About
Cast
Solon Solomon
Minouche Kaftel
Sarah Lockett
Kareena John
Kareena John is a legal analyst with an LLM from the BUL School of Law and experience in working for solicitors’ firms. Moreover, she has exhibited important charity work, inter alia in the field of mental health, and her participation in the film is a manifestation of her interest in vulnerable populations and mental health issues.
Friendly Participation
Javaid Rehman
Javaid Rehman is a Professor of Law at Brunel University London. He was formerly a Professor of Law at the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University (2002 – 2005) and lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the Law School University of Leeds (1996 – 2002). Professor Rehman is the former Head of Brunel Law School (2009 – 2013), Senior Manager, Member of Brunel Senate (2009 – 2013) and the founding Director of the Centre for Security, Media and Human Rights, interdisciplinary Brunel University Research Centre (2008 – 2015).
Between July 2018 – July 2024, Professor Rehman was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Between 2019-2021, he acted as a member of the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures United Nations Human Rights Office.
Bios of the Interviewees
Lord Alton of Liverpool
Member of the Houses of Parliament, United Kingdom
From 1979-1997 David Alton served in the House of Commons as a Liverpool Member of Parliament. On standing down he was appointed as a Crossbench Life Peer. Having completed his three-year term as a member of the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee he now serves on the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.
He is co-chair or vice-chair of several All Party Parliamentary Groups (including those on Uyghurs, Yazidis, Hazara, Eritrea, Pakistan Minorities, Hong Kong, North Korea and Freedom of Religion or Belief). He is a Professor at Liverpool Hope University and his most recent book (2022) was on State Responses to the Crime of Genocide. He is a Patron or Trustee of several charities and NGOs. Full biography at:
davidalton.net
Jeremy Bloom
Solicitor, Duncan & Lewis Solicitors
Thanasis Gavos
London correspondent for the Greek TV channel 'SKAI'
Baroness Hamwee
Member of the Houses of Parliament, United Kingdom
Baroness Hamwee is a Liberal Democrat peer, Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom.
Dame Margaret Hodge
Former Minister and Member of the Houses of Parliament, United Kingdom
Lord Lilley
Member of the Houses of Parliament, United Kingdom
Baroness Lister
Member of the Houses of Parliament, United Kingdom
Baroness (Ruth) Lister of Burtersett CBE, FBA is a Labour peer and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University. She is a former Director of the Child Poverty Action Group. She is a member of the APPGs on Refugees and on Migration.
Sue Lukes
Former local councillor, Islington borough, London
Sue Lukes has a degree in Modern History (specialising in 17th century Wales) from Somerville College, Oxford. From 1983 she worked in housing, variously running housing aid, information, research, policy and legal services in London, latterly for Shelter. She has worked with many academic institutions and was an Industrial Fellow at Manchester University’s Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity. She was elected councillor in May 2018 and was appointed Islington Migrant Champion in July 2018, and then went on to become Executive Member for Community Safety.
Dr Emilie McDonnell
Human Rights Watch, UK
Dr Emilie McDonnell is an international lawyer and human rights advocate, with expertise in international human rights law, refugee law and international law more broadly.
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Emilie completed her Doctorate in Law at the University of Oxford on protecting the right to leave of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants during externalized migration control. She has experience working with a wide range of organizations, actors and people at risk, including the Department of Legal Affairs at UNRWA in East Jerusalem, the Refugee Studies Centre, a UK legal aid law firm in the immigration detention and deportation team, and a legislative and policy consulting firm in Australia. She publishes regularly on human rights and refugee issues and appears on radio and television, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera. A book based on her doctoral thesis is forthcoming with Hart Publishing in 2025.
Emilie is a qualified Australian lawyer, an Adjunct Researcher at the University of Tasmania School of Law and has taught on various subjects at the University of Oxford and the University of Tasmania.
Dr Leon McRae
Brunel University London
Dr Leon McRae is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Brunel Law School. His research is at the intersection of criminal law, criminal justice, mental health law and psychology. He is most interested in speaking power to law, particularly from the perspective of the impact of law and governance on marginalised communities (such as those with mental disability). Beyond academia, he is also a clinical psychotherapist, which often informs his work.
Monir Moosavinajafi
Trustee of REAP
Dr Paul Morland
Demographer
Dr Paul Morland is an author and broadcaster who writes and speaks about population and the big demographic trends across the world, both contemporary and historic.
Described as the ‘UK’s leading demographer’ (Scottish Herald) and ‘one of the world’s pre-eminent demographers’ (Mercator), Paul has written four books: ‘No One Left’, ‘Tomorrow’s People’, ‘The Human Tide’ and ‘Demographic Engineering’ and his work has been translated into nine languages. He has written for and been interviewed in many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines including the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Der Spiegel and the Jerusalem Post. He has broadcast on many outlets including BBC Radio 4. Paul has been an associate research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and a senior member at St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Professor Konstantinos Petrides
Professor of Psychology, UCL
Konstantinos V. Petrides is Professor of Psychology and Psychometrics at University College London (UCL) and the Founding Director of the London Psychometric Laboratory. As UCL’s inaugural Professor of Psychometrics, his appointment honours the institution’s legacy as the birthplace of this field.
Professor Petrides has made significant contributions in theory, research, and practice, including the development of Psychobionomy, trait emotional intelligence, and the highly acclaimed family of Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaires (TEIQue). These tools are employed globally across commercial, medical, military, and scientific settings.
Zack Polanski
Deputy Leader of the Green Party, Member of the London Assembly
Dr Ermioni Xanthopoulou
Brunel University London, Director of Research
Dr Ermioni Xanthopoulou is a Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of Research for Brunel Law School at Brunel University London. She is currently teaching EU, migration and refugee law. Her research focuses on (EU) criminal, migration, and asylum law, as well as human rights. She has published on a range of issues pertaining to asylum law such as the externalising trends of asylum law (Mapping the EU’s Externalisation Devices Through a Critical Eye), Written evidence on human rights of asylum seekers, Human rights risks of migration prediction tools, the principle of mutual trust in EU asylum law and the impact of Brexit on UK asylum law. She is also the author of ‘Fundamental Rights and Mutual Trust in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: A Role for Proportionality?‘ published with Hart Publishing in 2020 and of several other publications as well as co-chair of the board of trustees of Project Mama, an organisation supporting migrating mamas.