Latest news with #HelenaKennedy
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK should impose sanctions on Egypt over jailed activist, says Helena Kennedy
The UK government should impose sanctions on key figures in the Egyptian government in response to its refusal to release the British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Labour's most prominent human rights lawyer has proposed. Writing in the Guardian, Helena Kennedy called for the UK to take the case to the international court of justice, as France has recently done in the case of a national held by Iran. Lady Kennedy said the moves were necessary as Abd el-Fattah's 69-year-old mother, Leila Soueif, enters the 243rd day of her hunger strike at St Thomas' hospital in London. She started the strike to secure either British consular access to her son or his release. Doctors have told the family she is at risk of sudden death, but her body has also adapted to months without food. It is the second time she has been hospitalised. Her son has been held in various forms of detention in Egypt for more than 10 years, but completed his latest five-year jail sentence last September. However, the Cairo judiciary kept him in prison on the grounds that the two years he had spent in jail prior to his sentencing did not count as part of his five years. Soueif's two daughters remain by her bedside, but her family say she is determined not to back down and will see this through to a resolution. Kennedy has urged the British government to elevate the case to a much higher level, including introducing 'sanctions against any Egyptian authorities responsible for Abd el-Fattah's continued detention beyond the end of his five-year sentence', a course she has recommended to the Commons foreign affairs select committee. She is also calling for holding off any new trade and investment cooperation with Egypt. Overall, she says, the UK government's approach in the case has been too timid and Soueif, a distinguished human rights activist, 'wants more than anything else to reunite her son with his own 14-year-old son, who lives in Brighton and has barely been able to spend time with his father'. Kennedy said: 'Laila's bravery and fortitude is astonishing. The time for relying solely on polite diplomacy is long past: the prime minister must demonstrate his strength and resolve on this case.' Last week, Kennedy joined the former British ambassador to Egypt John Casson, the former Foreign Office minister Peter Hain and the campaigner Richard Ratcliffe in urging 'caution against travel to Egypt'. Kennedy said: 'In light of what we have learned from Alaa's case, the British government must make clear that a British citizen who falls foul of the police state in Egypt cannot expect fair process, nor normal support from the British government. Hundreds of thousands of British citizens travel to Egypt each year, making a major contribution to the country's economy, and the truth is we can't guarantee their rights. The Egyptian government will undoubtedly take notice if its failure to abide by the rule of law starts affecting British hotel bookings for the winter season.' The UK prime minister has twice phoned the Egyptian president to urge him to show clemency, but no punitive measures have been threatened by the UK government. Soueif's determination has led to vigils being held for her in Berlin, Washington and Damascus. Omar Robert Hamilton, a nephew of Soueif who was with his aunt over the weekend, said she had told him 'my course is irreversible'. He added: 'My aunt's resolve has only grown stronger in hospital. She is receiving the messages of support and solidarity from around the world, and she will see her struggle through to the end – whatever that end is.' More than 120 former Egyptian political prisoners have also appealed to the president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to show clemency. They wrote: 'What unites us is that we have been inside this circle, but what distinguishes us from Alaa and others still in detention is that the state has made decisions – at various stages – to give a presidential pardon, or release after the extension of our sentences has expired. And today, years or months after we left jail, we were not a threat or likely to damage to public safety, we simply returned to our lives, trying to restore what was lost.'
Scottish Sun
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
SNP ministers ditch plans for long-promised anti-women hatred law in major U-turn
Ministers claimed a misogyny bill would be too complex to finish within the remaining year of this parly session NATS chiefs today ditched their long-promised anti-women hatred law and signalled they would introduce an offence covering prejudice against both sexes instead. In a major u-turn after years of committing to a misogyny bill, SNP ministers confirmed it would be dropped in favour of expanding the controversial Hate Crime Act. Advertisement 2 MSPs pinned part of the blame on the Supreme Court judgement that sex in equality law is defined by biological sex Credit: EPA The plans would see the 'protected characteristic' of sex - meaning women or men - added to legislation which has been fully in place for just over a year. It paves the way for crimes of stirring up hatred against men and women to be prosecuted, as well as added a sex-based 'aggravation' - a bolt-on for other offences, triggering stiffer punishment. Freedom of speech protections about misogyny will also be added to the bill, protecting 'discussion or criticism'. Ministers claimed a misogyny bill - recommended in a major review for the government by Baroness Helena Kennedy - would be too complex to finish within the remaining year of this parly session. Advertisement A written statement to MSPs, released after the end of the parliamentary week, also pinned part of the blame on last month's landmark Supreme Court judgement that sex in equality law is defined by biological sex. It said: 'This is a complex area of policy and law, and it would be necessary that any Bill which brought misogyny into criminal law contained clear and unambiguous provisions in regard to the circumstances in which they apply. 