee and pick up mail.
* Where we cannot provide direct assistance we will do our best to make a referral or signpost to a relevant service

Please make an appointment for any advice or support by calling us on 020 7 243 2942.

Kalayaan is registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (Level 1) and has full Quality Mark. This means the standard of Kalayaan’s services is regularly monitored.

For information and advice, or to make a donation, please contact Kalayaan at:

St Francis of Assisi Community Centre
13 Hippodrome Place
London W11 4SF

Telephone: 0207 243 2942
Fax: 0207 792 3060
Email: click here

Opening hours: Mon – Fri 10am-5pm. We are also open some Sundays. Please call to confirm. For advice and registration please phone to make an appointment.

http://www.kalayaan.org.uk/

Dubbed Operation Pentameter II, the coordinated swoops resulted in 528 arrests across the country. They uncovered 167 victims, many of whom were trafficked into the country from China and eastern Europe. The operation began with months of intelligence gathering, enabling officers to build up a picture of the town’s vice scene before working their way up the criminal chain. They uncovered an underground network spanning towns across the UK, for which girls were moved around like cattle.

“What we found were highly organised criminal organisations operating in franchise-like businesses across the country. In some cases women were brought over to the UK under the illusion they were going to work as cleaners or housekeepers. But they had their passports taken off them and were told they owed a debt to their employers. None of the girls we spoke to wanted to be involved in prostitution. They had been forced into it.”

In hard-hitting footage due to be screened in the documentary, one prostitute says she was traded “like a pig or a dog” as a criminal organisation bid £30,000 for her services. She said she did not see any of the money however, with crime bosses racking up a small fortune in profits.

Ultimately it was the money laundering behind the brothels which led to many criminal convictions. By tracing the bank account details of brothel managers, police were able to pinpoint exactly who was profiting from the enterprise.

“Any man who intends to pay for sex with a prostitute will have to think very carefully. It will be no defence in future to claim they did not know someone was trafficked or controlled by someone else for gain.”

Part of a longer article at http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Sleazy-vice-ring-cracked-massive-police-swoop/article-2585137-detail/article.html

The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Traffickers

In 2007 the government tasked Britain’s 55 police forces to tackle the trafficking of women into the country for sex.

Watch the first episode online at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-hunt-for-britains-sex-traffickers/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Second episode Wednesday 1st September and 3rd episode on Thursday at 9pm C4

List of advice web sites at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-hunt-for-britains-sex-traffickers/articles/help-and-support

United Kingdom Pentameter 2

Statistics of Victims recovered and Suspects arrested during the operational phase. 1

Victims were recovered within 35 police force areas.

Sexual exploitation

The 164 victims identified for sexual trafficking included 151 adults and 13 children (at the time of recovery)
Adult Victims 150 of the adult victims recovered were female
Adult victim ages ranged from 18 to 49
Adult victims came from 26 different countries 79 were from China/South East Asia 54 were from Europe (EU countries) 8 were from Africa 10 others were from South America, Europe (non-EU) and the Indian Sub-continent

Child victims

All child victims were female
Child victim ages ranged from 13 to 17
Child victims came from 10 different countries 6 were from Africa 7 others were from Europe (EU and Non-EU countries) and South America

Labour exploitation

Five victims recovered were from labour exploitation 3 of whom were children at the time of recovery. Two female adults were recovered as victims of labour exploitation. Two female children and one male child were recovered as victims of labour exploitation.

406 suspects were arrested by 43 police forces.
47% of the suspects arrested were Chinese/SE Asian
34% of the suspects were EU nationals2

The ages of suspects arrested ranged from 18 to 67
79% of suspects were aged between 21 and 50
57% of those arrested were female
25% of arrests resulted in no further police action

Of the 406 individuals arrested during the operational phase of UKP2, 93 were initially arrested on suspicion of trafficking in human beings 67 were charged with trafficking in human beings

Of the people charged with trafficking in human beings as a result of UKP2, 15 have been convicted for trafficking with or without other related offences (this includes four that were not initially arrested for this offence) Two 8 were convicted of other offences but their charges of trafficking were directed to ‘lie on file’ 37 were charged but not convicted of trafficking The remaining cases are ongoing

10 males and 5 females recorded as part of UKP2 have been convicted of Trafficking in Human Beings and sentenced to a total of just over 62 years.

Sentences for trafficking ranged from 9 months to 11 years with the average sentence of 4 years 4 months.

Although the operational phase of UKP2 has ended, investigations are still ongoing.

