United Nations Association London and South-East Region

"Hands off Africa!" The 1958 All Africa People's Conference - its impact then and now
2018-12-06 10:15 - 19:00 UTC | Senate Room, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom
Hosted by UNA Westminster – This conference will mark the 60th anniversary of the All African People’s Conference held in Accra, Ghana. Driven by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of newly-independent Ghana, it set out to advance the ideology of Pan Africanism through non-alignment, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and African unity. It has been hailed as a watershed moment in the history of Africa’s liberation from colonial rule and white supremacy. Former Commonwealth Secretary-General HE Chief Emeka Anyaoku will lead an impressive line-up of speakers. Dr Kenneth Kaunda, veteran African leader, will share his comments by video link.
This event is organised by the School of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Westminster United Nations Association.
Book your seats here

How Turing came to be pardoned and how the pardon was extended to others
2018-11-29 18:00 - 19:15 | UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gdns, London, WC1H 0EG
Speaker: Lord Sharkey
Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with:-

Dr Sinead Agnew (UCL Laws)
Dr Mark D’Souza (UCL Laws)

Chaired by Professor Piet Eeckhout (Dean, UCL Laws)
About this talk
Lord Sharkey, Lib Dem peer, fought for posthumous pardons for the 75,000 men (including Alan Turing) convicted under the Labouchere Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which further criminalised homosexual behaviour. For years Government opposed this, but in 2016/17 the law was finally changed. First, Turing was pardoned and then all others convicted as he was were also pardoned.
In this talk Lord Sharkey will talk about how this came about and his part in the passing of the ‘Alan Turing law’.
About the speakers
Lord (John) Sharkey has spent most of his commercial life in communications businesses. He was joint managing director of Saatchi and Saatchi UK, founded and ran his own advertising agency and was chair of various other communications and recruitment enterprises. He became strategic communications advisor to Nick Clegg in 2007 and was chair of the Liberal Democrat’s General Election campaign in 2010 and of the 2011 Fairer Votes campaign. He is Chair of the Hansard Society, a founding director of the financial services think-tank New City Agenda Ltd and a director of the not-for-profit fact checking organisation, Full Fact Ltd. He is also chair of the Association of Medical Research Charities and Chair of the Specialised Healthcare Alliance. He is a member of the House of Lords and of its Economic Affairs Select Committee.
Sinéad Agnew joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in 2017, where she lectures in the law of property and trusts. She also jointly co-ordinates the Faculty’s LGBT+ Staff-Student Society. She was formerly a lecturer in law at Cardiff University (2015-2017). She is also a barrister (currently non-practising) and an associate member of Serle Court, a leading set of commercial chancery chambers.
Before becoming an academic, Sinéad practised law for a decade, first as a barrister in London and, subsequently, as a litigation lawyer in Jersey, specialising in high value trusts disputes and advising trustees on all legal aspects of trusts administration, as well as insolvency, multi-jurisdictional enforcement proceedings, and multi-jurisdictional probate disputes. She is a founding member of the Institute of Law in Jersey.
Mark Dsouza joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in 2016 and his principal research interest is in the theory and philosophy of the criminal law. His doctoral thesis was converted into a monograph titled Rationale-Based Defences in Criminal Law, and published by Hart Publishing in May 2017. In it, Dr Dsouza suggests a new account of the various types of rationale-based defences in the criminal law, and offers suggestions as to how they should be understood, interpreted, and applied. He has also published on topics like the theoretical foundations of consent in the criminal law (Law & Philosophy, 2014; SSRN, 2013), the supposed duty of retreat before using force in self defence (OJLS, 2015), and culpability in the criminal law (King’s Law Journal, 2015).
Additionally, Dr Dsouza is keenly interested in the doctrinal law relating to inchoate and accessorial liability. He co-organised a conference in September 2016 which brought together judges of the Supreme Court, representatives of the Law Commission, representatives of the CPS, members of the bar, legal and criminological academic, representatives from the police, campaign groups, and students, to discuss the Supreme Court’s judgement in R v Jogee & Ruddock (2016) and more generally, the law on accessorial liability. He also co-organises the Assize Seminar Series in Cutting Edge Criminal Law.

LASER AGM and Policy Forum
2018-11-24 11:00 - 17:00 | Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London, London, London N7 6PA, United Kingdom
The UNA London and South-East Region AGM and Policy Forum is open to all.
This year we are continuing the practice at our AGM of discussing resolutions from members and branches.
We have also added some resolutions based upon UNA-UK’s national policy recommendations for consideration by the region as well.
Resolutions that are agreed, with any amendments made by the meeting, will become the policy of the London & South East Region. They will then be presented to UNA-UK with the suggestion that they also become national policy.
Resolutions have been received on a wide range of topics: Atrocity prevention; Climate; Human Rights; Localising the SDGs; Oceans, Protection of Journalists; Strengthening UN peacekeeping and peace building missions and Yemen. It promises to be another fascinating and wide ranging discussion. Follow this link to see the full text of each draft resolution.
We look forward to seeing you on the 24th November and hope that as many members as possible will be able to join, in what promises to be an interesting debate
Please note the Regional Executives give notice that it will move an amendment to replace “four years” with “five years” in the fourth part of clause 4 of the Regional Constitution which presently reads “Executive Officers are eligible for re-election but may serve no more than four consecutive years in the same post, with the exception of the Treasurer”.
In the afternnon of the 24th we have a speaker event. Dan Plesch is our speaker this year and his talk will be titled: Might is Right? – The Threat to International Law. Dan is the Director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London.

AGM for LASER group
2018-11-24 11:00 - 17:00 | Resource Centre for London, 356 Holloway Rd, London, N7 6PA, United Kingdom
To be confirmed

Refocusing on Peace
2018-11-17 14:00 - 17:00 | Friends Meeting House, 15a Albert Rd, Bexhill-on-sea, East Sussex, TN40 1DG, United Kingdom

UN Service for World Peace
2018-10-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Canterbury Cathedral, Cathedral House, 11 The Precincts, Canterbury, CT1 2EH, United Kingdom

Freedom of Speech
2018-10-02 19:30 - 21:00 | Community Church Werter Rd, Wandsworth, London, SW15 2LL, United Kingdom