'This would include the implications of the recent Supreme Court Judgment.' Last year the Scottish Government had insisted ministers would introduce a misogyny bill which would be 'the first of its kind in the world' to 'create a new focus on protecting women and girls to address criminal behaviour motivated purely by misogyny." Advertisement The u-turn flies in the face of recommendations by Labour peer and human rights lawyer Baroness Kennedy KC's review of misogyny law. Her report in 2022 concluded adding sex to the Hate Crime Act would not work as 'misogyny is so deeply rooted in our patriarchal ecosystem that it requires a more fundamental set of responses." Maggie Chapman saved from AXE by SNP after accusing Supreme Court of 'bigotry & hatred' It added a hate law was needed "exclusively for women" because "this malign conduct does not happen to men in any comparable way'. At the time, Nicola Sturgeon said the report from Baroness Kennedy was 'ground-breaking', 'bold', and 'far-reaching'. Advertisement The lawyer and peer said earlier this month that she was worried ministers would ditch her recommendations 'given the divisive nature of public debate around 'woke' issues. She added: 'Protecting women and girls from abusive behaviour and threats of rape and violence, online and offline, is very important now.' SNP ministers' latest position - adding a protected characteristic of 'sex' to current hate laws - is similar to the idea suggested by judge Lord Bracadale in his 2018 hare crime review for the Scottish Government. It floated an 'aggravation' in law based on 'gender hostility', rather than a specific protection for women. 2 Nats chiefs today ditched their long-promised anti-women hatred law Credit: Alamy
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Senior Labour figures call for review of Chinese investment in UK infrastructure
Senior Labour figures have urged the government to review Chinese investment in UK infrastructure in the wake of theBritish Steel crisis, warning that a rapprochement with Beijing could risk national security. Government officials insisted on Monday the country remained open to funding from Chinese companies even after a dramatic weekend which saw ministers wrest control of the Scunthorpe steel making plant from the Chinese owners Jingye. Both Downing Street and the Treasury said they believed the row over the Scunthorpe plant to be an isolated commercial dispute, even though the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has not ruled out deliberate Chinese sabotage. But ministers are now coming under mounting pressure to reconsider their drive to secure further infrastructure investment from China, including from members of their own party. Helena Kennedy, the Labour peer and co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), said: 'There should be an urgent security review of all those Chinese companies operating within our infrastructure which could pose a threat to our national interests – and maybe not just confined to China.' She added: 'This fiasco shows the risks, but there are also many which affect our digital infrastructure and technological progress – and our very intelligence arrangements.' Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who chairs the business select committee, said: 'We must now be fiercely vigilant about just who is granted the keys to the industries and infrastructure that keep our nation moving. 'Not every investor comes with goodwill in their heart, and not every cheque is written with our interests in mind. Economic security can no longer be an afterthought because some now investing in Britain are seeking more than profit from our nation – they are seeking power over our nation.' One Labour frontbencher added: 'Serious supply chain analysis, driven by security, is still lacking. We don't do it enough or clearly enough and it should be the guiding analysis that drives our industrial strategy.' George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University, added: 'We should be running the rule much more carefully over any inward investment coming from China.' The warnings come despite the government's attempts to smooth over any friction with Beijing over what has happened at Scunthorpe in the last week. Downing Street on Monday said Jingye, the Beijing-based steel making conglomerate, had not 'acted in good faith' after it emerged the company had been negotiating over a government bailout while also trying to sell raw supplies destined for the plant. That revelation prompted the government to pass an emergency law over the weekend to give ministers the power to interfere in how the company is run, a power they have now used to pay for the raw supplies in question. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said during a visit to Scunthorpe on Monday: 'We've got the raw materials, they've been paid for, and we're confident that the furnaces will continue to fire.' Despite government anger over Jingye's actions, however, both 10 and the Treasury said they believed this to have been a one-off issue with a private company rather than a sign of the broader risks of Chinese infrastructure investment. A spokesperson for the prime minister said: 'We're not aware of any deliberate acts of sabotage. But as the business sector, and I think the industry minister, said over the weekend, in the talks that we were engaging with the Chinese owners, it became clear that they wanted to shut the blast furnaces. 'Obviously this relates to a commercial Chinese company, rather than a state-owned company.' James Murray, the Treasury minister, echoed that message, telling Times Radio: 'We are open to [Chinese] investment, whilst being also open-eyed about saying that when there's foreign involvement in critical infrastructure, whatever country that comes from, we need to make sure there is a high level of scrutiny.' He added: 'I think it's important to make clear that the actions of Jingye, of one company, don't speak to the actions of all Chinese companies.' The government has made a major push to secure Chinese investment in key parts of British infrastructure, with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the energy secretary Ed Miliband both having made high-profile visits to China in recent months. Chinese investors already hold stakes in British water companies, airports and energy infrastructure, while the proposed nuclear power plant at Bradwell B in Essex is being developed in part by China General Nuclear Power. Douglas Alexander, the trade minister, has spent the last few days in China and Hong Kong, though British officials would not say whether he discussed the situation at Scunthorpe. Downing Street said Alexander did raise the case of Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP who was denied entry to Hong Kong last week. But while Alexander expressed 'deep concern' over the incident, the Hong Kong administration later put out a statement defending the decision, saying: 'It is the duty of immigration officer to ask questions to ascertain that there is no doubt about the purpose of any visit.'
