Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith, motivated by their humanist convictions.
Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond,, is a British judge who served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2017 until her retirement in 2020.
Helena Florence Normanton, QC was the first female barrister in the United Kingdom. In November 1922, she was the second woman to be called to the Bar of England and Wales, following the example set by Ivy Williams in May 1922. When she married, she kept her surname and in 1924, she was the first British married woman to have a passport in the name she was born with. In October 2021, Normanton was honoured by the installation of an English Heritage Blue plaque at her London home in Mecklenburgh Square.
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson is an Australian-British barrister, academic, author and broadcaster. Robertson is a founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. He serves as a Master of the Bench at the Middle Temple, a recorder, and visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London.
Ivy Williams was the first woman to be called to the English bar, in May 1922. She never practised, but she was the first woman to teach law at a British university.
Mecklenburgh Square is a Grade II listed square in Bloomsbury, London. The square and its garden were part of the Foundling Estate, a residential development of 1792–1825 on fields surrounding and owned by the Foundling Hospital. The square was named in honour of King George III's queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It was begun in 1804, but was not completed until 1825.
Geraldine Van Bueren is a British international human rights lawyer. She is Professor Emerita of International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary University of London and barrister. The Independent newspaper has described her as one of the stars in the Law Department.
SharmishtaChakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
Shahram Taghavi is a barrister practising in the United Kingdom. He is a specialist in judicial review, human rights, immigration and EU law. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1994. He is a partner at Article 1, a law firm specialising in immigration, EU freedoms of movement and human rights law. He practised as an independent barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in human rights, immigration and public law. He was joint head of the Human Rights and Public law departments and head of the Immigration department at Simons Muirhead & Burton solicitors. He was a Senior Barrister at Bates Wells & Braithwaite LLP as a member of their Public & Regulatory, Human Rights and Immigration departments, Deputy Head of Human Rights and Immigration at Lewis Silkin LLP, Head of Human Rights and Immigration at Charles Russell LLP and National Head of Immigration and Human Rights at Grant Thornton LLP.
Edward Hamilton Fitzgerald is a British barrister who specialises in criminal law, public law, and international human rights law. His work against the death penalty has led him to represent criminals such as: Myra Hindley, Mary Bell, Maxine Carr, various IRA prisoners, and Abu Hamza. Fitzgerald is currently the joint head of Doughty Street Chambers.
Blackstone Chambers is a set of barristers' chambers in the Temple district of central London. Established in the 1950s, as of 2022 it had 119 tenants, of whom more than 50 are silks.
Jennifer Robinson is an Australian human rights lawyer and barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London.
Perinçek v. Switzerland is a 2013 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning public statements by Doğu Perinçek, a Turkish nationalist political activist and member of the Talat Pasha Committee, who was convicted by a Swiss court for publicly denying the Armenian genocide. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison and fined 3000 Swiss francs.
Amal Clooney is an English international human rights lawyer. She has represented several high-profile clients, including former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad, Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa, Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, and Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. She has also held various appointments with both the United Nations and the Government of the United Kingdom. She is an adjunct law professor at Columbia Law School. In 2016, she and her husband, American actor George Clooney, co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
Martha Spurrier is a British barrister and human rights campaigner. She was the director of the advocacy group Liberty from 2016 to 2024.
Kadyr Yusupov was an Uzbekistani diplomat who was held in prison on charges of treason. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and several prominent international NGOs called for his immediate release and rehabilitation.
Adam Wagner is a Doughty Street Chambers barrister, a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's panel of counsel.
Jonathan Paul Cooper was a British barrister and human rights activist, described by The Guardian journalist Owen Boycott as "at the forefront of efforts to decriminalise homosexuality around the world". He practised at Doughty Street Chambers and edited the European Human Rights Law Review. In 2011, he co-founded the Human Dignity Trust, a UK-based charity that focuses on strategic litigation against the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide, and served as its director until 2016.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is an Irish-born barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, specialising in human rights and civil liberties.
The Justice Gap is an online UK-based magazine "about the law and justice and the difference between the two". The magazine was set up in 2011 by Jon Robins, a journalist and a lecturer in criminology at Brighton University, who remains its editor. Robins is also the author of books including The Justice Gap: Whatever Happened to Legal Aid?, Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Crisis in Our Justice System and Justice in a Time of Austerity.
