Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law

Syd Bolton

Syd Bolton is a solicitor and part-time MPhil/PhD student at the University of Kent where he is researching the extent of rehabilitation rights for tortured children in international law with the benefit of the first Larry Grant scholarship and bursary. Until March 2009 he was the Children’s Law and Policy Adviser at The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture where he worked since 2004 having previously worked as an asylum, human rights, immigration and nationality lawyer at Islington Law Centre since 2001. He is a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association children’s sub-committee and was a member of ILPA’s Advisory Group on Age Dispute. From 2004 – 2009 he chaired the protection sub-group of the national Refugee Children’s Consortium, and is a co-opted member of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges vulnerable persons working group, currently working on international judicial guidance for child asylum seeking appellants. He is a member of the Children’s Commissioner’s Advisory Board on children and asylum and a regular contributor to policy and legislative debates with members of both Houses of Parliament.

David Rhys Jones

David Rhys Jones began his career in the refugee field in the Refugee Unit of the UK Immigration Advisory Service (UKIAS) and he has since worked with UNHCR in Asia, Refugee Legal Centre (RLC), Glazer Delmar solicitors, the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID). In January 2002 he began work as a policy officer at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In 2007 his role was redefined to concentrate on medico-legal issues. David left the Medical Foundation in 2010. He continues to work as a consultant, researcher and trainer in the torture/trauma medico-legal field working with colleagues from centres in the UK (principally the Helen Bamber Foundation) and elsewhere in Europe. David is co-author of the article Medical Evidence in Asylum and Human Rights Appeals (IJRL, Vol 3, No. 3, 381-410).

Mary Robertson

Mary Robertson is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and heads the Traumatic Stress Clinic (TSC), Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to coming to the UK, Mary managed the Trauma Clinic at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. She has had extensive experience in working with trauma in a variety of settings and with diverse client groups. She has local and international experience in consultancy, training, programme evaluation and policy development. She was one of the founder members, acting coordinator and trustee of the South African Network of Trauma Service Providers (Themba Lesizwe) and she was a member of a national reference group on the National Crime Prevention and Victim Empowerment Programme in South Africa.

Clare Hogan

Clare Hogan is the Assistant Law Editor at The Times – the only newspaper with a dedicated legal section. Her interest in the law, and particularly human rights, arose when a teenager in South Africa where she grew up and went to university, studying drama and law. She moved to Britain with her family in 1986. Clare has worked at The Times for 24 years, for the past 8 years on the Law pages, where her responsibilities involve the production and commissioning of stories. Through her job she has a wide range of contacts in the legal profession and judiciary as well as extensive knowledge of leading lawyers, academics and groups who specialise in human rights.