A new guide has been published that aims to to equip lawyers and coroners with the necessary information and tools to identify and investigate the role of racism in contributing to deaths in police custody, prisons, immigration detention, and mental health settings.
Achieving Racial Justice at Inquests is a joint guide developed by human rights charities JUSTICE and INQUEST together with legal experts, academics, and bereaved families.
This guide provides lawyers representing families bereaved by deaths in police custody, prisons, immigration detention, and mental health settings with the legal expertise to raise the potential role of race and racism at inquests. It also provides foundational knowledge and strategy to coroners to ensure they satisfy their duty in fully investigating the circumstances in state custody deaths.
As the deaths of Black and racialised people are some of the most violent, neglectful and contentious of all deaths in state custody, the question of whether racism contributed to the treatment of a loved one is invariably in the minds of Black and racialised families. Yet inquests rarely ever address race or racism.
For bereaved families, inquests present key opportunities to find out how and why their loved one died. The failure to explore issues of race and racism not only stops families from learning the truth, but prevents potentially life-saving issues from being identified and addressed.
This new guide equips lawyers and coroners with the tools to recognise, raise, evidence and investigate issues of race and racism.
The continued failure of inquests to examine the potential role of race and racism in deaths in state custody puts lives at risk. This new guide aims to achieve truth, justice and accountability for bereaved families and prevent further people from dying in state custody.
Read the guide here.