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1 Figures correct as of February 2009
2 The remainder were South American, European (non EU), from the Indian subcontinent, African, Middle Eastern or not known

You can download these statistics as a pdf file from http://www.soca.gov.uk/about-soca/library/doc_download/122-uk-pentameter-2-statistics

As new figures show that fewer traffickers are being jailed than at any time in the last five years, Labour called for a government rethink on the directive, appealing to the pro-European Liberal Democrats to explain to their coalition partners the benefits of EU action.

Denis MacShane, Labour’s former Europe minister, launched the appeal after the government decided not to sign up to the directive. The document includes a common definition of the crime of trafficking, to make it easier to convict offenders in the EU’s 27 member states.

Campaigners regard co-ordinated EU action as essential because many victims are trafficked through the new member states of Bulgaria and Romania. The directive would allow suspects to be prosecuted for offences in other member states, and would boost the rights of victims.

The coalition is invoking a special British right on any EU justice and home affairs measures. The directive will be decided in the EU by the system known as qualified majority voting, according to which no member state can wield a veto. But Britain has the right to decide whether to “opt in”.

MacShane called for the coalition to do so. In a letter to Clegg, he wrote: “Women in particular will be alarmed to learn that the Liberal Democrats are willing to support these efforts to weaken the directive. It is the wrong signal to send to the pimps and traffickers. I hope you can persuade the prime minister to drop his opt-out policy on this welcome effort to combat sex-slave trafficking.”

His comments were endorsed by the charity Anti-Slavery International. Klara Skrivankova, co-ordinator of the charity’s programme on trafficking, said: “Despite significant positive steps, the government cannot become complacent and say that the UK is already doing enough. Without international co-operation, the government will lose the battle with the traffickers. By choosing not to opt in to the directive, the government is failing in its efforts to combat this transnational crime.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Human trafficking is a brutal form of organised crime, and combating it is a key priority for the government. The UK already complies with most of what is required by the draft EU directive.

“The government will review the UK’s position once the directive has been agreed, and will continue to work constructively with European partners on matters of mutual interest. By not opting in now but reviewing our position when the directive is agreed, we can choose to benefit from being part of a directive that is helpful but avoid being bound by measures that are against our interests.”

The row over the directive came as new figures challenged the claim by law enforcement agencies that they are cracking down on criminal gangs which have forced an estimated 2,600 foreign women into prostitution in brothels in England and Wales. Only five people were convicted of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in the first six months of this year, according to figures from the UK Human Trafficking Centre, compared with 33 and 34 in the previous two 12-month periods. A further nine were convicted of other offences, having been arrested on suspicion of trafficking.

The apparently significant fall in the rate of convictions for the crime, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence, follows claims last month by the Crown Prosecution Service that “combating human trafficking is a high priority for the CPS and the criminal justice system”.

The number of prosecutions has remained reasonably steady, at 114 in 2008/09 and 102 in 2009/10, according to figures released by Dominic Grieve, the attorney general; but the conviction rate has dropped.

A spokesman for the CPS said the number of convictions varied for several reasons, including the fact that fewer cases may be brought to prosecutors for consideration, and that fewer defendants may be involved in each trial.

“We acknowledge that it is challenging to successfully prosecute human trafficking cases, but we are committed to bringing prosecutions when there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so,” he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/30/coalition-opts-out-sex-trafficking

New figures from the charity Ruhama, the main aid body for sex workers, show it helped almost 200 women last year — up from 161 in 2008.

But Ruhama said this was just the tip of the iceberg. Many more women are trapped in the illegal industry against their will, it claimed.

About one in three of the women Ruhama helped were trafficked into Ireland from other countries.

Chief executive Sarah Benson said similar experiences were reported by all of the women involved in prostitution. “Women in 2009 reported horrific levels of sexual, physical and emotional abuse,” she said.

“The reporting of rape and sexual assault was almost universal; many women also experienced sexual abuse as children and young women; some were groomed by family members and partners into prostitution.

“Women reported having been punched in the face and the stomach; being kicked down stairs; beaten for refusing to have sex with men; being locked in and refused food; being burned; being bitten.

“Women were told by buyers that they were ‘ugly’, ‘not very good’, that they ’should at least try to look like you’re enjoying it’ while their bodies are used in whatever way the buyer wishes.”

The charity helped 66 women who had been trafficked into Ireland — 26 for the first time.

Most of these new cases (19) had been trafficked straight into Ireland, while seven others had escaped from the UK, Italy and France and ended up here.

Two of those helped were teenagers when they were brought to Ireland.

Nearly half of the women brought into the country were from Nigeria, with the majority now located in Dublin.

The agency complained that it had seen a drop in funding of about 20pc, though demand for services had increased. Ruhama chairman Diarmuid O Corrbui appealed for donations from the public.

