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	Vicious new hate crime by Katharine Quarmby News editor of Disability Now United Kingdom   06 September 2007   Kevin Davies was kept in a locked garden shed by "friends" for nearly four months, fed scraps and tortured. His benefits were stolen. He died last September. His captors were jailed in July this year.   Steven Hoskin was made to wear a dog collar and lead and dragged around his own house. He was forced to call his "friends" "sir" and "madam". His benefits were also stolen. He was forced off a viaduct and fell to his death in July last year. His tormentors were jailed in August.   A pillowcase was put over the head of Barrie-John Horrell, and he was abducted by "friends" who, in the words of the judge, "leeched off him". He was then hit over the head with a brick and strangled. He went missing in July last year. His murderers were jailed this May.   Raymond Atherton was beaten and had bleach poured over him. In May last year he was beaten and thrown in the Mersey. His attackers were jailed for manslaughter in April.   There are many more vicious crimes against disabled people. Just this July in Northampton, Brian Sheppard was tipped out of his wheelchair and kicked while on the ground, causing a head injury. He died a day after the a ttack.   The language used by police and prosecutors about these crimes is strikingly similar - the attacks are described as "senseless" and "motiveless". Yet there seems to be a pattern. The victims were dehumanised and often assaulted by "friends" who, in many cases, stole their money. All the incidents were vicious and unprovoked. But none of the attacks was investigated or prosecuted with a possible hate crime linked to disability taken into consideration as an aggravating factor.   Disability hate crime is not a separate criminal offence, but the Criminal Justice Act 2003 created what is known as a "sentencing provision". If there is evidence of hostility to somebody because of their disability, that must be seen as an aggravating feature (as is also evidence of racist attitudes, for example).   The courts must inform everyone involved that an offence is being treated more seriously because of this. The judge can then increase the sentence (or the life tariff for murder), but the police are responsible for gathering the evidence and the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing it to the attention of the judge.   Robin van den Hende, the policy officer for Voice UK, which campaigns for justice for disabled people, says that such cases "raise questions about whether the section on disability hate crime is being applied". David Congdon of Mencap agrees. "Crimes against disabled people are as serious as race crimes or domestic violence. At one stage the police didn''t want to know about those, either. We are at the same stage with crimes against disabled people."   Commander Rod Jarman, who leads on disability matters for the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledges that "this is an extremely important area of how policing is delivered". He says that in the cases mentioned, "we have clearly not been able to prove the aggravating factor to a sufficiently high level in order for us to put it to the courts".   But that does not chime with the fact that the crimes were not investigated properly as hate crimes and that little, if any, police time went into establishing if there was a pattern of hostility against disabled people, culminating, in these four cases, in torture, hostility and death.   The CPS relaunched its policy on disability hate crimes this year, acknowledging that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the problem. Since April, the police have been recording incidents of hate crime and hostility towards disabled people. And the CPS is working with the Disability Rights Commission to develop new guidance on the treatment of disabled victims of crime.   Elizabeth James, the mother of Kevin Davies, the "gentle giant" brutally tortured in the Forest of Dean, still mourns the death of her son. Her constituency MP, Mark Harper, wrote to the Attorney General to ask for an increase in the sentences passed on his captors. The reply was that they were deemed "not unduly lenient". If disability hate crime had been cited as an aggravating factor, the sentences might well have been longer in the first place.   * Katharine Quarmby is news editor of Disability Now. This article was published by The New Statesman.
