Shami Chakrabarti

Common Values: The state of rights and freedoms in Coalition Britain?

A barrister by background, Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty since 2003.

18 months after the Coalition Government was formed, Shami explores the impact on rights and freedoms in Great Britain.

The Common Values of Dignity, equal treatment and fairness are fundamental principles that underpin the British definition of civil liberties but what has proved to be the Government’s approach to these values?

From a promising 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 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.