“We want to be able to continue to support these women and develop our services, but we are seriously restricted by the funding available to us,” he said.

The charity worked with 59 women through its outreach initiative last year and 137 women through its more intensive casework service, where each person is assigned a caseworker and a care plan.

An ‘outreach’ van is operated by the charity, in which women working in red-light districts can sit down and meet with workers.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/more-sex-workers-seeking-help-from-charity-2308949.html

See also: A prostitute’s life: ‘Whether it hurts the woman or not, the men don’t care‘

Pamela Stone, author of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home, says the opt-out phenomenon is not a result of choice, but a result of lack of choice. After interviewing dozens of American working women turned stay-at-home mothers, she concludes that they are fed up trying to fit family responsibilities around a male-oriented way of working and they protest by simply walking off the pitch.

“The women I studied, on the surface, seemingly the most traditional of women, represent a kind of silent strike . . . their resistance is mistaken for conventionalism and acquiescence or lack of work commitment. These high-achieving women aren’t voting against work or careers, they’re voting against an outdated male model of work that ignores their reality.”

Little surprise then that the voiceless, powerless mass of caring individuals best described as “mothers” have taken to the internet. They can’t get out from under the laundry long enough to participate in government, never mind organise a march on the Dáil, but they can muster up a blog or two, or a thousand.

There are mummy blogging networks and associations, mummy blogging awards, mummy blogging conferences. BlogHer last month hosted a conference on how “mommyblogging” has become a radical act – “where motherhood isn’t the topic, it’s a catalyst for a new level of activism”.

In the UK, mumsnet’s political power has expanded from the virtual world to play a very real role in the actual world, the recent general election being dubbed “the mumsnet election” as the major parties set out to win the mothers’ vote.

Motherhood, the bête noire of 1970s feminism, may just be emerging as the raison d’être for feminism in 2010: not the stereotyped feminist ideal of the full-time working mother, but a feminism that is about real women who want their children to have a priority place, not just a note in the margins.

There is a sense that individual women are moving away from a belief that their situation is isolated and peculiar to them, that those who head for home are not just rare “traditionalists” but the collateral damage of a political, social and economic system where caring is just not cared about. The reason why eight in 10 of those working for less than 30 hours a week in Ireland are women is directly linked to caring responsibilities. The reason why seven out of 10 managers are male is directly linked to the fact that managerial roles almost always require 40-plus hours a week, which does not combine with caring responsibilities.

In August, British sociologist Catherine Hakim published (How) Can Social Policy and Fiscal Policy Recognise Unpaid Family Work?. She argues that only 20 per cent of women actually want a work-centred lifestyle. The majority of mothers, and increasingly fathers, want to work part-time to facilitate family life. Despite this, most European policies are geared towards full-time worker-carers and ignore unpaid work.

Sue Gerhardt in The Selfish Society earlier this year argued that our focus on our working identities has been at the expense of our caring identities and that it’s bad for society, bad for families, and bad for women. “Instead of challenging the prevailing norms of working life, ambitious women challenged themselves.”

The solution, she argues, lies in the “ethic of care” being put forward by feminist thinkers.

Part of a longer article at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0901/1224277972815.html

The 2010 National Management Salary Survey shows that female salaries increased by 2.8 per cent over the last 12 months, compared to 2.3 per cent for men. However, with the average UK salary for a male manager currently £10,071 more than that of a female manager, women face a 57 year wait before their take-home pay is equal to that of their male colleagues. Although this year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Equal Pay Act, data collected from 43,312 individuals in 197 organisations reveals that male pay outstrips female pay by as much as 24% at senior level.

Even at junior level the gap still persists with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than female executives. Across the regions, women in the Midlands fare the worst, taking home £10,434 less while those in the North East fare the best, where the gap is smallest at £8,955. Looking at different industry sectors, female executives would do well to bear in mind when accepting roles in either IT or the pharmaceutical industry that the pay gaps here are higher than any other sectors, at £17,736 and £14,018 respectively.

As well as stark differences in pay, the research also reveals a contrast between male and female labour turnover rates, particularly with regard to redundancy. Over the last 12 months, 4.5 per cent of the female workforce experienced redundancy, compared to just three per cent of men. The difficult economic circumstances combined with unsatisfactory remuneration may have contributed to a dramatic increase in resignations, particularly at director level where 7.7 per cent of female directors voluntarily left their posts in the last year, compared to just 3.6 per cent of men. Female resignations at director level are up from 5.3 per cent the previous year.

