Press Notice

21 April 2005 --

Kelly Mc Bride, whose 18 year old brother Peter was murdered by Scots Guards in 1992 in Belfast, is set to meet the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, tomorrow (Thursday) at 5pm.

 Immediately afterwards the Mayor will join Kelly at a joint meeting with the Labour party candidate for Brent East, Yasmin Qureshi at which plans will be announced to seek a change in the law during the term of the next parliament. The changes sought would lead to the automatic dismissal of any member of the armed forces found guilty of a serious human rights violation, murder, rape and/or torture.

  This initiative, which it is hoped will also garner widespread support from human rights and anti-war groups, will be called the

 ARTICLE 7 CAMPAIGN.*

 In the recent Brent East by-election Kelly stood as a candidate in this North London constituency in order to highlight the ongoing campaign to have the convicted murderers of her brother dismissed from the British Army. (Brent East, which includes Kilburn, has the highest Irish vote of any British electoral constituency and Ms Qureshi, a barrister and human advisor to the mayor of London, hopes to win the seat back from the Liberal Democrats)

 It is understood that Ms Qureshi, if elected, will seek to introduce a Private Members Bill requiring the MoD to dismiss anyone convicted in a court of law of a serious human rights violation. After the election the Mc Bride family and the Pat Finucane Centre will be seeking support for the ongoing ARTICLE 7 CAMPAIGN from newly elected MPs, campaign groups, church and trade union leaders and other sectors of civil society.