I apologise that it has been a long time since we have been able to provide an update on Halima’s case.

Towards the end of last week, the Charity Commission confirmed: ‘we are currently considering information connected to the concerns you have raised and are engaging with the trustees of the Charity’ and reiterated ‘that we cannot provide an update on our engagement with the Charity’.  In effect, no change from the position of two months ago. Meanwhile an Employment Tribunal claim has been lodged, and will slowly work its way through the legal system: justice will undoubtedly prevail, but it may take a long time.

I did however want to share with you that Halima will be a keynote speaker at the Northern Race Equality Conference, being held in Leeds on Monday 15 June. 

https://www.ellabakerorganising.org.uk/northern-race-equality-conference

The invitation is a clear indication of the high regard that Halima is held in by the wider movement. It confirms that Oxfam’s actions, designed to undermine Halima and described by a former trustee as: ‘a carefully orchestrated and intentionally brutal retaliation and retribution in the national media’ have failed to dent her status as a movement leader.  

Not only will Halima speak at the opening session (on the challenges and opportunities of the current moment, and how we need to respond), but she will also be contributing to a session on: ‘Leaders of Colour: Breaking through the Concrete Ceiling’, and while she will not be speaking directly on the issues at Oxfam, she will be reflecting on the wider obstacles of participation faced by leaders from racialised minority communities, celebrating those who navigate round those obstacles and of course acknowledging the additional challenges faced by women from those communities. 

Other sessions at the one day conference include:

• Organising young people
  Every generation has to find its own path to advance social justice, what are the specific challenges and opportunities facing today's youth?
• Ours For Good: New Economies of Ownership for Community Wealth?
  Creating shared inclusive space in our communities.
• Improving racial literacy in schools
  A session for all educators that uses a games-based approach.
• Black and Brown Rainbow
  Intersectionality and the QTIPOC experience
• Border violence
  Exploring how the UK government uses the externalisation of borders to try and disappear people on the move.
• Race and fascism
  The link and how we can break it 
• Tackling racism at the governance and leadership level
  Exploring effective strategies
• Prevent Watch
  Prevent was meant to protect us, but instead it stereotypes and criminalises whole communities
• Stories, Histories and Traditions
  How the experiences of our elders can be used as a starting point for strategising the fight against fascism today
• Will Defeating Islamophobia Require Defining It? A Response to Recent Government Action
  Why an emphasis on defining "anti-Muslim hostility" and promoting cohesion cannot meaningfully addresses Islamophobia as a structural form of racism. 
• Trade Unions and Workers' Rights
  Exploring inequalities and racism in the workplace, and raising awareness of trade unions in our communities. 
• Defeating the far right (What next after the May elections)
  Given the anticipated wins for Reform UK in the local elections, and the threatened second 'Unite the Kingdom' march, how do we unite our communities and isolate the far right?

More sessions will be announced soon.

Get yourself signed up to attend: https://actionnetwork.org/ticketed_events/northern-race-equality-conference-2026

And thank you for your support for Halima. 

There is a saying, familiar to many who have worked in the social justice sphere: 'They tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds', I think Halima exemplifies that resilience and the capacity for renewal in the most difficult of circumstances.

Thanks again, 


John