This was sent by Global Women’s Strike & WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)
>Tel 020 7482 2496 (voice/minicom)
>winvisible@allwomencount.net http://www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20WwDiss/WVindex.htm>
>www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20WwDiss/WVindex.htm. They will be supporting Peter Gichura in court and outside with placards.
>contact: tel/minicom: 020 7482 2496 or 07803 789699

More information…
Peter Gichura, father, wheelchair user and disability activist, is again
>threatened with imminent removal back to Kenya, where he faces political
>persecution, including death threats, and the loss of the medical treatment
>on which his life depends.
>
>Mr Gichura is suing the Home Office and Kalyx, the private company which
>runs Harmondsworth detention centre, for mistreatment in 2006. On 21 May,
>the district judge at Central London County Court will rule whether Mr
>Gichura can proceed with his disability discrimination case under the
>Disability Discrimination Act, and also under the European Convention on
>Human Rights which forbids discrimination. Meanwhile, the Home Office is
>pressing ahead with deportation of the man who has taken them to court for
>discrimination. On 23 May at the High Court, Mr Gichura’s legal team will
>argue it is unjust for him to be returned to Kenya.
>
>The Home Office claims that if he is sent back, Mr Gichura’s right to a
>fair hearing of his case won’t be jeopardised, and that he could pursue his
>civil action from Kenya — despite having compelling medical and other expert
>evidence that he would not have access to treatment there, his life would
>be
>in danger, and the village he would return to lacks basic accessible living
>conditions.
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>Peter Gichura was detained twice in Harmondsworth in appalling conditions
>including: not being able to use the bathroom and toilet properly,
>suffering
>painful and threatening body searches, and on the first occasion (February
>2006) being given the wrong medication. Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of
>Prisons, condemned the conditions at Harmondsworth as “the poorest report
>we
>have issued on an Immigration Removal Centre” (November 2006).
>
>Mr Gichura’s original application for asylum on grounds of political
>persecution as a disability activist was refused. In 2006, when his spinal
>injury worsened, he applied for asylum for medical treatment without which
>he would die. Expert evidence from Rachel Hurst OBE (Disability Awareness
>in Action), a member of the Advisory Group to the government Office for
>Disability, confirming this, has been ignored. Many other people seeking
>asylum face a similar fate as Mr Gichura, and others have already been sent
>back, because of a High Court ruling that removal does not contravene
>Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right not to be
>subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.
>
>In a similar case, recent press coverage has highlighted the plight of a
>couple who face a rapid deterioration in their health and death, if they
>were deported, because the medical treatment they need (for HIV) would not
>be available and their young son would become an orphan (Independent, 4
>April 2007).
>
>In March, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights condemned as
>unacceptable, “the deliberate use of inhumane treatment” in asylum policy
>and found that, “Asylum seekers as a group do not always get the greatest
>sympathy from society or the media, but what we have seen and heard
>provides
>very hard evidence of appalling treatment that no human being should
>suffer.”
>
>Also in March, Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People, signed the UK
>government up to the
> UN Convention on
>the
>Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which prohibits discrimination against
>people with disabilities in all areas of life, including access to justice
>and the right to health services. But the Home Office is going against the
>Convention by continuing High Court proceedings to send Mr Gichura back to
>Kenya.
>
>Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, writing in support of Mr Gichura,
>said: “I would underline the wider social consequences of handling cases
>like these in ways that entrench . . . a perception that the UK immigration
>regime is unbalanced, unjust and inhumane. I recall . . .the European
>Convention on Human Rights, “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by
>law.” He proposes discussion with the Home Office “to find some more
>humane
>middle ground” than the current refusal of medical grounds (Letter to Liam
>Byrne, 12 October 2006).
>
>People with disabilities have not only the right to life but also the right
>to live free from fear. We are calling on everyone, and especially those
>who speak for the disability community, to defend Peter Gichura’s right to
>anti-discrimination protection and safety. A victory in his case would help
>establish rights and protections for all.
>