Folks, this piece is last week lectures from the Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti at my university about erosion of human rights in Britain. Below is the piece.......
Liberty director “optimistic” about law and terrorism Monday, 11 February 2008
Shami Chakrabarti outside the Lady Hale Building
Shami Chakrabarti CBE, director of human rights group Liberty, told Salford University students that she was "ultimately optimistic" about the law and terrorism - but argued that the Government's proposed 42-day detention limit for terror suspects is "wrong in principle and counter-productive in practice."
Speaking at the official launch of the University's £10m Salford Law School on Friday 8 February, Shami said she sensed a "change of approach" in the law on terrorism but emphasised the need for suspects to be charged promptly, following the example of common law countries such as Australia and the US, which operate a two-day detention without charge limit.
Describing torture as "the heart of darkness", she also called for an inquiry into recent incidents of persecution and killing in Iraq by UK and US soldiers, and warned that if the military entertains even a low level of torture, "the entire human rights framework will fall down."
A barrister by background, Shami helped to launch the new Salford Law School's purpose-built Lady Hale Building, named after Lady Brenda Hale, the UK's first and only female law lord, who was also present for the launch.
Salford Law School attracted almost 100 budding lawyers when it opened its doors in September - exceeding its target for the first academic year. Shami said: "It is an enormous honour to help open this new school. It is an inspirational symbol of both ancient and modern legal values that will be handed on for generations to come."
Head of Salford Law School, Professor Alistair Alcock added: "Shami is a noted authority on civil liberties and human rights and we are delighted to welcome her to the University. It was fascinating to hear her views on these topical and thought-provoking issues. It was also very satisfying to welcome Lady Hale back to the new building where she laid the foundation stone a year ago."
Shami concluded her speech: "I sense change on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm not prepared to wait for the War on Terror to fizzle out. In the democratic world we need to send a clear signal about what we believe in."
Ends
Notes to Editors
For more information on Salford Law School go to www.law.salford.ac.uk
To find an academic expert for informed comment on a wide range of subjects, go to www.salford.ac.uk/press_office/experts/
To get all the latest news from Salford subscribe to our RSS feed www.salford.ac.uk/press_office/rss_news/
For more information on Liberty, please go to:
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
|
