Resistance.

We have come together to stand in solidarity with Rajiv Menon KC, the criminal defence barrister from Garden Court Chambers, who is facing contempt of court proceedings. We do so as individuals and organisations concerned about violence against women and women’s rights and freedoms.

Menon has been cited for contempt in relation to the closing speech he made to the jury at the trial of Charlotte Head and her fellow activists from Palestine Action: they had been charged with various criminal offences arising out of their protest against an Israeli arms factory in the UK. The context, of course, is provided by the grave and ongoing human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity and genocide in Palestine - atrocities about which the British state would rather we remain silent so that they can remain complicit.

We have watched with growing concern and horror the unfolding of the unprecedented legal move against Menon, instigated not by the state but by a judiciary that is meant to serve as a check against state repression and overreach. Menon has been targeted for having the temerity to suggest to the jury that its task was to adjudicate according to its conscience. This is a well-founded principle which has been recognised for many centuries: a principle that is meant to safeguard the independence and freedom of the jury to act on its convictions free from state interference and in dissent from any presiding judge, if necessary. Far from defending this principle, some in our judiciary appear willing to sacrifice it in this instance, no doubt mindful of the political context.

We see this for what it is - a political attack that has chilling ramifications for the right to a trial by jury, going to the heart of the rule of law and therefore to the foundations of our democracy. In the last decade or more, we have witnessed an alarming slide towards authoritarianism with the introduction of numerous laws and powers that clamp down on our right to protest and to dissent, including measures that seek to criminalise the right to protest, curtail freedom of speech, and erode fundamental principles of refugee law. All of which serve to limit or extinguish our right to civil and political participation and our ability to hold power to account.

We cannot divorce these wider trends from our day-to-day concerns about violence against women and women’s rights and freedoms. Our right to exercise autonomy and self-determination rests upon the very principles of dissent that are now under threat. Historically, we have utilised the rule of law and human rights values to try to ensure that women are protected from harm and included as equals in the democratic settlement. Women’s rights depend on the health of our democracy; this is why the state’s ferocious assault on Menon matters to all of us in our struggles for peace, dignity, security, and justice. His vindication will be our vindication, but equally his defeat would be our defeat.

Now more than ever, we need to come together in collective defence of Rajiv Menon and, by extension, our own rights as well as those of others who are under assault in the UK and elsewhere. We have a duty to speak out and stop the spiralling descent into authoritarianism taking place in our own backyard before it is too late.

1. Zlakha Ahmed: Apna Haq
2. Sarbjit Ganger: Asian Women’s Resource Centre
3. Katy Williams: Centre for Women’s Justice
4. Lisa-Marie: FiLiA
5. Naana Otoo-Oyorty: Forward
6. Sonia Jalal: Hull Sisters
7. Firoza Mohmed: Humraaz
8. Halaleh Taheri: MEWSO
9. Rizwana Baleem: Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association (RWWA)
10. Jasmine Mohammad: Safety For Sisters
11. Priya Chopra: Saheli Manchester
12. Dr. Dania Thomas: Ubuntu Women Shelter
13. Feminist Dissent
14. Professor Nira Yuval Davis: Academic and Activist
15. Susan Edwards: Academic, Northumbria University
16. Cris McCurley: Ben Hoare Bell
17. Karma Hickman: Bindman and Partners
18. Jennifer Nadal: Compassion in Politics
19. Deborah Coles: Inquest
20. Maryam Namazie: One Law For All
21. Professor Mary Davis: Professor
22. Alison Stanley: Senior Consultant Bindman and Partners
23. Amrita Shodhan: SOAS, University of London
24. Rebeccas Durand: Campaigner, Activist and Educator
25. Vicky Marsh: Campaigner and activist
26. Yasmin Rehman: Campaigner and activist