Shami Chakrabarti: 'Liberty is about more than just one woman' | The Independent Profiles Shami Chakrabarti: 'Liberty is about more than just one woman' Monday Interview: The director of Liberty is as passionate &ndash; and optimistic &ndash; as the day she took up her job. Robert Chesshyre meets her Sunday 5 June 2011 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online It had been six years since I last sat face-to-face with Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, the civil rights pressure group. The venue was unchanged: her bunker-like office in Southwark, from where she has conducted one of the highest profile lobbying campaigns of the past decade. She will be 42 next week, and might politely be referred to now as a mature woman, no longer the firebrand who captured our television screens in the mid-Noughties. Articulate, impassioned and committed, she ran rings round the staid politicians, hobbled by their platitudes and handcuffed by party lines, who shared studios with her.

And she blew away the kneejerk, rent-a-gob image from which Liberty (formerly the National Council for Civil Liberties) once suffered. When I started in journalism, a reporter could write the NCCL quotes before lifting the phone. Six years ago, I had feared that Chakrabarti might pitch forward out of her chair, so impassioned was she by the issues. The fire still burns, but her delivery is more measured. She is, after all, the wife of a City lawyer, mother of a nine-year-old son, chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, a governor of the London School of Economics (her alma mater), and the recipient of a CBE. Chakrabarti, who wears a green trouser suit, replacing the velvet jackets that were once her uniform, will move offices from her Southwark bunker to a converted music hall in Westminster. Liberty is growing; membership since Chakrabarti took charge eight years ago, has swollen from 7,000 to 11,000; its annual turnover has grown from £1m to £1.5m; its staff from 20 to 25; and its influence has flourished.

Soon Chakrabarti is listing the policy successes of her time in office. "We have defeated proposals to lock people up for 42 days without charge; halted ID cards; had important victories on issues like stop-and-search. We are not alone, but, without sounding arrogant, we have led the field because we have been prepared to say difficult things before they became popular, and have won important arguments with reason, evidence and alternative ideas. "We have persuaded people from a broader spectrum of life and politics that our concerns should be their concerns. People are more alive to the importance of rights and freedoms than they were." However, and it is a huge "however", the failure to educate people to the universal nature of human rights and the manipulation of the "war on terror" have allowed politicians to concoct populist rows; denigrate independent judges (here and in Strasbourg) as "unelected"; attack the Human Rights Act as a pernicious protection for the undeserving; and throw a xenophobic blanket over the right to rights – "our" rights (good) versus "their" rights (usually bad). "When you explain the Human Rights Act, people are very supportive.

But in the absence of effective education, it is easy for politicians and commentators to denigrate it. It is a quite wonderful piece of legislation that allows British judges to adjudicate on the basis of post-war human rights principles. But, the way things are going, it is possible that in the next few years the nation will be swindled out of their modern Bill of Rights." She blames the current mood on the wash created by the "worst excesses of war on terror" – in the US in particular – which gave rise to the idea that you take care of your own people at the expense of others. "People forget how interconnected the world is: we are all foreigners somewhere." It is the independent element in any constitution that guarantees people protection against tyranny. Chakrabarti says: "I am so surprised by the attack on judges for being unelected. Elsewhere we have seen governments come to power with majorities that they pervert into mandates to do as they please. Mugabe was once legitimately elected. There must be independent referees in society who do their best without fear of favour." Liberty is, for this reason, strongly opposed to elected police commissioners. Liberty's successes fuel Chakrabarti's upbeat approach.

Speaking of the opportunism which stains much of public life today, she says: "I have learnt that there is a deep reservoir of good sense and decency among people even in the face of manufactured and populist rows over sensitive issues. I still have optimism." Chakrabarti qualified as a barrister, didn't like the life, so quit to work at the Home Office legal department where young lawyers have access to top people and influence over policy (she has a high regard for the Civil Service). Chakrabarti says there are no absolute human rights. "I believe passionately in free speech and open justice, but it is nonsense to suggest that privacy doesn't matter and is always trumped by media freedom." She adds: "I am glad that politicians have discovered this zeal for open justice so we can know what footballers get up to." Chakrabarti believes that some of the current hostility directed by politicians at judges can be explained as a backlash from the MPs' expenses furore. "Politicians understandably feel bruised by public condemnation.

