STAFF

London Race Advocacy Project

Advocacy Worker

Suresh Grover

Suresh Grover has been active in the civil rights field for over thirty years. The Guardian Newspaper has described as one of the hundred most influential people in Social Policy in the UK. He is the leading exponent of family led empowerment and justice campaigns in the UK. He led the campaigns to help families of Stephen Lawrence, Zahid Mubarek and Victoria Climbie – all these cases led to Public Judicial Inquiries and consequent changes in legislation, social policies and practices. Since the London Bombings he has worked with victim families of the carnage as well as Black Minority and Ethnic and Muslim groups and individuals affected by indiscriminate state-led policies in London, Midlands and the North.

Suresh Grover is a recognized trainer/advisor on humanism, “hate crimes” and Human Rights for public bodies and NGO’s in the UK and other parts of the UK. He is currently writing his book on race relations in the UK, due to be published next year.

Suresh can be contacted at sgrover@tmg-uk.org.uk or on his mobile 07806 301 706

Sukant Chandan

Sukant is a former co-ordinator at the Conflicts Forum. He is a print and tv journalist and commentator, and has been a professional youth worker in Ladbroke Grove for several years. He is mainly responsible for casework across west London and central London.

Sukant can be contacted at schandan@tmg-uk.org

 

 

Stafford Scott

Stafford Scott was a co-founder of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign in 1985, and has helped many victims of racism over the past 30 years, including the family of Mark Duggan. He write regularly for the Guardian. He is responsible for casework across North London.

Staff can be contacted at sscott@tmg-uk.org

 

 

Admin and Communications

Jagdish Patel  
Jagdish’s was formerly the Deputy Director at TMG, but is now works part time and his current role at TMG involves helping with the Race Advocacy Project as well as website and social media development. He is editor of the TMG website and also the National Monitor, as well as leading on art projects. Jagdish has worked in the charity sector for over 20 years, both with clients and at a strategic level in  a range of setting, including homelessness, ex offenders, mental health and youth work. When not at TMG he works as a photographer and writer on a freelance basis. He can be contacted at jpatel@tmg-uk.org

The Trauma Therapy project

Cordinator Yasmin Jaswal

Yasmin has worked in the Charity sector for over 12 years. Her background is Domestic Violence, Mental Health and Community Development. Before joining TMG she was Director of a women’s centre based in West Yorkshire. Primarily she is accountable for the quality of services delivered to our clients, ensuring programme deadlines are adhered to and that all work is delivered to a high standard and within the allocated budgets.  In addition, my role is to support the development of the Trauma Therapy project and working the different social services and Health authorities across London.

She can be contacted at yjaswal@tmg-uk.org

Administrator  Nisha Bambhra

Nisha Bambhra was called to the Bar in 2011, having completed her Bar Professional Training Course at City University. She is keen to specialise and build a practice in all matters concerning discrimination, crime, employment and family law. More recently, she has completed an international placement with the United Nations assisting in the preparation and presentation of the defence in the case of a Minister charged with genocide and/or incitement to genocide during the Rwandan civil war. In addition to this, she has also volunteered with various NGOs in India, more specifically The Lawyer Collective, a group of lawyers committed to using the law as an instrument to empower women. She also actively participates in the organisations advice surgeries held in both Holborn and Southall, and assists in the development and administration of the Trauma Therapy Project.

 

TRUSTEES

Mehar Brar

Mehar has been involved with The Monitoring Group since 1985; initially as a volunteer and subsequently as a member of the management board. As Chair of The Monitoring Group, he is passionate about developing and releasing the leadership qualities we all have, so that we can achieve the success we want in our lives. This happens best when people live free from fear and harassment, when education develops aspirations and self-belief and when the environments we live in, and the relationships we form, sustain our compassion and commitment. As a result we are able to play our full part in society as active citizens, exercise our rights and responsibilities, and protect them for others.

After a school-based teaching career, he then worked as a School Improvement Adviser within a local authority, Mehar now works as an independent Education Consultant providing support, advice and training to schools in the areas of leadership, curriculum and teaching and learning. He also carries out school inspections here in the UK and internationally. Throughout his work, he promotes energy and innovation at policy, system and practice level. He has worked with arts organisations to develop learning through the arts and through personal and community experience. He continues to develop his practice of karate and yoga, and to improve his Spanish and Russian.

Sham Qayyum

Sham Qayyum teaches at SOAS and is the Director of the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (CEMS).  He specialises in Comparative Law and Jurisprudence, Equity and Offshore, Law and Community Leadership, and Ethnic Minority Legal Studies, with particular reference to Intercultural Human Rights. He is a community activist, with a particular interest in identifying and addressing socio-legal issues and problems connected to ethnic minorities in Britain.

Imran Khan

Imran Khan is probably best known for his work representing Doreen and the family of Stephen lawrence who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. He is recognised as a leading human rights /criminal lawyer and is presently a partner in his own firm Imran Khan and Partners based in Holborn, Central London. It was his work as a lawyer and as an activist in which led him to represent the family of Stephen Lawrence which brought him to national and international attention; and led to the establishment of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.  The impact of this inquiry was felt throughout the criminal justice and public service systems.

His later representation of the families of Victoria Climbe (who was tortured to death – aged 8 – in February 2000) and Zahid Mubarek (who was murdered by his racist cell mate in March 2000), and the public inquiries into their deaths, led to substantial social change regarding the care of children and prisoners in the UK respectively.  Imran Khan’s legal practice was established in 2000 and offered a new approach to legal representation with the idea that the firm would pursue what Imran Khan has called ‘impact cases’. The outcome of these cases would lead to legal and social change.

