On Monday 1st February 2016 we were honoured to host Shami Chakrabarti, who spent an hour with students talking about her work supporting and defending human rights as the Director of Liberty, the British civil liberties organisation.

A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until 2001 for Governments of both persuasions. After joining Liberty in 2001, she became heavily involved in its engagement with the ‘War on Terror’ and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society. Since becoming Liberty’s Director in 2003, she has written and spoken widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of a free and democratic society.