ECHR 70 - Development of human rights law in the migration context - AIRE Centre & Garden Court "in conversation"

Autumn 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the ECHR. Garden Court Chambers and the AIRE Centre are two of the key players in the development of human rights law in the migration context. Join us for a whistle-stop tour of landmark Strasbourg and domestic asylum cases, including the UKSC case of MS (Pakistan), concerning the identification and treatment of trafficking victims and the application of ECAT, as well as covering key developments in trafficking, the human rights of migrant women, and the changing approach to health.
 

Recording

Speakers 

Markella Papadouli, Europe Litigation Coordinator, The AIRE Centre
Markella has been associated with The AIRE Centre since 2012 and she returned in 2013. Markella is a UK Registered, Greek qualified, European lawyer and AIRE Centre’s Europe Litigation Coordinator. In this capacity she coordinates the AIRE Centre strategic litigation team, specialising in taking asylum, and trafficking cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU. She leads the AIRE Centre’s asylum, law of the sea, and trafficking work, providing free legal advice and representation to victims of trafficking, the delivery of training to relevant stakeholders and the representation of the AIRE Centre at conferences and meetings worldwide on both issues of interest. Markella represents the AIRE Centre in the Frontex NGO Consultative Forum and the EASO Consultative Forum.

Markella is a Lecturer at London South Bank University for the Msc in Refugee Studies on European Asylum Law and Policy and International Refugee Law since 2013. Markella was the National Expert on Greece for the European Database on Asylum Law in 2013 and has also worked for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the International Rescue Committee and UNHCR Greece. Markella speaks fluent Greek, English, French and Spanish as well as basic German.  

Markella was shortlisted in 2019 for the Rising Star of the Year by the British Legal Awards and received Highly Commended in the Category Rising Star 2020 at the Modern Law Awards, for her work providing legal training to search and rescue organisations in the Mediterranean. 

Mark Symes, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Mark Symes provides advice and representation in all areas of immigration, asylum, and human rights law, including European Union free movement law. He has represented clients in every court from the Tribunal to the Supreme Court, and the European Court of Human Rights. He is ranked for immigration in Chambers UK 2021 (Band 1) and the Legal 500 2020. Recognised by the legal directories as a "real expert on asylum matters", Mark is co-author (with Peter Jorro, also of Garden Court) of Asylum Law and Practice and is described as "indispensable in advocacy work for refugees and human rights", by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill.

He is particularly interested in the European dimension of international protection, and arguments based on the Qualification, Procedures and Reception Directives, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Mark's interests and experience extend to issues of exclusion from refugee status and subsidiary protection. He is a member of UNHCR's pro bono panel of advocates and is a convenor for the International Association of Refugee Law Judges. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, at the University of London. Mark is appointed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's preferred Panel of Counsel (Panel A).

Louise Hooper, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Louise Hooper is an established public law, human rights and migration lawyer. Her practice over the last 20 years has involved a focus on human rights, equality and dignity and is described in Chambers UK 2021 (Immigration) as "an excellent refugee and immigration barrister with a real passion for the work."

Her current interests relate to the human rights and ethics implications of new technologies and whether regulation can be effective in a global society.  She is researching issues including whether or not algorithms can ever be ‘fair’, the consequences of AI for public and private decision making and the adoption of new technologies for the purposes of immigration control and border management. Louise has worked extensively with the Council of Europe as an international expert. This work has involved designing and developing offline and online training on the Istanbul Convention on Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, conducting baseline country evaluations of compliance with the Istanbul Convention and, most recently writing the guide to ‘Gender based asylum claims and non-refoulement: Articles 60 and 61 of the Istanbul Convention’. She is the appointed international expert to the Drafting committee on Migrant Women of the Gender Equality Commission.

She co-authored the ICJ’s Practitioner Guide to Refugee Status Claims Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (2016) with Livio Zilli, Butterworths Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery: Law and Practice (for criminal practitioners) (1st Edition), contributor and reader for Legal Action Group’s Migrant Support Handbook (forthcoming).  She is a regular contributor to MacDonald’s Immigration Law and Practice (previously writing chapters on human rights, deportation, family migration and trafficking, currently working on the citizenship chapter for the 10th edition forthcoming in 2020).