	UN group sounds alarm on rising number of disappearances on International Day by United Nations News / ICRC   30 August 2007   Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, a United Nations working group voiced concern over the increasing number of enforced disappearances worldwide and reaffirmed its solidarity with victims and human rights defenders working on their behalf.   The Geneva-based UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances noted in a statement that “in view of the continuous nature of this offense, victims of enforced disappearances whose fate or whereabouts remain unknown should not only be commemorated once a year. Rather, every day is a day of the disappeared.”   Reminding States of their obligations under the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance which was adopted in 1992, the Group called for effective investigations to be conducted for all disappearance cases.   The Group, comprising five independent experts, said it was particularly troubled by amnesty laws or other measures which result in impunity and are contrary to the Declaration.   “States should refrain from making or enacting amnesty laws that would exempt the perpetrators of enforced disappearance from criminal proceedings and sanctions,” it said.   Underreporting of cases in some areas is also problematic, the Group pointed out, as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are not present, organized or have the resources needed to deal with disappearances.   The Group called on the international community to provide ongoing support for the creation of associations of families and NGOs tackling the issue.   Established in 1980, the Working Group is mandated to assist the relatives of disappeared persons by ascertaining their fate and whereabouts, as well as to act as a conduit between the families and Governments concerned.   In the statement, it reiterated its commitment to promptly take up allegations received from family members or NGOs regarding difficulties encountered in implementing the Declaration.   The Group also welcomed the adoption of the International Convention to Protect all Persons from Enforced Disappearances, calling it a “significant step forward.” It urged all States to ratify the new instrument, which will help to prevent future disappearances.   29-08-2007   Missing persons: a serious shadow, a preventable tragedy. (ICRC)   At a press conference in Geneva to launch an ICRC report entitled Missing Persons: a hidden tragedy, the ICRC''s director of operations, Pierre Krähenbühl, has called on the international community to do more to address the plight of missing persons and their families.   The ICRC director of operations said hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to be missing around the world as a result of armed conflict or other situations of violence. Some are dead but their remains have not been collected or identified and others are held in prison without the chance of contacting their families.   Much of the misery associated with the tragedy could be avoided, said Mr Krähenbühl, if parties to conflict respected international humanitarian law and human rights law, much of which is often enshrined in domestic legislation.   He also encouraged States to sign, ratify and implement the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances and called on non-state actors to abide by the same principles on moral and humanitarian grounds.   Mr Krähenbühl said that he first encountered the humanitarian impact of the missing as an ICRC delegate in Guatemala in the early 1990s where he met several groups of women whose relatives had gone missing during the country''s civil war.   One woman told him that every time the telephone rang or that someone knocked at the door she was convinced that it was her husband returning. "Behind every single missing person there is an individual with a life and a family," said Mr Krähenbühl.   Although comprehensive global figures do not exist, ICRC records for certain countries show the scale of the problem. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, more than 13,500 people remain unaccounted for, while in Sri Lanka almost 6,000 people are still missing. In Nepal, there are 976 people registered as missing.   While some of these people were lost on the battlefield and are presumed dead, others have been detained without their families being notified.   "No matter how legitimate the grounds for detention, there exists no right to conceal a person''s whereabouts or to deny that he or she is being detained," said Mr Krähenbühl.   Families of missing persons are suspended in limbo not knowing whether their loved ones are dead or alive.   "Families of the missing at least want a body or human remains to be able to pay tribute to their dead and enter the process of mourning."   Mr Krähenbühl spoke of the ICRC''s support for the Medico-Legal Institute (MLI) in Baghdad by repairing mortuary fridge units in morgues to ensure proper functioning so that families can identify bodies.   The MLI has received around 20,000 bodies in the last eighteen months. Almost half were unidentified. Many have been buried in special cemeteries.   As well as having to cope with the emotional consequences of a loved one being missing, a disappearance may also deny the family its main breadwinner, often imposing an additional burden on the women left behind to pick up the pieces.   Many Iraqi women whose husbands had gone missing during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 did not remarry as it would take years before their husbands would be declared officially dead or absent. They awaited the return of their loved one, hoping he was detained as a prisoner of war.   Throughout the press conference, the ICRC''s director of operations stressed that the issue of people going missing was a worldwide phenomenon.   "There are many contexts, of course, and realities that exist: the suffering of families in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo; of the families of all the missing Israeli soldiers; of the families in Afghanistan and Peru; in Colombia and throughout the Balkans to name but a few."   He explained that clarifying the fate of the missing was an important step towards reconciliation; its absence could poison the process.   In Kosovo, he said the ICRC had just released the 4th Book of the Missing and worked with associations of families of the missing throughout the former Yugoslavia. He added that the ICRC supported forensic activities in more than 30 different countries.   "The issue of missing persons is a global one and a deeply unsettling one from the humanitarian viewpoint. It is preventable but requires genuine political will from all parties."   "Without such action, the issue of missing persons will remain a serious shadow over the future of many communities. Without clarifying the fate of their loved ones, families will continue to live haunted but also animated by the dream that a miracle will present itself; a release from a secret prison, a new life in a foreign land or simply human remains and a grave that can be attended to." Visit the related web page
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