They are, perhaps, still suffering collective hurt that some parliamentarians have been hauled before ordinary courts of law." Chakrabarti says confining people without allowing them or their lawyers to know what the cases against them are – remain in the now proposed "control orders lite". Both Coalition parties opposed control orders before the election, but now the basic principle of people being subjected to punishment without charge or trial is to remain. Like Asbos, any short-circuiting of due process is lazy, Chakrabarti asserts. People want the police to get the evidence (and Liberty supports allowing phone intercepts as evidence) and the offender to be tried and, if guilty, banged up. Chakrabarti gets flak. Anyone as ubiquitous as she stands accused of a hunger for publicity, and people whose role is to put others to right, as they see it, are liable to be dubbed sanctimonious. The Sun once branded her "the most dangerous woman in Britain", a label Chakrabarti wears with pride. "If you never read what people wrote about you, what kind of campaigner would you be?

At the same time, if you spent your time Googling yourself, you'd go mad." She insists that Liberty is not a one-woman band but confesses to a tendency to hyperbole; she was corrected – quite rightly, she says – when she suggested divisions in British society amounted to "apartheid". Where next? Two former senior Liberty/NCCL women staffers – Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt – entered politics, but Chakrabarti is not temperamentally suited, she claims, to toe a party line or to take pot shots at opponents just because that is the game. She is happy to be an "establishment" (my word, not hers) figure but retains, however, the bright-eyed characteristics that propelled her to national attention. "I am older... but there is still something of the professional teenager in my role." The new "Liberty Hall" in Westminster will be a far cry from the shabby rooms near King's Cross, where I first met Chakrabarti's long departed predecessors, and even a fair distance from this corner of Southwark. Housed within strolling distance of Parliament, the campaign for civil liberties will finally have arrived at the heart of government.

Chakrabarti's challenges will be to translate that proximity into a public acceptance of human rights for all humanity and not just for themselves and their own kind. It will be a test even of her optimism. A life in brief * Education Girls comprehensive Bentley Wood High School, and Harrow Weald Sixth Form College. Bachelor of Laws at London School of Economics * Career Called to the Bar in 1994 and worked for the Home Office until 2001 before joining Liberty as an in-house counsel. Director of Liberty since 2003 * Other roles Master of the bench of Middle Temple, chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, member of LSE's ruling council, governor of the British Film Institute, former judge of the Orange Prize for new fiction * Awards CBE in 2007, Honorary doctorate from the School of Law at University of Southampton More about: Shami Chakrabarti: Who is the outgoing director of civil rights group Liberty? Shami Chakrabarti: Who is the outgoing director of civil rights group Liberty?

January 14, 2016 13:50 GMT Civil rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti has announced her resignation from Liberty Getty Shami Chakrabarti is the civil rights campaigner who did not let personal attacks get in the way of her quest to make the UK a fairer place. The Liberty director may have been mocked as "Shami, Shami, Shami" by radio presenter Jon Gaunt, and described as "the most dangerous woman in Britain" in the commentator's Sun column, but that did not stop the 46-year-old from defending the outspoken host when Talksport sacked him. Gaunt, who had been in care himself, accused a Redbridge councillor of being a "health Nazi" after the local authority proposed banning smokers from fostering children. Chakrabarti argued her former critic should not have been dismissed and wrote to Talksport. "As someone who has been on the receiving end of Jon Gaunt's blunt polemic in print and on the radio, I believe that the airwaves of a great democracy would be the poorer for his absence.

