A delegation of leading UK human rights and labour lawyers is set to visit Colombia to examine the country's labour and human rights conditions. In particular the delegation will look at the ongoing attacks, including extrajudicial executions, carried out against trade unionists and other groups in civil society - attacks that are committed with almost complete impunity.

The delegation of barristers and solicitors will travel to Bogotá with British NGO Justice for Colombia on 12 May to look into the situation faced by political prisoners, trade unionists, human rights defenders and non-governmental organisations. They will also be recording testimony from victims of human rights abuses and discussing the issues surrounding democracy in the run up to the May 28th Presidential elections. It will meet with senior government and human rights officials to discuss the country's appalling record on human rights and failure to implement the UN's human rights recommendations and core ILO labour standards.

Tess Gill, a barrister at Old Square Chambers, said: "We will be meeting lawyers who seek to defend human rights in very difficult circumstances, often in the face of immense risk to their personal safety, and a wide range of NGOs, trade unions and politicians. We hope to raise our concerns on human rights and the attacks on trade unionists and others who seek to defend their communities with the Colombian Government and seek answers as to why it appears that so few abuses result in prosecutions."

Frances Webber, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said: "The human rights situation in Colombia is very troubling - in particular, the life-threatening conditions in which trade unionists and human rights lawyers work. Action is urgently needed to protect those at most risk from extra-judicial executions, and we will be looking at the steps the government is taking to implement the UN's human rights recommendations, and how more accountability can be achieved."

The delegation includes:

• Lucy Anderson is a policy specialist on equality and employment rights issues for the Trades Union Congress, a qualified solicitor she is currently Senior Equality and Employment Rights Officer for TUC. Current and recent work includes responsibility for TUC initiatives on 2003 equality legislation under EU framework directive, legal input on working time issues and trade union action against fascists and fascist political parties, and acting as TUC representative on Government Age Task Force. Other activities/positions: Member of the Management Board of Working Families, a charity promoting flexible working and family-friendly rights; Member of Industrial Law Society Executive Committee; Labour Councilor for Kentish Town Ward, London Borough of Camden and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group; Representative of London Borough of Camden on University College London Hospital Members' Council.
• Lionel Blackman is a solicitor-advocate and senior partner of a practice specialising in criminal litigation. Legal precedents include Morgans v. DPP [2000] HL - on admissibility of state intercept evidence. Vice-chairman - Solicitors' International Human Rights Group. Visiting lecturer to South Bank University. Masters in Understanding and Securing International Human Rights.
• Tess Gill is a Barrister at Old Square Chambers, Grays' Inn, London. She is a specialist in employment law in particular sex, race, disability, and age discrimination, and equal pay and a part time employment tribunal chairman and a trained mediator. She regularly advises and represents the statutory commissions, Equal Opportunities Commission, Commission for Racial Equality, and Disability Rights Commission as well as private and public sector employers and trade unions. She has successfully represented clients in number of leading cases in domestic courts including Court of Appeal and House of Lords and the European Court of Justice.
• Henrietta Hill is a Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, London, specialising in discrimination and criminal justice cases. She regularly represents individuals alleging sex, race and disability discrimination by either their employers or state bodies such as the police and prisons. She also represents those who have been assaulted or wrongfully arrested by the police and the families of those who die in police custody or are shot by the police. She has published a book on the 2000 race relations legislation which enabled people to sue the police for discrimination, and has a long standing interest in children's rights and juvenile justice issues.
• Anna Konzon is a Solicitor and Team Manager based at the Chelmsford office of Thompsons. Her experiences are dealing with work place accidents and occupational diseases for Trade Unions and their members. She also has had particular experience in dealing with specialised litigation against multi nationals. Anna regularly lectures Trade Unions and their representatives on Health and Safety Law.
• Karen Mitchell is a Senior Partner and solicitor at Thompsons based in Chelmsford, Essex. She is a specialist in work place accident and diseases. She advises and represents Trade Union members and representatives and regularly speaks at branch meetings and schools for trade unionists. She has experience working with members of the agricultural sector of the TGWU; health and public sector workers (UNISON; GMB; AMICUS;) the transport sector (RMT; ASLEF) and teachers and journalists (NASUWT; NUT; NUJ).
• Anya Palmer is a Barrister at Old Square Chambers, Gray's Inn, London. She became a barrister in 1999 and specialises in employment law and discrimination law. Before training as a lawyer, she worked for Stonewall, a UK organisation campaigning for lesbian and gay rights, where she was involved in a series of test cases on the rights of lesbians and gay men to equal rights and freedom from discrimination.
• Smita Shah is a Junior Barrister at Garden Court Chambers specialising Family law, whether Domestic Violence, Private or Public Children law. Her educational activities include being a Visiting Lecturer to London Metropolitan University teaching two seminars, Refugees and Human Rights and The Legal Regulation of Conflict; and a Youth and Student Speaker for Amnesty International, speaking regularly for them at Schools and Universities. She has a background in human rights having worked for the Kurdish Human Rights Project, Amnesty International New Zealand and Thailand section offices, and Death Penalty Internships, to South Carolina and The Innocence Project, New Orleans. Her areas of particular interest are women's rights, economic and social rights and transitional justice.
• Victoria Vasey
• Frances Webber is a barrister specialising in immigration, asylum and human rights work. She is joint editor of Macdonald's Immigration Law & Practice, the leading practitioners' textbook, and editor of the 'British nationality, immigration and asylum' entry in Halsbury's Laws. She has also worked in the fields of terrorism, policing, inquests and extradition, and was junior counsel for Amnesty International in the Pinochet cases. She has a long-standing interest in issues of racial justice, and has written extensively for journals including Race & Class, Statewatch and the Institute of Race Relations' European Race Audit. She is on the Board of the Institute of Race Relations.
• Patricia Wheeler is a freelance law translator/writer, previously a staff member of the ICJ in The Hague and at UN headquarters. She studied European law and human rights at Essex University and has worked as a human rights field officer on UN missions in Rwanda and Côte d'Ivoire and with the OSCE in former Yugoslavia. She has also worked for the International Law Commission and on UN human rights bodies. Before going to the UN she headed the international department at the National Union of Mineworkers.

Notes for editors:

1. For further information on the delegation, call Tom Feiling on 020 7794 3644
2. Justice for Colombia (JFC) is a coalition of British organisations working in support of the Colombian people and trade union movement in their campaign for basic human rights and their struggle for peace with social justice.
   Set up in 2002 by various British trade unions and NGOs, the coalition was created to develop a coordinated response to the appalling human rights crisis in Colombia and the abuses perpetrated against trade union members in particular. In that year alone 184 trade unionists were assassinated and Colombia remains the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist.
   JFC is backed by both the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents 6.5 million British workers, and the two main Colombian trade union federations, the CUT and CTC.