Email
It’s difficult to pick out what our greatest achievements have been at Liberty. Every year brings triumph and disaster in some form or other. Our strength is that we keep on going; neither resting on our laurels, nor sulking in defeat.
Saying that, there have been some memorable highlights. I will never forget the long battle against 42 days pre-charge detention throughout 2007 and 2008. That campaign was a long – and dirty – fight. The government used every tactic, ethical and otherwise, to discredit us; whereas we relied on hard work, public engagement, creative campaigning and tenacity.
We managed to convince almost every national paper of our position, and on 13 October 2008, an overwhelming defeat in the House of Lords prompted the government to drop the proposals. After the briefing and smearing we had been subjected to, winning the argument on this one was particularly sweet.
Many of our most notable achievements have been cases which have stretched out over years, ascending from one court to the next. Under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, any police officer could stop and search anyone or any vehicle within a specified area, all without suspicion. Our case challenging the power came from an arms fair in the Docklands in September 2003, when we started getting reports that police were stopping and searching many of the peaceful protesters and preventing them from attending the demonstration. Liberty’s clients Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton, a journalist, were both stopped. Pennie was even ordered to stop filming the protest, despite showing her press card.
It emerged that, unbelievably, the whole of Greater London had been secretly designated for stop and search without suspicion since 2001. We had to go all the way to the European Court but finally, in 2010, Strasbourg ruled the counter-terror powers unlawful.
Sometimes our objections are initially out of step with public opinion. When ID cards were first suggested, the Government had the support of 80% of the public. We could see how intrusive the huge database that would sit behind the cards would be: holding at least 50 pieces of information on every adult who remained in the UK for longer than three months. Liberty had to convince opposition parties that this was a policy to unite against, and a law to be abolished should they come into power. The first Bill introduced in the House of Commons by the new coalition government was the Identity Documents Bill, which repealed the ID Cards Act. Even if a Bill becomes law, there is always hope.
But individual successes aside, I feel that we have made human rights a broader public and cross-party concern. The Human Rights Act has taken a bashing from the outset, but I think our work promoting human rights has provided much needed balance in what was a skewed debate.
But of course, my proudest work at Liberty is bringing together the finest multi-disciplinary campaigners in the country. Incredibly hard-working, bright and supportive: we’re more of a family than workforce.