As a consequence the firm has represented clients in high profile public inquiries, inquests, criminal trials and appeal cases the impact of each reverberating throughout society and the criminal justice system. The firm specialises in defending individuals charged with serious criminal offences, most notably, terrorism and murder. Imran Khan has lectured nationally and internationally on human rights and criminal law. He has also written widely on these subjects. He has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates in recognition of his work.

Chi Chan

I have lived and worked in London since 1979. I have worked, for 28 years, in the media as a freelance photojournalist and later a picture editor in the Daily Telegraphy. As a media worker I was active in the National Union of Journalists. I was secretary of the East London Branch of the NUJ, and later held the same post in the NUJ London Freelance Branch. In 2003 I helped to fight and bring union recognition back into the Telegraph Group newspaper after a 20 years gap when union was not recognised by the employer. I was later elected as deputy FOC at the Telegraph NUJ chapel.

Throughout the 1980s I worked closely with member of the Chinese community in London to redress some of the issues faced our community at the time. I was founding member of the Chinese Information and Advise Committee (CIAC) through which we tackled many issues that were new, at the time, to the Chinese community.

In 2007/8 I worked as the Communication Officer for the Chinese Immigration Concern Committee (CICC). It was a campaign group set up, by the Chinese community in London, with wide support throughout the country, to combat changing government policies on migration workers.

I was asked to join Min Quan/ TMG in April 2008.

Ping Hua

Dr Ping Hua is an advisor for the TMG project, Min Quan.    In 1999, while she was the President of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Southampton, she led the association working with local statutory agencies to combat racial harassment and injustice facing the student victims.   Ping was the co-founder of the Chinese Association of Southampton and was the Chair of the Association from 2002 to 2011.   The aim of the association was to improve social inclusion for the Chinese community and to offer important and much needed services to the community.   In 2006, the association started working in partnership with Min Quan-The Monitoring Group, on tackling the issue of racial harassment affecting Chinese restaurants, takeaways and students in the community.   Ping is also the founder and Director of the Southampton Phoenix Arts Group, a Chinese music and dance group unique to Southampton and its region.   The Group has taken part in various concerts and projects promoting Chinese Art and culture, which has helped improve mutual understanding and harmony in the community.

Dr Jawed Siddiqi 

BSc (Hons.), MSc, PhD , Emeritus Professor of Software Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University

President of the National Council of University Professors

Chair of The British Computer Society

Formal Aspects of Computing Science

Secretary of The Monitoring Group 

Mediation and Dispute Resolution Profile

Jawed Siddiqi is offering mediation and dispute resolution services to educational organisations particularly Higher Education Institutes HEI’s. He gained his skills, expertise & experience through: training received by Chartered Institute of Arbitration (Associate CIArb) and by Improving Dispute Resolution Advisory Service (IDRAS);  his employment in which practical skills were acquired through advocacy, negotiation and mediation & dispute resolution both as a senior manger and as a trade union officer at his own university, other HEI’s and the for individual and organisational clients in the voluntary and statutory sectors sometimes on a pro-bono basis; additionally through his leadership roles in the voluntary sector involving strategies for countering racial  justice and promoting diversity and equality issues and his personal interests in counselling and community based conflict management and empowerment.

Specialist Skills in Dispute Resolution and Mediation

Siddiqi recognises that HEI’s have become highly complex and constantly changing organisations facing increased complaints as evidenced by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and employment tribunal figures. HEIs face an increasing number of   students who are encouraged to see themselves as high fee paying customers and, staff working under extreme pressures with little or no experience of handling the many difficult issues and feel less valued.

In such an environment where resources are scarce there is high chance of issues becoming complaints that are dealt in an adversarial manner or through expensive litigation that can have enormous damage to the people within its organisation, serious economic costs and reputational damage when in many cases solutions can be found through mediation or alternative dispute resolution services. His specialist skills are:

• resolving disputes or using mediation techniques to avoid litigation particularly relating to employment and students complaints

• Matters relating to postgraduate supervision, research contracts generally  but also specifically related Information Systems and Computer Science

• to offer advice on building and adapting existing management systems so as to reduce the risk of issues becoming complaints or disputes. 

Resume of Expertise, Experience and Skills

He has worked as a school teacher, a college lecturer but primarily employed over three decades in higher education. At Sheffield Hallam University he was a Senior Academic who gained significant experience in governance, management and research. He has board level and governance experience because he was several occasions a member of the Board of Governors and Academic Board at Sheffield Hallam and at a School and at a College in Sheffield. He has a wealth of senior management experience because he was Associate Dean of Research, Head of Division and Director of the Research Centre in the School of Computing and Management Sciences.

He is a nationally and internationally recognised scholar through his roles as the Professor of Software Engineering with well over a hundred refereed publications, successfully supervised over twenty five PhD students and personally generated over a million pounds in research and knowledge transfer income as well as playing leadership roles on Editorial Boards on national and international committees and Chairing of International Conferences for IEEE, BCS and CPHC.

He has acquired skills to be an analytical, innovative and creative thinker, as well use his specific expertise in human factors of organisational and systems development as well as change management and process improvement to apply them to mediation and dispute resolution systems. In his voluntary capacity he has extensive knowledge and experience of Equality and Diversity issues particularly on race. He was in the eighties founding Chair of the Staffordshire Community Relations Council (now Racial Equality Council), and briefly in nineties Chair of Sheffield Action against Racial Harassment and is presently and has been for the last decade Secretary of The Monitoring Group (a human rights and anti – racist and civil rights campaigning and advocacy group). He practiced, undertook and taught courses in re-evaluation counselling for over a decade.

Email:J.I.Siddiqi@shu.ac.uk

Phone: +44 114 2746551
Mobile: +447962174582

 

Shobhini Ehzuvan

Amidou Njie

Bobby Chan

Margo Rogers

Salima Iqbal