source: Dr Nadine El-Enany
published: 31 July 2019

4WardEver UK and the United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) are calling on affected families to support new research to be conducted by Dr Nadine El-Enany of Birkbeck School of Law, examining what drives family campaigns and what family members understand justice to mean amongst others.

Here’s what Dr Nadine El-Enany has to say;

“My name is Nadine El-Enany. I work at Brikbeck Law School where I co-direct the Centre for Research on Race and Law. I would like to invite you to participate in a research project via an interview. I am working on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the role of families in cases where a racialised person has died in custody, including police, prison or a health/mental health institution.

“My interest in this project stems from my work in supporting families of death in custody victims as part of the campaigning group Defend the Right to Protest, and supporting the United Families and Friends Campaign. In October 2018 I co-organised the conference ‘Interrogating State Violence: Custodial Deaths, Justice and Resistance’ at Birkbeck with Ken Fero and Khadija George.

“I want to understand what life is like for racialised families whose loved one has died in custody. I am interested in questions such as what drives family campaigns, what family members understand justice to mean, how family members’ personal lives and health have been affected by their justice campaign, and what changes family members want to see in society so as to prevent deaths in custody occurring in the future.

“I want the research to lead to greater understanding of the experiences of family members following a death in custody, not just with the legal system, but in their personal and political lives. The research will be relevant to organisations and groups campaigning to prevent deaths in custody and to groups who push for changes in the law to improve families’ experiences following a death in custody.

“I will make the results of the research publicly accessible and will send copies to everyone who participated once the project is complete. As part of this project I am interviewing family members of racialised death in custody victims”.

How to participate?

“I can travel anywhere in the UK to a place of convenience for you should you wish to participate”.

Please feel free to contact Dr Nadine El-Enany for further details via:
Email: N.El-Enany@bbk.ac.uk

Alternatively contact Ken Fero or Tippa naphtali via UFFC >

Tippa Naphtali, founder of 4WardEver UK, said;  “Any studies that really hear the voices of affected families and that may be effectively utilized as an instrument for change across all sectors (including the campaigning community) are in my view a refreshing break from the norm.”