Responding to the report, CMI’s Head of Policy, Petra Wilton, said: “Girls born this year will face the probability of working for around 40 years in the shadow of unequal pay. The prospect of continued decades of pay inequality cannot be allowed to become reality. We want to see Government take greater steps to enforce pay equality by monitoring organisations more closely and naming and shaming those who fail to pay male and female staff fairly.

“It’s not just Government that needs to act. Competitive businesses need to attract diverse workforces and appeal to the most talented employees. To do this, managers and employers need to recruit from a wide talent pool but they cannot expect to attract the UK’s best female talent if they continue to undervalue it.”

The gloomy findings come as CMI’s Women in Management (WiM) network – established with the aim of supporting female executives and encouraging women to aspire to take director-level roles – celebrates its 40th anniversary.

WiM’s Chair, Sandra Pollock, said: “Four decades have passed since the Equal Pay Act became law, when the pay gap stood at 34 per cent across the board. In many ways things have progressed, but the fact that such a significant gap still exists means the UK still has some way to go. We want to inspire young women to reach the top but how can we possibly expect them to want the top jobs if, despite doing the same role as male colleagues, they will be paid less? I sincerely hope that with the combined efforts of UK employers and the Government, plus the efforts of organisations like ours that work to support women in their careers, the pay gap can be consigned to history, long before WiM celebrates another milestone anniversary.”

To help female staff challenge inequality in their own workplaces and further their careers, CMI has launched the Ambitious Women toolkit, available at http://www.managers.org.uk/glassceiling, and an ‘Ask the Expert’ service for specific questions relating to equality and diversity. The toolkit contains practical advice for women on issues including how to ask for a pay rise and challenge unequal pay, skills development and returning to work after maternity leave. There is also information to help employers offer better support to women workers and cultivate female talent.

One UK employer that has taken steps to do just that is international law firm Eversheds. Caroline Wilson, Eversheds’ Head of Diversity and CSR said: “Our lifestyle policy, which places emphasis on flexible working, is just one of the ways that we support our colleagues, including mothers and carers; helping them to balance their commitments whilst continuing to deliver the best possible service for our global clients. Traditionally, it would have been seen as a big deal for a partner to leave the office at 5pm, but due to our remote working options, we’ve found ways to help our colleagues continue to be client-centred, whatever their circumstances.

“Lifestyle policies like these are helping to make the legal profession an attractive choice for women. More than 20 per cent of senior managers within the legal sector are women. How many professions can say that? For our colleagues within the legal profession, time is a precious commodity so we will always look to do more to help them.”

http://www.managers.org.uk/news/equal-pay-women-still-57-years-away

In fact, there are no major neurological differences between the sexes, says Cordelia Fine in her book Delusions of Gender, which will be published by Icon next month. There may be slight variations in the brains of women and men, added Fine, a researcher at Melbourne University, but the wiring is soft, not hard. “It is flexible, malleable and changeable,” she said.

In short, our intellects are not prisoners of our genders or our genes and those who claim otherwise are merely coating old-fashioned stereotypes with a veneer of scientific credibility. It is a case backed by Lise Eliot, an associate professor based at the Chicago Medical School. “All the mounting evidence indicates these ideas about hard-wired differences between male and female brains are wrong,” she told the Observer.

Thus boys develop improved spatial skills not because of an innate superiority but because they are expected and are encouraged to be strong at sport, which requires expertise at catching and throwing. Similarly, it is anticipated that girls will be more emotional and talkative, and so their verbal skills are emphasised by teachers and parents.

However, this gap is really a tiny difference compared to the vast range of linguistic abilities that differentiate people, Robert Plomin, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, pointed out. His studies have found that a mere 3% of the variation in young children’s verbal development is due to their gender.

The current popular stress on innate intellectual differences between the sexes is, in part, a response to psychologists’ emphasis of the environment’s importance in the development of skills and personality in the 1970s and early 1980s, said Eliot. This led to a reaction against nurture as the principal factor in the development of human characteristics and to an exaggeration of the influence of genes and inherited abilities. This view is also popular because it propagates the status quo, she added. “We are being told there is nothing we can do to improve our potential because it is innate. That is wrong. Boys can develop powerful linguistic skills and girls can acquire deep spatial skills.”

So should we abandon our search for the “real” differences between the sexes and give up this “pernicious pinkification of little girls”, as one scientist has put it?

Yes, we should, Eliot insisted. “There is almost nothing we do with our brains that is hard-wired. Every skill, attribute and personality trait is moulded by experience.”

Part of a longer article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/15/girls-boys-think-same-way

See also:

Girls think they are cleverer than boys from age four, study finds
Teachers’ expectations may reinforce gender gap in school performance

I’m writing to ask for your help in a research project with lesbians over 60, which I am carrying out at the University of Sussex. I believe this is the first time anyone has attempted to create a comprehensive picture of the older lesbian community in Britain. The aims of the project are to challenge the social attitudes which have made older lesbians invisible, and to make their voices heard.

