Camila Zapata Besso > Doughty Street Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile
Doughty Street Chambers Offices
53-54 DOUGHTY STREET
LONDON
WC1N 2LS
England
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Camila Zapata Besso
Position
Camila practises in asylum, immigration, public law, civil liberties and international law.
Career
Camila is regularly instructed to appear in the First-tier and Upper Tribunals in complex asylum, human rights and deport appeals for vulnerable adults and children. She has particular experience representing victims of human trafficking, torture and sexual violence, unaccompanied minors, individuals with mental health needs and those who lack capacity.
Camila’s experience of the range of immigration matters also includes issues relating to revocation of refugee status, ‘first countries of asylum’ and the Immigration Rules (including entry clearance). She is developing a practice in asylum claims involving national security issues and concurrent extradition proceedings.
She is in the Council of Europe pool of experts for the provision of consultancy services in the areas of migration and asylum.
Camila represents clients in judicial review claims, including on an urgent basis, in the Administrative Court and Upper Tribunal. These include challenges to fresh claim decisions, certification, immigration detention, removal, trafficking, asylum support and the issuance of passports.
Recently, Camila acted as junior to the team of counsel which successfully challenged the unlawful detention and mistreatment of immigration detainees held at Manston House, a Short-term Holding Facility in Kent. The high-profile legal challenge resulted in Manston House being emptied.
She has also been led in a JR challenging the SSHD’s failure to initiate an Article 3 ECHR-compliant investigation into the Park Inn Hotel attack in Glasgow, and a planning JR where she represented the Seven Sisters’ Latin Village market traders in their challenge against the government’s decision to redevelop the market.
Camila also does advisory work for NGOs in respect of novel, complex and strategic legal challenges involving modern slavery issues.
Camila advises claimants in civil damages claims against the police and prisons, including false imprisonment, assault, malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office and claims under the Human Rights Act 1998. She represents bereaved family members in inquests engaging Article 2 ECHR.
Camila was junior for the claimant in TPKN v Ministry of Defence [2019] EWHC 1488 (QB). The primary issue was whether the Ministry of Defence could be held vicariously liable for the rape of the claimant by a fellow soldier on base, following a social event. The claimant successfully appealed against summary judgment/strike out on all grounds.
During her pupillage under the supervision of Maya Sikand QC and Keir Monteith QC at Garden Court Chambers, Camila worked on statutory criminal appeals against conviction for victims of human trafficking (including R v L; R v N [2017] EWCA Crim 2129), and drafted grounds of referral to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. She also appeared in the Crown, Magistrates and Youth courts for trials, bail hearings, sentencing, contested Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings and Criminal Behaviour Order hearings.
Camila has experience in public international law, with a specific focus on international human rights, international humanitarian law and international cultural heritage law.
She has advised in an international civil claim against several transnational mining corporations, and is keen to develop this practice. She has also represented an individual subject to the internal disciplinary proceedings of an international financial institution, resulting in all the complaints against the individual (including conflict of interest and corruption) being dismissed.
Camila jointly drafted an amicus curiae submission to the Colombian Constitutional Court in a case brought by Wayúu indigenous peoples against Carbones del Cerrejón mining company (now owned by Glencore), involving the rights of the Wayúu to their ancestral river (the ‘Arroyo Bruno’) under international human rights and international environmental law. Another amicus curiae before the Colombian Constitutional Court in a case between the national army and the San José de Apartadó Peace Community concerned the right to freedom of expression of human rights defenders working in the midst of post-conflict situations.
She was recently the member of an international lawyers’ delegation which assessed the deteriorating human rights situation of rural indigenous communities in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala. She is working on a full report, for publication in September 2023.
In 2021 Camila reported on the criminal trial of Santiago Uribe, the brother of former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee. She acted as an independent international electoral observer at the 2020 Bolivian Presidential elections. In 2019 the Bar Council awarded her the International Legal Professional Scholarship to deliver conferences on human trafficking and modern slavery in Mexico and Colombia.
Camila regularly accepts domestic and international pro bono instructions from NGOs including Advocate, Bail for Immigration Detainees, ABColombia, the Colombian Caravana and the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk.
Languages
Spanish
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Immigration (including business immigration)
(Rising stars)Ranked: Tier 1Camila Zapata Besso – Doughty Street Chambers ‘Camila is a highly astute barrister, who is highly personable and also hugely analytical. Her Spanish language abilities and deep understanding of Latin America add a further layer of expertise in cases involving that region.’