I urge you to reinstate Mr Gaunt's programme without delay and have offered him support in the unlikely and unfortunate event that recourse to the Human Rights Act proves necessary," she said. Gaunt was never reinstated by Talksport but he now sings the praises of his unlikely defender on his new station, Talk2MeRadio . Gaunt's was just one of the many cases Liberty and Chakrabarti have taken on since she joined the human rights group in 2001 from the Home Office as an in-house lawyer, later becoming Liberty's director in 2003. The role has seen the second-generation immigrant (Chakrabarti was born to Hindu-Bengali parents in 1969) become a household name. She is a regular on current affairs shows such as the BBC's flagship debate programme Question Time and was named in a 2010 Telegraph feature as one of Britain's most powerful women. When the Olympics came to London in 2012, Chakrabarti was chosen as one of the flag carriers. But beyond the TV screens, the civil liberties activists was conducting some important work, even when her causes were not fashionable.

Probably one of her most well-known campaigns was against New Labour's attempts to introduce identity (ID) cards. In a pre-WikiLeaks and Ed Snowden age, the then home secretary David Blunkett argued that the scheme would help the authorities crackdown on crime and illegal immigrants. But Chakrabarti, a graduate of the London School of Economics, warned the proposed programme would only increase discrimination. "The emphasis on immigration as the justification for an ID card is of itself, we say, going to increase the likelihood of discrimination in the application of the card, and also, crucially, in its two-tier staged nature it is in itself discriminatory," she told the Home Affairs Committee in 2004. "We have had advice that it may well breach the new law in targeting initially foreign nationals, including EU nationals, for the bite of the scheme before it becomes compulsory later down the line for British nationals." Mike Harris, director of advocacy group 89up, pays tribute to Chakrabarti Shami has done an incredible job of defending human rights in the period after 9/11 when successive governments have attempted to curtail liberty in our country. Shami hasn't just defended our rights but has raised their profile. She will be hard to replace.

However, the scheme was watered down and eventually scrapped when the coalition government came into power after the 2010 general election. But Chakrabarti's notoriety has been accompanied by criticism, notably in The Spectator magazine. Former BBC Radio 4 Today programme editor Rod Liddle has accused her of having "more job titles than an African dictator", while Douglas Murray described Liberty's pro-Human Rights Act video as a "misinformation campaign". However, even her detractors, including Liddle, admit Chakrabarti has had a highly effective campaigner at Liberty; she will stay at the organisation until her successor is found. Frances Butler, Liberty's chairwoman, said: "Under Shami's transformative leadership, Liberty has greatly extended its expertise, influence and membership." More UK politics Shami Chakrabarti Quotes @Quotio Shami Chakrabarti Quotes FameRank: 6 "Sharmishta Chakrabarti" Order of the British Empire/CBE is, since September 2003, the director of Liberty (pressure group)/Liberty, the British civil liberties advocacy organisation and, since July 2008, the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.

In September 2014, she took up the role as Chancellor of the University of Essex. Search Ms Shami Chakrabarti Our Lawyer of the Month is Shami Chakrabarti. Shami was born in London in 1969 and has been the Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since September 2003. Shami read law at the London School of Economics and graduated in 1991. In order to fund her Bar Finals she held several jobs for two years, including doing a bit of teaching for the University of London external law students and “pulling pints” at the Middle Temple Bar. She was able to fund her Bar Finals in 1993 and was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1994. She did her pupillage at 39 Essex Street Chambers. In 1996 Shami joined the Home Office as an employed barrister where she remained until the summer of 2001. At the Home Office Shami worked for both the Conservative and Labour Governments on policy, legislation and litigation in the Counter-terror, asylum and criminal justice areas and on the implementation of the Human Rights Act.

