Shami Chakrabarti

Entrance £8, £5 concessions (payable on door)

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Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and tireless campaigner for human rights, will deliver the 2015 lecture in memory of Corin Redgrave.

In the introduction to her recently published best-selling book ‘On Liberty’ Shami writes:

”These are challenging times for human rights. The ill-judged and misnamed ‘War on Terror’ has morphed into a permanent state of exception becoming the rule. This has been triggered not only by horrific crimes against people and the terror of collapsing towers but by collapsing markets, economies and institutions. No one is above the law. Yet some have readily decided that the rule of law is too exacting and human rights principles too expensive in times of insecurity and austerity.

As I write, some senior figures in the Conservative Party and the UK Independence Party that has so tweaked its tail propose abolishing the Human Rights Act and withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights. They are wrong. . . .Our responsibility is to previous generations, who fought for rights and freedoms and to future generations, for whom we hold them in trust.”

Coming at the start of an election year we hope this lecture will help raise important questions concerning human rights that we could all fruitfully address to candidates during the election campaign.

Corin Redgrave was not only an outstanding artist but an inspirational, passionate and steadfast campaigner for human rights. For over 40 years Corin worked for and alongside those in struggle against injustice whether in the labour and trade union movement or in individual cases of miscarriages of justice and for those detained without trial in Guantanamo. No case was too big or too small.

Corin was tireless in his opposition to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the so-called ‘War on Terror’ and his work was recognised both at home and abroad. He was a founder of the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission and Peace and Progress – A Party for Human Rights.

Shami Chakrabarti studied law at the London School of Economics and was subsequently called to the Bar by the Middle Temple. She was a member of the panel of the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking. Shami is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Shami has worked for Liberty since 2001 and was appointed Director 11 years ago, since which time she has led vigorous campaigns on issues as diverse as privacy laws, ASBOs and anti-terror legislation.

‘This lecture is being organised by Peace and Progress – A Voice for Human Rights’