Imane Benatallah: University Of Westminster Student Project With Inquest

A selection of students from the 2024 Centre for Social Justice Research internship with INQUEST

My name is Imane Benatallah and for the last two years I’ve helped coordinate an internship programme between INQUEST and the Centre for Social Justice Research at the University of Westminster.

During these two years, I have forged meaningful connections with the INQUEST team and bereaved family members while introducing the student interns to the various journeys of seeking justice and accountability.

After my role as a project coordinator, I was approached for a volunteering role as a policy and communications assistant at INQUEST. I was able to observe the inner operations of the charity, helping with briefings, internal bulletins while accessing data that was crucial to the work of INQUEST.

The point of this project was to create a meaningful relationship between university students and INQUEST. As a recent graduate, I discovered that not much attention was given to NGOs and social justice groups during our studies, many of which do essential work to help improve the systems that shape our society.

Even in related seminars and lectures, the knowledge shared felt disconnected from the work on the ground. In turn, the creation of this collaborative project was crucial for those of us who wanted to do more.

We had the opportunity to help mark 40 years of INQUEST anniversary through an exceptional heritage project and archive that is based at the Bishopsgate Institute. The students learnt skills that they were able to use alongside their academic studies, such as coding qualitative data from oral history interviews.

We helped contribute to INQUEST’s new digital archive website (forthcoming) as well as the podcast, Unlawful Killing. This also included some very cool events which the students took part in and even organised, including various workshops and conferences with expert individuals such as Simon Israel, Lee Lawrence and INQUEST’s executive director Deborah Coles.

This year, the interns worked alongside other Westminster students who were supporting Women in Prison (WIP), the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). Together, the students presented their internship experiences and research at a conference where they invited bereaved family members and other organisations.

Another aspect of the internship was that the students were provided with the opportunity to do some research on a topic of their choosing that was related to INQUEST’s work both past and present. This allowed them to write a blog post (see below) expressing freely their interests and opinions. I have chosen two outstanding pieces of work that connect to INQUEST’s work exploring the themes surrounding community, safety and justice.

**Please note that the opinions expressed in the following blogs do not represent INQUEST’s policy and approach**

• Jackson Kayongo: ‘A Glimpse into Youth Imprisonment’ — this blog post is an exploration of the shortcomings of the youth prison system and the mistreatment of young people.
• Maryam Rahman: ‘Behind Bars: The Untold Stories of Women in Prison’ — like Jackson’s, this blog post raises awareness of the various systemic issues in women’s prisons, using the devastating case of Aisha Cleary and what more we can do to help those on the inside.