More details can be found at http://www.womenlikethat.co.uk

(It is important that the project reaches as wide a variety of women as possible, so contacts with black and minority ethnic women, women over 75, and those who define as working-class, will be specially welcome.)

Can you help? If you know any lesbian or bisexual women aged 60 or more, please encourage them to take part in the (anonymous and confidential) survey.

The questionnaire can be completed online – there’s a link at http://www.womenlikethat.co.uk – or printed off and posted to the address on the form; or, if for those who do not use computers, a printed copy can be sent by post (a large print version is also available).

Please use your networks to help me reach older lesbian and bisexual women all over the UK. I can be contacted by phone, email or post – see below.

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS INFORMATION AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN

Thank you!

Jane Traies

LBL Project,
Silverstone Building 222 (School Office),
University of Sussex,
Falmer,
Brighton,
BN1 9RG

Email: j.traies@sussex.ac.uk
Phone or text: 07824 719215 (confidential research line)

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Health and Relationships Survey (Glamorgan University Dissertation Project)

I am a postgraduate student from Glamorgan University and I am currently completing an MSc Psychology project on LGBTQ Health and Relationships.

The survey asks gay, lesbian, bisexual, or woman / man who sleep with other women /men, who are aged 18 or above to tell us about their health and relationships. Not a lot is known about the health of LGBTQ people, even less is know about their relationships. The aim of this survey is to better understand same sex relationships and when things go wrong. It explores different levels of domestic violence within same sex relationships in the context of alcohol use, mental and general health, and gender.

I would be very grateful if you could share the survey with your organisation and networks. We have both an online and a paper version and can produce alternative formats should they be needed. Below is the address to the online version but if you would prefer I can send you paper copies with a free post return.

All answers are confidential and you will not be able to be identified from the information you provide.

Survey link: http://tiny.cc/s6mu3

Direct survey link: https://helpdesk.glam.ac.uk/UltimateSurvey/takeSurvey.asp?surveyID=83

Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=137857709579508&ref=mf

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Kind Regards,
Jennifer Daffin

If you have any questions contact: Project Officer: Jennifer Daffin (jenniferdaffin@gmail.com)

Project Supervisors: Bev John (bjohn1@glam.ac.uk) & Gareth Roderique-Davies (gdavie10@glam.ac.uk)

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
University of Glamorgan / Prifysgol Morgannwg
Pontypridd
CF37 1DL
Tel / Ffon: 01443 654145
http://www.glam.ac.uk

A spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:

“Any charity that intends to exclude a specific group of people from the services or benefits it provides has to be able to show that this unequal treatment is justified for very strong reasons.

“The Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened in this case to argue that an organisation cannot be registered as a charity and receive benefits such as tax relief, unless it acts in the public benefit. A charity should also comply with the Human Rights Act which outlaws discrimination.

“We are pleased that both the High Court and Charity Commission accepted our arguments when coming to their decision. The law is carefully weighted to balance the rights of organisations such as religious charities and the rights of minority groups such as those with a particular sexual orientation. We believe the outcome in this case helps reinforce that balance.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has a power to intervene in legal proceedings to promote and protect equality and human rights. It does this impartially and doesn’t take sides. It’s job is to try to help the court make the best possible decision, advising the court on the law, international human rights and equality treaties and relevant evidence research and factual context. It takes a strategic approach when deciding whether or not to intervene, selecting cases where it can use its expertise to clarify or encourage an important element of the law. Such cases generally involve serious matters of public policy, legal interpretation or general public concern. The outcome of these cases often has a wide impact as they set precedents to be followed by the lower courts.

For more information, you can view the press release on our website via this link: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/news/2010/august/commission-comments-on-ruling-on-charitable-status-of-adoption-agency/

We are located within a two-minute walk of Old Street Over/ Underground stations, providing an excellent location to connect to services in the City of London and the West End. Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Barbican stations are all within walking distance.

The light and airy accommodation offers 16.6m2 (179ft2) of net office space available under a 12 month renewable short lease.

Amenities include: passenger lift, same floor kitchenette and toilet facilities, access to in-house hireable meeting/training rooms at preferential rates, a cycle shelter, and off-street parking currently on first come/first served basis or letting basis.

Charge: in the region of £4′250 pa (inc of all utilities, communal area cleaning and office recycling)

If you are interested in the premises and want to find out more please contact Bridget Stark at tindlemanor@cooptel.net or on 020 7608 0929.