During her time at the Home Office, Shami also acted in a number of high profile cases both in the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Shami’s bosses at the Home Office included Michael Howard, the then Home Secretary under John Major and the immediate predecessor of David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. On 10 September 2001 Shami joined Liberty as In- House Counsel. This was indeed a very significant date as the day after she joined Liberty, we had the 9/11 attack on the United States of America. The effect of this was that Liberty suddenly had an automatic priority – domestic consequences on the war on terror. In the days and indeed weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attack, Liberty was one of the very few vocal, if not the sole vocal opposition to the emergency measures by the Government to combat terrorism, including the Belmarsh Policy (detention of foreign national without trial). Others were however, later to join the condemnation. Shami therefore became heavily involved in Liberty’s engagement with the “War on Terror” and with the promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and the society at large.

She has vigorously attacked the proposed ID cards, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 (prior to and since becoming law), the wide use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) as infringing civil liberties, draconian, unnecessary (as there are laws on the statute books which more than adequately cover the same acts) and dangerous quick fix reactionary legislations. In September 2003 Shami became the Director of Liberty. She has campaigned passionately, vigorously and tirelessly against anti-terrorist measures and legislations since the 9/11 terrorists attack and the more recent London bombing on 7 July 2005, even when this was an unpopular stance. There was hardly a day, particularly in the latter part of 2005 when Shami was not our screens, in the papers or on the radio. She is a frequent contributor on radio and newspaper on issues on civil liberties and has published numerous articles on civil liberty issues for a number of practitioner and other journals.

Shami is a Governor of the London School of Economics and sits on the Advisory Board of the British Institute of Human Rights and the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association and is an Editorial Board Member of the European Human Rights Law Review. In 2004 Shami was selected by The Observer newspaper as one of 80 prodigiously talented young people who they believe will shape our lives in the 21st century. In December 2005, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme placed Shami on the shortlist of ten people who may run Britain. She was short-listed in the Channel 4 Political Awards 2006 for the "Most Inspiring Political Figure" award. In a vote made by the public, she came second behind Jamie Oliver, beating Bob Geldof, Tony Blair, David Cameron and George Galloway. Also in 2005 Shami was named as a winner in the sixth annual Asian Women of Achievements Awards. She memorably had a single in her honour titled "Shami Chakrabarti" by the band the Dastards. Shami is touched by the single of the group who are members of Liberty.

She describes the group as “talented members of Liberty who are an indication that it is not true that the young are not interested in politics but they are just uninspired by the political parties”. In February 2006 Shami was awarded the title of "anarchist in a barrister’s wig" by the ”laddish” magazine, Loaded. Shami was awarded honorary degrees from Wolverhampton University 2004 and Loughborough University in 2005. Below is our interview with Shami: BLD: What do you say to those who state that you are more concerned about terrorists and not the victims, such as the 7th July victims of the London bombing? SC: It is not true but I can see why people get that impression. However, it must be understood that when terrorist attacks happen, there is a knee-jerk reaction. Internment and racial profiling do not reduce terrorists’ threats and may well increase them. We at Liberty believe in human rights – of the victims and the suspects. We take on many cases of victims anonymously and there is no media focus on this. The media is however, much interested in caricature. Liberty is not for terrorism but against it.

Far from being soft on terrorism, our belief is anti-terrorism. BLD: If you were to choose a profession other than law, what would it be and why? SC: Be a screenwriter because I love the cinema. You can subtly influence millions in an entertaining way. BLD: What was the best career advice you were given? SC: When uncertain about whether or not to accept a post, imagine turning down the job over the phone and hanging up and then see how you feel having done that. BLD: What was the best career advice you will give to other lawyers and budding lawyers? SC: Law is not easy. If you want to make lots of money there are easier way to do this and this is the same even if you are a top City lawyer. If however, you care about basic democratic society, there is nothing to beat it. A great lawyer is someone who can speak to non-lawyers. BLD: The person you most admire (dead or alive)? SC: There are so many! Of lawyers, Helena Kennedy QC, Davis Pannick QC and Julia Wheldon are just some of the great lawyers I have had the privilege of working with. In politics, Mary Robinson.

Also my husband, whom I admire as a person and as a lawyer. BLD: Tell us your professional high point(s). SC: This job has been a great privilege and everything else is living up to it. BLD: What was your worst case/worst moment as a lawyer? SC: Undoubtedly losing the Belmarsh case before the Court of Appeal as it did not make sense that the policy of locking up foreign nationals because they were foreigners was upheld as right. Mercifully, the House of Lords overruled that decision. BLD: What was the most famous/interesting case(s) you have handled to date? SC: The Belmarsh case. I was still In-House Counsel at Liberty when the case started and was very involved with the trial which I wouldn’t be now as the Director at Liberty. BLD: What are you most passionate/happiest about? SC: my son BLD: What are your dislikes? SC: Arrogance. BLD: Any professional regrets? SC: Not intervening in the case of S v Marper which decided the legality of keeping the DNA of those acquitted (just like those who were convicted) for 5 years. Effectively lumping the acquitted with the convicted.

We did not intervene as the government threatened us with costs. If we had lost the case, it would have placed Liberty in a potentially dangerous position, devastating our finances and being unable to deliver services. The case is now before the European Court and we have now intervened in the case. BLD: If you could rule the world for a day what would you change/do? SC: Ensure that the Home Secretary is not allowed to legislate for 5 years and concentrate on actually achieving positive outputs other than by legislation BLD: How do you cope with the media attention and find the time to do so much – head Liberty, write, give endless interviews (like this one!), sit on different bodies and have time for family life? SC: I have lots of help, fantastic colleagues and fantastic help at home. I have it a lot easier than a lot of other mums, especially single mothers. BLD: Do tell us about your family. SC: I am married to a solicitor and have a 4 year old son. My family life keeps me sane!

Director of Liberty to discuss faith and rights in the workplace Contact the PR team Director of Liberty to discuss faith and rights in the workplace The director of human rights group Liberty is to deliver the annual LexisNexis Butterworth Lecture on Law and Society at Queen Mary, University of London on Tuesday 23 March 2010. Thursday 25 February 2010 Tweet Shami Chakrabarti Shami Chakrabarti, a leading civil liberties campaigner and lawyer, will speak on faith in the workplace - an issue that Liberty frequently campaigns on. “If we really believe in freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” argues Shami, “this must include the right to the faith or belief of your choice, the right to no faith and crucially to be a heretic to any religion. “As with other forms of individual expression and autonomy, we should be slow to interfere with the expression or manifestation of religious or other belief, doing so only when such intervention is necessary and proportionate to protecting the rights and freedoms of others,” she adds.

Most recently, the pressure group represented airport check-in clerk, Nadia Eweida - a devout Christian, who challenged a British Airways’ dress policy that stopped her wearing a crucifix at work. BA eventually relented, changing its policy to allow Eweida to return to work, but she is now taking the airline to the High Court in a bid to force them to admit it was wrong in demanding she stop wearing a religious symbol. A Barrister by background, Shami was called to the Bar in 1994, before spending six years working at the Home Office as a legal adviser to ministers and senior policy makers. She joined Liberty, as In-House Counsel, on 10 September 2001 and spent the following two years campaigning against post-9/11 anti-terrorist measures and counter-terrorism legislation. Since becoming Liberty’s Director in 2003, Shami has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of human rights and civil liberties. 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.

Shami was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours. Related items Shami Chakrabarti CBE Search Shami Chakrabarti CBE Shami Chakrabarti is the Director of Liberty, the civil liberties and human rights promotion group, and has campaigned on a wide range of subjects including the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 and the proposed ID cards. Shami became a barrister in 1994 and was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2007. The Honorary Award of DUniv was bestowed in recognition of her services to civil liberties and human rights in the UK. Fighting for Human Rights has been a constant battle for Shami Chakrabarti CBE since becoming a lawyer. 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. During that time she worked on policy in the Counter-terror asylum and Criminal Justice areas, and on the implementation of the Human Rights Act within Government.

