“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

- Bertrand Russell

About Aisha Maniar

Aisha Maniar is a human rights activist who works with the London Guantánamo Campaign.

The London Guantánamo Campaign has been campaigning since 2006 for the release of all prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, the closure of Guantánamo and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.

Articles by Aisha Maniar

Off the menu: Guantánamo Bay hunger strike

Aisha Maniar 27 March 2013

The majority of the remaining 166 prisoners at Guantanamo have been on hunger strike since early February, mostly held without charge or trial, yet there has been a continued media silence on the issue. This flagrant abuse of justice must be challenged.

Show me the money: can human rights offer an alternative discourse of resistance to austerity?

Aisha Maniar 13 March 2013

Human rights can provide a novel and effective tool for challenging punitive and economically failing austerity measures. We need to reframe the debate. Here's why.

Secret courts in Britain: blink and they'll be a reality

Aisha Maniar 5 March 2013

The Justice and Security Bill is moving swiftly through parliament. Few appreciate the true extent of the threat to civil liberties and an open judicial system. The clock is ticking for the right to a fair trial in Britain.

The UN Convention Against Torture: 25 and rendered numb

Aisha Maniar 27 June 2012

Yesterday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UN Convention Against Torture, one of the most significant international efforts to halt obscene coercive practices. But while progress has been made, stories of unsanctioned techniques carried out in secret provide testimony of what is still to be done.

Secret justice: making the exception the rule

Aisha Maniar 23 April 2012

An anti-Guantanamo Bay activist gives an overview of the UK government's 'secret justice' plans. The piece accompanies Tim Otty QC's detailed analysis of the Justice and Security Green Paper and its potential to erode the very principle of the fair and open trial.

Mocking justice: Guantánamo Bay hits ten and is here to stay

Aisha Maniar 11 January 2012

Today marks one decade of the illegal prison camp. A personal tragedy for those who remain and a global outrage. Obama's broken promise to close it and British politicians' failure to bring home Shaker Aamer must not pave the way for normalisation.

Closed courts and secret evidence: Britain’s own Guantanamo Bay

Aisha Maniar 2 November 2011

The government is attempting to further shield itself from those seeking to obtain secret intelligence. Proposals contained in a new consultation green paper threaten to compromise the British system of open justice and the right to a fair trial.

Guantanamo Bay: the shadow cast over the 'special relationship'

Aisha Maniar 25 May 2011

Guantanamo Bay is unlikely to be discussed by Cameron and Obama during the president's first state visit to the UK this week. Yet Britain could use our special relationship with the US to call for Obama to keep his promise, and close the detainment facility

Torture evidence: a secret between Britain and her allies?

Aisha Maniar 28 February 2011

Just one year ago, it was revealed that the intelligence services knew former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed had been tortured. Now the Coalition is seeking to introduce measures that would prevent the courts releasing intelligence-sharing information at all: thus ensuring that cases such as Mohamed’s are never again brought to light.

One year anniversary of Obama’s broken promise to shut Guantanamo Bay

Aisha Maniar 22 January 2011

If Barack Obama had kept his word, Guantánamo Bay would have closed down by this day last year. The continuing existence of the detainment facility is a British, as well as an American, problem - not least because of the British detainee held there for almost nine years without charge.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

Women and the Arab Spring

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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