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One year on, how has the Coalition government fared on human rights? Bound together by the language of rights and liberty, the key to its success will be how well it has protected rights and freedoms. The common values of dignity, equal treatment and fairness bind us all, but do they bind the Coalition partners?

One year on from the Coalition government’s formation, Liberty’s Director, Shami Chakrbarti, reflects on how it has fared on the human rights scorecard. Bound together by the language of rights and liberty, the key to the new Government’s success will be how well it has protected rights and freedoms. From a welcomed start with the repeal of ID cards legislation to the disappointing continuation of the odious control order regime, the Government’s record is certainly mixed. But with the recent announcement that Britain’s human rights framework is to be reviewed by a commission on a British Bill of Rights, we now face the greatest threat to our human rights protection in the lifetime of the Human Rights Act. The common values of dignity, equal treatment and fairness bind us all, but will they continue to bind the Coalition partners?

Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since 2003, having first joined as In-House Counsel in 2001. She became heavily involved in its engagement in the ‘War on Terror’ and in the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society. A barrister by background, who was called to the Bar in 1994, Shami worked as a lawyer in the Home Office between 1996 and 2001 for governments of both persuasions. 

Since becoming Liberty’s Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of democratic society. She is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, a governor of the London School of Economics and the British Film Institute, a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple.