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A FREEDOM FIGHTER WEIGHS IN

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Autumn 2008

Intelligent Life asked 11 eminent people from different walks of life to look back over their adult lifetime and name the freedom we have gained and lost that means the most to them. They were free to take freedom in any sense, political or cultural, social or technological. What mattered was that it mattered to them.

THE FREEDOM FIGHTER: SHAMI CHAKRABARTI

Aged 39, director of the British pressure group Liberty and former barrister

FREEDOM LOST:

Working for Liberty, I have a ringside seat at the gradual dilution of the freedoms we so often take for granted. One freedom that, if not lost, has, at the very least, been significantly restricted is speech and protest--the very oxygen of democracy. We have seen sweeping anti-terror powers used to end peaceful protests; protesters convicted for reading out the names of dead British soldiers and Iraqi civilians at the cenotaph; an ageing Holocaust survivor bundled out of a Labour Party conference for a muffled heckle during a speech. That's not to mention the dangerously broad speech offences like "incitement to religious hatred" and "glorification of terrorism" that have found their way onto the statute book.

FREEDOM GAINED:

The gain offering the most cheer must be Britain's Human Rights Act. Although often shamefully trashed by both ends of the political spectrum, it is a vital tool for protecting our basic human rights and freedoms. It protects the universal rights and freedoms and the principles of dignity, fairness and equality for everyone, no matter how lowly. It has transformed the lives of the most vulnerable in society and, if we let it, has the potential to help many more.

Up next: the freedoms mourned and relished by Neal Ascherson, an expert on eastern Europe and a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.

See also: Richard Dawkins.

Picture credit: wildberry's

Co-ordinated by Horatia Lawson