Shami Chakrabarti



Profile:
Full name: Shami Chakrabarti

Area of interest: Human right and civil liberties

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

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Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/shamichakrabarti

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Education: London School of Economics: Law

Career: see staff profile (Liberty)

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Other roles/Main role: Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties)

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Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: 'Liberty is about more than just one woman', The director of Liberty is as passionate – and optimistic – as the day she took up her job. Robert Chesshyre meets her. The Independent, 6th June 2011

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Controversy/Criticism:
 * see Andy Burnham controversy (Wikipedia)
 * Burnham's Chakrabarti comments have been misread - There is a startling headline on the front of today's Daily Mail, one I have never seen in over 30 years of regular morning reading (this may be why I have to take pills for high blood pressure). "Stop being so miserable!" it tells browbeaten readers like me - Michael White, The Guardian, 20th June 2008

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Website: Guardian.co / Shami Chakrabarti

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Articles:

 * Whistleblowers keep us safe. We can’t allow them to be silenced - With its proposed changes to the Official Secrets Act, the Law Commission would make it all but impossible for government wrongdoing to be exposed - 14th February 2017
 * Theresa May's response to Trump's torture policy is depressing, but not surprising - We need a leader like Corbyn who can stand up to the President. Instead May gave a worrying lacklustre response to Trump's plans to support torture and breach basic human rights - 29th January 2017
 * In excruciating pain. Unable to sleep. Yet John is still ‘fit for work’ - In our Kafka-meets-IDS bureaucracy, disabled people like John are forced into work they can’t do. Like Daniel Blake, he’s being crushed by the system - 26th October 2016
 * As I leave Liberty, the next frontier is an online world that respects human rights - The rights of ordinary Britons are under serious threat by the challenge to the Human Rights Act. But the internet knows no international borders - 14th January 2016
 * ‘How do we keep up the fight for democratic values? With solidarity and storytelling’ - Our leaders stand in solidarity with France, while attacking the human rights laws that bind us together - 2nd December 2015
 * Let me be clear – Edward Snowden is a hero - The government, claiming Snowden has ‘blood on his hands’, is using scare tactics to shut down debate. It is a technique Liberty has felt the full force of - 15th June 2015
 * At its best, the Government's plan to scrap the Human Rights Act is empty pandering to xenophobia - The HRA was a beautifully simple and vital piece of legislation - 15th May 2015
 * Home Office is creating more powers to turn everyone into suspects – but leave us no safer - Isn’t it the responsibility of the security services rather than web firms to investigate terrorists? - 28th November 2014
 * It’s not just Eurosceptics who think the European arrest warrant is rotten - There is much support for change to the EAW system, but a take-it-or-leave-it vote in parliament means it remains a necessary but flawed piece of legislation - 10th November 2014
 * A policeman’s lot must include being called a liar - When I’m walking home late at night, the sight of a police uniform offers real reassurance - 16th February 2014
 * iPhone 5S: has Apple given up on innovation? - Once a company renowned for breaking new ground, Apple is turning into a typical American corporation - 17th September 2013
 * Stop playing politics with human rights - As the European convention on human rights turns 60, Tories advocating UK withdrawal should not forget the lessons of the Holocaust - 3rd September 2013
 * Leveson: I feel for the victims of press intrusion, but some principles must remain sacred - Freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy - 1st December 2012
 * The State wants to spy on you in your home - This dangerous Bill would let the authorities monitor all our phone and internet activity - 5th November 2012
 * Gary McKinnon's ordeal is over – now put a stop to all needless extraditions - Theresa May is to be congratulated for halting McKinnon's extradition, but she must legislate to prevent future injustice - 19th October 2012
 * London 2012: Danny Boyle's story of Britain was a celebration of freedom - For all the criticisms of whitewashing or political correctness, the opening ceremony I took part in was a truthful story of Britain - 30th July 2012
 * 'Secret justice' bill will mean no justice at all - National security doesn't mean we should jettison our proud tradition of fair trials – peers must oppose this bill - 10th July 2012
 * Asbo facelift won't protect the vulnerable - The asbo is dead – but a brace of souped-up new jargon is no shortcut to solving the problem of antisocial behaviour - 23rd May 2012
 * Our human rights are not a fad. We don't need this Botox bill - Replacing the Human Rights Act could lead to a permanent constitutional revolution rather than a statement of basic values - 14th November 2011
 * anti-justice stomach bug spreading'' - Politicians’ complaints about unelected judges and inoffensive human rights laws are unbecoming – and dishonest - 21st February 2011
 * injustice over control orders must stop'' - Conservative voices defending control orders forget how fiercely their own party fought detention without trial - 7th January 2011
 * Theresa be caught by the securocrats?'' - Deportation is no substitute for a fair trial. The coalition must stop this un-British practice - 19th May 2010
 * must apply to all faiths and none'' - The Christian’s right to wear a cross must be defended as fiercely as any other religious liberty - 19th January 2010
 * Dems must defend human rights'' - The Tories are wrong, we shouldn't scrap the Human Rights Act, it remains our best defence against injustice - 22nd September 2009
 * no respect for the presumption of innocence?'' - Despite the Government’s attempts to spin the DNA database issue, the Big Brother state is very much alive - 8th May 2009
 * cheer for Blunkett on ID cards'' - In fairness to the former Godfather of this folly, old habits die hard - 30th April 2009
 * freedoms are not frothy skinny lattes'' - The Damian Green affair and the disastrous fallout from the G20 protests show how our liberties have been compromised - 18th April 2009 (see also: Liberty director was target in police search, The Times, 18th April 2009)
 * fight that is never done'' - The letter that launched Britain's leading civil liberties group inspires another, 75 years later - 24th February 2009
 * In 2009, the fight for liberty is about to go up a gear - The courageous tone set by the US president must serve to inspire us in the struggle to defend the Human Rights Act here - 22nd January 2009
 * Taking liberties with the law - Britain's justice secretary, Jack Straw, has become the master of mindless authoritarianism - 8th December 2008
 * Why I'm defending the shock-jock who branded me ‘dangerous’ - He once called her "the most dangerous woman in Britain", but Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti is now pushing for sacked shock-jock Jon Gaunt to be reinstated - 27th November 2008
 * On 42 days, their lordships were glorious - The rejection of Labour's proposal for detention without charge was a victory for human rights and common sense in parliament - 14th October 2008
 * Of dignity and equality - What liberty means to me: The basis of a just society is that human rights must be extended to everyone, without conditions - 7th July 2008
 * Law and principle are lost in the crazy politics of 42 days - Detention without charge tramples rights won over centuries. Labour MPs must resist prolonging it just for party posturing - 6th June 2008
 * Who's listening? - How can our privacy rights be protected when new legislation on surveillance is constantly cobbled together? - 21st February 2008
 * Conviction politics - Of course, vested interests in secret surveillance oppose the use of intercept evidence in court. It brings their activities under legal scrutiny - 6th February 2008
 * So much for habeas corpus - Make no mistake: these new powers to detain suspects for six weeks trash centuries of British justice and shame us in the eyes of the world - 24th January 2008
 * Liberty begins at home - British moral authority is hurt by failure to practise what is preached to the world on human rights - 8th January 2008



News & updates:

 * The Inventory: Shami Chakrabarti, ‘I don’t know if there’s an afterlife but I want to live as if there isn’t,’ says the human rights campaigner. FT, 20th September 2014
 * Liberty director was target in police search - The Times, 18th April 2009



References:


Links:

 * http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shami-chakrabarti - News updates by The Guardian
 * Wikipedia biog.