Matthew Evans, Director of The AIRE Centre
Matthew Evans joined the AIRE Centre as Director in October 2013. He qualified as a Solicitor in 1995 and is responsible for managing all aspects of the AIRE Centre's work as well as undertaking litigation himself. Prior to joining the AIRE Centre, Matthew was Managing Solicitor at the Prisoners Advice Service and in private practice, where he undertook mental health, community care and public law work. 

Matthew has been involved in over a dozen cases before the UK Supreme Court including Janah and Benkarbouche (a challenge to the UK’s State Immunity Act), SM (Algeria) (reference from UKSC to CJEU around direct family members) and Gubeladze (challenge to Worker Registration Scheme extension), as well as a number of other cases in the UK Higher Courts such as Help Refugees v SSHD (Dubs amendment), Gureckis (EU Rough Sleeper challenge), MK (Pakistan) (Extended Family Members appeal rights). Third Party Interventions in the European Courts, include cases on LGBTI rights (Sabalic v Croatia and Oliari and others v Italy), and immigration detention (OM v Hungary), as well as before the CJEU such as NA (derived rights and domestic violence victims) and Bajraktari (self-sufficiency and Chen parents). 

Matthew was awarded Human Rights Solicitor of the Year at the Law Society Excellence Awards 2020 and was shortlisted for the Law Society's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award in 2017 and 2018. He is also Director of External Relations at Queen Mary University of London 

Nuala Mole, Founder of The AIRE Centre
Nuala Mole founded the AIRE Centre and has worked for more than 25 years in the field of human rights. Initially specialising in immigration and asylum, she has broadened her work to include all aspects of international human rights law. She has written extensively on all aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights and on the free movement of persons under European Union law, with special attention to the interface between the two legal orders. She is on the Board of the European Human Rights Law Review and co-edits the Centre's monthly Bulletin of ECHR caselaw.

She has been part of the legal team in more than 100 cases before the ECtHR, the ECJ and landmark cases in the UK. She was the Law Society's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2001. She also received the 2005 Prix de l'Ancien - this Alumnus of the Year Prize is awarded each year to a former student of the College of Europe who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of the European ideal, the promotion of excellence, generosity, tolerance and respect for diversity, friendship and solidarity and open-mindedness. Nuala received a doctorate from the University of Essex in 2009.

Nuala has conducted training for the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the AIRE Centre for judges, public officials, lawyers and NGOs in 40 of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe on a wide range of topics including immigration, prisoners' rights, children's rights and family law. Since 2001, she has been assisting in curriculum development and implementation for judicial training centres in South East Europe. She works with national and international judges and public officials throughout Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, but particularly in the Balkans, promoting familiarity and awareness with human rights standards and providing assistance in applying them in practice. 

Greg Ó Ceallaigh, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Greg has over a decade of experience in immigration law and has acted in all kinds of matters ranging from the most complex asylum and human rights claims to Tier 1 Investor cases. He has acted in many of the leading cases on issues such as Third Country cases and immigration detention. He has a particular expertise in human rights and has acted in the past three test cases on returns to Italy.

The core of Greg's practice is public law challenges to decisions of the Home Office and other bodies dealing with the rights of migrants either in the Administrative Court or the Upper Tribunal. He is also an extremely experienced Tribunal advocate both at the First-tier and the Upper Tribunal and is regularly instructed in his own right in the Court of Appeal. He has much experience of urgent removal cases and is comfortable taking instructions at short notice.

Greg writes for Macdonald's Immigration Law and Practice and Butterworth's Immigration Law Service. He is a regular contributor to Free Movement, and has been featured in national and international press as an expert on immigration issues and the refugee crisis, including the Independent, Wall Street Journal, RTS and Al Jazeera. He is on the LexisNexis Panel of experts.