Shami became the Director of Liberty, the civil liberties and human rights promotion group, in September 2003 and has since written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of post-World War Two human rights. She has campaigned through a wide range of media against the proposed ID cards, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 and the wide use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, among others. A frequent contributor to radio and The Independent newspaper, Shami was named as the second most inspirational political figure behind Jamie Oliver in the 2006 Channel 4 Political Awards. She was also named in the top ten of the “Who Runs Britain” poll run by BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. In 2005 Shami won the sixth annual Lloyds TSB Asian Women of Achievements Awards. Shami was recently appointed Governor of the London School of Economics and also sits on the Advisory Board of the British Institute of Human Rights and the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association. In the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2007 Shami has been made a CBE. She lives in London with her husband and her four year old son.

Shami Chakrabarti to quit role at rights group Liberty - BBC News BBC News Shami Chakrabarti to quit role at rights group Liberty 14 January 2016 Close share panel Civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti is to quit her role at campaign group Liberty. Ms Chakrabarti described her 12 years as Liberty's director as an "enormous privilege", and said she was leaving the group "stronger than ever". Under her leadership, Liberty, which was founded in 1934, has campaigned on issues such as stop-and-search powers and compulsory ID cards. The 46-year-old will remain in her role until a successor is appointed. Liberty said recruitment for her replacement would begin in the coming weeks.

Shami Chakrabarti profile Image caption Shami Chakrabarti appeared on the Andrew Marr programme alongside UKIP's Nigel Farage Born in London and studied law at the London School of Economics Worked as a lawyer at the Home Office between 1996 and 2001 Joined Liberty as in-house counsel in 2001, becoming its director two years later As Liberty's director, she often appeared on political programmes alongside other public figures to debate topics such as the aborted plans to impose ID cards, surveillance and detention limits Made a CBE in 2007 and was one of six people to have worked with Lord Justice Leveson on his inquiry into press ethics Was among those carrying the Olympic flag into the Olympic stadium for the London 2012 games Released her first book, On Liberty, in October 2014 Once described by radio presenter and Sun columnist Jon Gaunt as "Britain's most dangerous woman" Ms Chakrabarti said: "With members, colleagues, lawyers, journalists and politicians from across the spectrum, we have held three prime ministers and six home secretaries to account.

"Liberty's first president, EM Forster, rightly called defending civil liberties 'the fight that is never done'. "I leave Liberty secure in the knowledge that we're stronger and more ready for that fight than ever." Liberty would now be looking for a director who was "ready to defend [human rights] well into the future", she added. Ms Chakrabarti has also written a column in the Guardian in which she says she has "always sympathised with those charged with security rather than liberty". "But this trade-off simply no longer works," she added. "What is 'national security' in the 21st century if not the personal and (increasingly) cyber-security of millions of people?" The group's chairman, Frances Butler, said Liberty had "greatly extended its expertise, influence and membership" under Ms Chakrabarti's leadership. She joined Liberty as in-house Counsel the day before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and became director in September 2003. During her time at its helm Ms Chakrabarti has been a constant defender of the Human Rights Act.

Ms Chakrabarti once wrote that she became a lawyer after reading the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, saying the novel had had a "profound effect on me". Novel inspiration Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter that she was "sad to see" Ms Chakrabarti stand down, describing her as having "been a superb champion of human rights". Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, Keir Starmer, who is the former director of public prosecutions, congratulated Ms Chakrabarti and said she had transformed Liberty. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said she would be "much missed" by Liberty and described her as "a strong, strident and liberal voice in many public debates". Conservative MP and civil liberties campaigner David Davis told the Guardian Ms Chakrabarti had been a "remarkable director of Liberty". "She has been a doughty fighter in defence of that freedom and very successful. "She was very much instrumental in the rejection of ID cards and the control order regimes - perhaps one of the most illiberal policies of any government.

