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WELCOME Welcome to the first fortnightly briefing from IPP Committee in Action. Every 14 days, we will bring you Shirley Debono’s latest campaign journal, the most important legal developments, photographs from the campaign, selected media coverage and a direct way to support the People’s Inquiry. On 30 August 2026, the Prime Minister committed the Government to ending the injustice of IPP sentences during this Parliament. This is a historic breakthrough—but a commitment is not legislation. We will continue pressing for a published timetable, urgent primary legislation, independent judicial decision-making, properly funded mental-health and resettlement support, and the complete retrospective abolition of every remaining IPP and DPP sentence. FROM SHIRLEY DEBONO RETROSPECTIVE ABOLITION IS THE ONLY FIGHT LEFT Shirley Debono explains why the growing body of evidence—from United Nations findings and Court of Appeal decisions to CCRC referrals and the experiences of prisoners and families—means the IPP legacy can no longer be managed around the edges. IPP was abolished for new cases in 2012. Those already serving the sentence must no longer be left behind. READ SHIRLEY’S POST LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS UN OPINION FOLLOWED BY HABEAS CORPUS CHALLENGE Opinion No. 16/2026 of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the detention of five IPP petitioners arbitrary under international law and called for remedy and a full independent investigation. Applications for habeas corpus were subsequently lodged in the High Court on behalf of Leroy Douglas, Wayne Williams, Shaun Lloyd and Abdullahi Suleman. The courts are now being asked to confront the legality of their continuing detention. READ OPINION NO. 16/2026 COURT OF APPEAL EXPOSES AN URGENT SYSTEMIC FAILURE On 21 August 2026, the Court of Appeal quashed Niki Dean Haycock’s IPP sentence after finding that IPP had never been legally available for the offences of conviction. The unlawful sentence remained unchallenged for almost twenty years. The Court warned that there may be other such cases and identified an urgent need for a system capable of finding them. READ THE OFFICIAL JUDGMENT
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