- Maya Evans
-
Maya Evans Born December 18, 1979 Cooking style vegan Maya (Anne) Evans (born December 18, 1979) is a British peace campaigner who was arrested alongside fellow activist Milan Rai in October 2005 opposite the Cenotaph war memorial in London, for refusing to stop reading aloud the names of British soldiers who had been killed in Iraq following the 2003 Iraq war.
Evans, a vegan chef and anti-war activist from Hastings, became the first person in the UK to be convicted under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration within 1 km of Parliament Square. She received a conditional discharge and a fine.
In December 2006 Evans and Rai lost an appeal against their convictions. Evans was also arrested at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 2007 for obstruction of the highway.
Evans, with Rai, is one of the main campaigners in the group 'Justice Not Vengeance', focusing on Iraq, Afghanistan, civil liberties and Islamophobia. Evans has been on speaking tours in the UK in 2006 and 2007, her letters appear regularly in The Guardian and The Independent and she has regular column in the monthly Peace News. On December 10, 2007, Human Rights Day, Evans was awarded the Peter Duffy Award by the pressure group Liberty "for her campaigning work and commitment to the cause of liberty" and "courage in standing up for our fundamental rights to peaceful protest and freedom of speech".[1]
In June 2009, Evans sought a judicial review of the detainee transfer policy applying to Afghans captured by British soldiers, following claims they were subject to torture, including by beating and electrocution, after being handed to Afghan authorities such as the National Directorate of Security (NDS).[2] The hearing, in April 2010, included evidence from the Royal Military Police,[3] and was partly held in secret, with much of the evidence was not available to Evans's lawyers.[4] The judges described their ruling, on 25 June 2010, as a "partial victory" for Evans, concluding that there was "a real risk that detainees transferred to NDS Kabul will be subjected to torture or serious mistreatment" and transfers would "therefore be in breach of the Secretary of State's policy and unlawful", but transfers to other NDS facilities (Kandahar and Lashkar Gah) could continue provided specified conditions were met, such as the right of British monitors to get access to the detainees regularly.[5][6][7][8]
References
- ^ "Human Rights Awards 2007". Liberty. http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news-and-events/3-human-rights-awards/2007-awards.shtml.
- ^ Richard Norton-Taylor (29 June 2009). "MoD could face high court over alleged abuse of Afghan captives". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/29/afghanistan-prisoners-military-investigations. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ^ Michael Seamark (20 April 2010). "British 'handed over Taliban suspects to be tortured'". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267375/British-handed-Taliban-suspects-tortured.html. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ^ Richard Norton-Taylor (20 April 2010). "UK accused over Taliban torture risk when handing over insurgents". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/19/torture-risk-taliban-british-accused. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ^ BBC News (25 June 2010). "'Partial victory' in challenge to UK Taliban transfers". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10412708.stm. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Paddy McGuffin (26–27 June 2010). "Victory for anti-torture activist". The Morning Star: p. 1. http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/92034. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Richard Norton-Taylor (26 July 2010). "Afghan detainees must be safeguarded against abuse, says high court". The Guardian: p. 13. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/25/afghan-detainees-safeguard-high-court. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
- ^ Reuters (25 June 2010). "UK activist wins part victory in Afghan challenge". Reuters. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE65O4E120100625.
External links
- Parliament protesters lose appeal - BBC News, December 20, 2006.
- Peace campaigner fined for Whitehall protest - The Guardian, April 12, 2006.
- Activist convicted under demo law - BBC News, December 7, 2005.
- Protests outside Parliament will be allowed - Daily Telegraph, March 26, 2008.
- Maya Evans interview - ZNet, December 29, 2006.
- Justice Not Vengeance.
-
- Naming The Dead by Maya Anne Evans with Milan Rai.
Categories:- 1979 births
- Living people
- Protests in the United Kingdom
- British anti-war activists
- Chefs of vegan cuisine
- English vegans
- People from Hastings
- Torture in the United Kingdom
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