She has a formidable track record and will be greatly missed." Shami Chakrabarti on David Miranda detaining: It shows power of the Terrorism Act is broad and poisonous - Shami Chakrabarti - Mirror Online Detained: David Miranda, left. and Glenn Greenwald (Photo: Getty) Share Get politics updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email In Britain we live in the oldest unbroken democracy on earth – not a police state. And yet the increasing powers given to police under the Terrorism Act has passed under the radar. The detention of David Miranda, the partner of the journalist Glenn Greenwald, who wrote about secret mass surveillance programmes in Britain and the US exposed by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, has highlighted one particular abuse of power that Liberty has been concerned about. This power is Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, under which a person can be held for up to nine hours at an airport without being under any suspicion of criminality. It could be you or me. The power is so broad, and the authorities don’t have to justify it. That is the problem.

We all have something to fear from very, very broad coercive powers that can be used and abused by accident or design. Schedule 7 is far too easy to abuse, whether it is discrimination, racial or political abuse. The power is so broad it will cause injustice. It’s no good politicians complaining about how a law is used, when the law itself is rotten. If you don’t comply, and tell the authorities you will not answer their questions, then you are liable to a criminal prosecution. Worse still, you could get stuck without access to a publicly funded lawyer when this happens. When you get arrested on a street in Britain, you’ve got a right to a lawyer. But at an airport this is not the same. You could be in there without even knowing who is questioning you. Is it the security services, the police, Special Branch, MI5, the UK Border Agency? You just don’t know. In this case of Mr Miranda basic principles of freedom of speech are under threat and yet we have no idea who ordered his detention or who was involved in his questioning. He flew from Germany, and surely if he was any risk, the authorities in Berlin would have reacted.

When it first became clear the United States government wanted to get their hands on whistleblower Edward Snowden, the British Government was among the first to offer support. Within hours they had warned airlines not to fly the former CIA worker to the UK. So this latest move by Britain could well be viewed by many as ordered by someone in Washington DC, not London. But because of the secrecy involved, we don’t know. The journalist Glenn Greenwald hasn’t broken any British laws in publishing his exposes from his source Edward Snowden, and yet in this sinister fashion his partner is detained. The work journalists like him do keeps our democracy healthy - intimidation tactics like this have no place in a Britain that values the press’s ability to report freely. Liberty already has a case lodged in the European Court of Human Rights challenging this provision of the Terrorism Act. This isn’t just about whether the suspicion is reasonable or not; this is not requiring any suspicion at all before detaining people. You can be kept under lock and key without any basis, not even reasonable suspicion, which is the normal trigger for a stop and search power. This is no suspicion at all – you can just be detained.

What happened yesterday is dramatic because it’s obviously political – the man in question is in a relationship with a journalist who has highlighted the surveillance scandal on both sides of the Atlantic. But there are lots of British Muslims who are stopped so routinely under Schedule 7 that they have started building it into their travel plans. They add several hours otherwise they will miss flights and connections. It has become so normal that they just expect it to happen. In the way most people factor in a few hours at the airport for check-in, they add an extra few hours knowing they will be stopped under Schedule 7. Liberty has a client who was detained in November 2010 with his elderly mother after they had flown back to Heathrow via Bahrain. He is British. He was detained for more than four hours. He was asked about his salary, his voting habits and the costs of his Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. They went through his possessions with a fine tooth comb; they made copies of his credit cards; they kept his mobile phone and SIM cards which were only returned eight days later. This man had never in his life been arrested or detained by the police. This kind of abuse is possible when you have the power to detain people with no reasonable suspicion.

People can be detained for many hours and they can be strip-searched, which can be very humiliating, with absolutely no suspicion of criminality. You have your property confiscated and you are swabbed in your mouth for a DNA sample. It’s one thing to be strip-searched if you are suspected of carrying drugs or explosives. There are laws for that and this isn’t one of them. Imagine what it feels like for thousands of British people. The statistics are breathtaking. In 2009 when British Asians made up 5.9% of the population, they were 44% of those detained under Schedule 7. Some people are stopped pretty much every time they come in and out of the country, and asked the same pointless questions. Nobody says Britain should not have proper anti-terror powers, but when you have powers so broad, so ripe for such abuse, it sets people against each other rather than uniting them in the cause of fighting terror. What happened to Mr Miranda at Heathrow Airport yesterday was a shocking development. But it is not entirely a bad thing because now we have MPs who have never spoken out before waking up to the dangers of this power.

