People

Law student wins civil liberties case

A Masters student from the Department of Law has successfully argued that a convicted murderer held in a New Zealand jail was held in conditions that amounted to physical torture.
Tony Ellis, who wrote his dissertation on prisoner's rights, represented Christopher Taunoa and eight other prisoners who were kept according to Paremoremo prison's Behaviour Management Regime (BMR).

Under BMR, inmates spent 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, did not receive regular medical checks or changes of bedding and had to wash their toilets and cells with only a bucket of water and used rag. Mr Ellis told the High Court at Wellington that this treatment breached the Penal Institutions Act.

Justice Ronald Young ruled that detention on BMR, which was introduced in 1998 as an attempt to improve the behaviour of difficult prisoners, was in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Justice Young ruled in three cases there had been no breach of the law, a fourth prisoner was found to have been treated unlawfully but was awarded no compensation, and the five other inmates were awarded $130,000 with Taunoa receiving the greatest sum of $55,000.

The case has ended the use of BMR and led to a change to improve conditions for segregated prisoners.

Tony Ellis, speaking after the ruling, said: 'What one forgets is that these prisoners have been victims too, and two wrongs don't make a right.'

Maurice Sunkin, Dean of the School of Law and Tony's supervisor, said: 'There are few things more gratifying for an academic than seeing students using skills and expertise honed at Essex being used to make a real contribution to the law and to the protection of human rights across the globe.'Paste text here.

PhD student gives presidential talk

With the US presidential elections featuring heavily in the news, Laurence Horton, a postgraduate student in the Department of Government was recently invited to Ipswich High School for Girls to address their Current Affairs Group.

Laurence, who has experience of working in American politics, including a presidential election campaign, gave a short presentation intended to provide an overview of the campaign. It covered the parties perceptions of the candidates, the issues of concern to voters, and outlined the importance of 'swing-states' that decide elections. This was then followed by a question and answer session in which the group of around 40 students aged between 15 and 18 asked questions on a range of issues related to the campaign - from candidate positions on the war in Iraq to why candidates only campaign in certain states.

'It was an enjoyable experience,' Laurence said. 'The students were well informed as to what is going on in America at the moment, and their interest was apparent when it came to their questions which were perceptive and interesting. There really is no bigger spectacle in politics than a presidential election, so it's gratifying to see that interest in it is widespread.'

A week in the life of Dr Rainer Schulze

Dr Rainer Schulze from the Department of History is a member of the team developing a new exhibition at the Gedenkstätte (Memorial) Bergen-Belsen in Germany. He is responsible for sections dealing with rescue attempts for Jews held at Bergen-Belsen, and the liberation of the camp by British troops in April 1945.

He has been visiting Bergen-Belsen regularly and recently met there with fellow researchers for five days to discuss the exhibition. Here he recalls the following week in which he endeavoured to go through documents, photos, artefacts, and video interviews, but as usual his week at Bergen-Belsen turned out to involve a lot more.

Monday
Mr and Mrs Sagiv arrive from Israel. Mrs Sagiv was deported to Belsen with her family in 1943 and rescued in 1944 as part of the German-Palestinian exchange. She will be interviewed by our video team today. These interviews are stressful for all involved, and even more so if someone is interviewed for the first time, like Mrs Sagiv. The fact that we are at the place where she was detained and where many of her friends perished adds to the difficulty.

In the afternoon, a follow-up meeting to last week's discussions, trying to iron out some problems with the narrative. We still haven't managed to cut the result of the research down to 'exhibition format.'

Tuesday
Another visitor to the Gedenkstätte, Ladislaus (Laci) Löb from Brighton, arrives. He is a (child) survivor of the Kasztner group, some 1,684 Hungarian Jews rescued from extermination against ransom payment in negotiations with Eichmann in 1944. They were first brought to Belsen and later allowed to travel to Switzerland. Professor Löb has come to Belsen to work on a book on the group and help me address their rescue in the exhibition.

Today Mr Sagiv will be interviewed. He jumped from the train that was to bring him to Belsen and survived in the Jewish underground until the end of the war.

Dr Rainer Schulze (right) and Klaus Tätzler, the keeper of artifacts of the Gedenkstätte, looking at a pair of mittens knitted by Belsen victims for a child who survived the camp

Wednesday
In the morning, a meeting with Michael Grill from the Gedenkstätte Neuengamme (Hamburg) to discuss his recent research trip to Sweden. Michael checked a number of Swedish archives to see what material they hold with regard to Belsen. He returned with a great deal of information and photocopies. There is more material than we will be able to use, and I sense the potential for at least one PhD dissertation.

In the afternoon another meeting, this time in Hannover. There is concern that communication with the exhibition designers is not running smoothly, and that we are in danger of falling behind our work schedule. The pressure is increasing, and tempers flare.

Thursday
Back at the Gedenkstätte I met two researchers from Israel who are working on the 1944 German-Palestinian exchange.

I finally manage to solve an awkward problem. The son of a British soldier, who was at Belsen shortly after the liberation, had contacted me because he found a couple of 'items' in his father's estate. The son wants them to Belsen and I had offered to take them. It turned out that one item was a pistol! After making numerous phone calls, the British GSM from the nearby Bergen-Hohne military training ground agrees to transport the firearm as part of one of the regular British Army shipments to Germany.

Friday
My last day at the Gedenkstätte. I did not get half of my own research done and resort to photocopying most of the material to work through when I am back in Britain. A phone call from the exhibition designer: there is less space available for one of my segments than previously assumed. This means I need to make further cuts in a draft which I had hoped I had completed.

 
 Dr Rainer Schulze and a model of Belsen as it was in September 1944 which stands in the Gedenkstätte foyer

Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:

• New faces at Essex
• US appointment
• Rwandan business mission