In fact this case may help us to get Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act scrapped, once and for all. Arbitrary powers bring huge dangers of injustice. When these things are passed, people think it will never happen to them. Cases like this make us realise anybody could be targeted. This is the wake-up call we need – let’s scrap these poisonous powers. Like us on Facebook Shami Chakrabarti to quit role at rights group Liberty - BBC News BBC News Shami Chakrabarti to quit role at rights group Liberty 14 January 2016 Close share panel Civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti is to quit her role at campaign group Liberty. Ms Chakrabarti described her 12 years as Liberty's director as an "enormous privilege", and said she was leaving the group "stronger than ever". Under her leadership, Liberty, which was founded in 1934, has campaigned on issues such as stop-and-search powers and compulsory ID cards. The 46-year-old will remain in her role until a successor is appointed. Liberty said recruitment for her replacement would begin in the coming weeks.

Shami Chakrabarti profile Image caption Shami Chakrabarti appeared on the Andrew Marr programme alongside UKIP's Nigel Farage Born in London and studied law at the London School of Economics Worked as a lawyer at the Home Office between 1996 and 2001 Joined Liberty as in-house counsel in 2001, becoming its director two years later As Liberty's director, she often appeared on political programmes alongside other public figures to debate topics such as the aborted plans to impose ID cards, surveillance and detention limits Made a CBE in 2007 and was one of six people to have worked with Lord Justice Leveson on his inquiry into press ethics Was among those carrying the Olympic flag into the Olympic stadium for the London 2012 games Released her first book, On Liberty, in October 2014 Once described by radio presenter and Sun columnist Jon Gaunt as "Britain's most dangerous woman" Ms Chakrabarti said: "With members, colleagues, lawyers, journalists and politicians from across the spectrum, we have held three prime ministers and six home secretaries to account.

"Liberty's first president, EM Forster, rightly called defending civil liberties 'the fight that is never done'. "I leave Liberty secure in the knowledge that we're stronger and more ready for that fight than ever." Liberty would now be looking for a director who was "ready to defend [human rights] well into the future", she added. Ms Chakrabarti has also written a column in the Guardian in which she says she has "always sympathised with those charged with security rather than liberty". "But this trade-off simply no longer works," she added. "What is 'national security' in the 21st century if not the personal and (increasingly) cyber-security of millions of people?" The group's chairman, Frances Butler, said Liberty had "greatly extended its expertise, influence and membership" under Ms Chakrabarti's leadership. She joined Liberty as in-house Counsel the day before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and became director in September 2003. During her time at its helm Ms Chakrabarti has been a constant defender of the Human Rights Act.

Ms Chakrabarti once wrote that she became a lawyer after reading the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, saying the novel had had a "profound effect on me". Novel inspiration Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter that she was "sad to see" Ms Chakrabarti stand down, describing her as having "been a superb champion of human rights". Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, Keir Starmer, who is the former director of public prosecutions, congratulated Ms Chakrabarti and said she had transformed Liberty. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said she would be "much missed" by Liberty and described her as "a strong, strident and liberal voice in many public debates". Conservative MP and civil liberties campaigner David Davis told the Guardian Ms Chakrabarti had been a "remarkable director of Liberty". "She has been a doughty fighter in defence of that freedom and very successful. "She was very much instrumental in the rejection of ID cards and the control order regimes - perhaps one of the most illiberal policies of any government. She has a formidable track record and will be greatly missed."

Question: Shami Chakrabati became the director of which British pressure group in 2003?
Answer: Liberty