Yes Minister... it is a human rights issue

Orwell was right. Big Brother is watching you. Every word you type online and every site you visit is being observed, and currently your only way to put a stop to that is to log off. In June the US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed...

As David Cameron arrives in Colombo, fresh from a grilling in India about his choice to attend the Commonwealth head of government meeting (CHOGM) he seems to have found his voice at last on human rights concerns. But is his outcry...

There are just some issues that get under your skin. If you watched No Fire Zone on Channel Four this week you’ll understand why I’ve got the bit between my teeth about Sri Lanka . 40,000 civilians (or more) were killed at the end of...

Earlier this week I found myself emailing all Peers to urge them to vote for a pause of Part 2 Lobbying Bill, which was being debated in the Lords on 5 November. A couple things struck me as I did this. Firstly, I’m usually reluctant...

To natter to politicians about human rights you need to head to their stalking ground…Party conferences. It is like a festival for political anoraks where we all queue up to see our favourite “acts”. However, this year among the many...

In yesterday’s Independent Jane Merrick suggested that you can tell a lot about a political party’s state of being by the makeup of its conference attendees and activists : younger and trendier activists hint at growing power, she says...

The past week has seen a flurry of attention on what is being referred to as the ‘Lobbying Bill’. Media reports and a lively Commons debate have highlighted the concerns that charities and NGOs have with this legislation. The...

Ed Miliband had an egg thrown at him last week . “These things happen” he said afterwards, shrugging off his coat (and perhaps his embarrassment) and continuing about his business. I guess having eggs thrown at you is a bit of an...

Immigration is once more high on the political agenda as the Home Office seek to ‘get tough’ with ‘illegal immigrants’. Vans urging illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest” and spot checks at railway stations across the country...

In my morning routine you can guarantee two things a. I am woken up by my cat at exactly 7am every day (even Sundays…apparently cats do not observe a day of rest) and b. from 7am until 8.30 at some point I am arguing with the Today...

I’ve recently become addicted to ‘The Americans’, a TV series set during the Cold War period in the 1980s. It follows the adventures of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Russian KGB officers posing as an American married couple, their...

Imagine a government agency that adopts human rights standards that don’t apply to a majority of its transactions. Imagine a government agency that systematically ignores the recommendations of Parliamentary Committees that have...

A heavily worked phrase used by the tourist industry is to describe a particular destination as a “country of contrast”. Sri Lanka is surely such a country - at one level a popular tourist destination, which according to the...

Today, Amnesty released a report on the criminalisation of homosexuality south of the Sahara: Making love a crime: Criminalisation of same-sex conduct in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our report documents an increase in homophobic attacks and...

This afternoon the House of Lords will debate the report published by the Bill of Rights Commission back in December . This debate is of course not the be-all and end-all of the UK’s human rights debate, but it reminds us of the ‘drum...

My eight year old son recently asked me “what’s an artisan baker?” (we were in Dulwich!) and I explained that an artisan is a skilled physical worker - that artisan bakers’ bread will be made by hand and baked in the shop, whereas the...

A feminist’s work is never done – especially a feminist on twitter. Every time I log on, my twitter feed is full of tweets from the fabulous Everyday Sexism Project which collates stories of sexism. The stories outrage rather than...

Of William Shakespeare, it is often said that his works are as relevant today as when he originally penned them. I suspect this will be the same for the legendary punk poet John Cooper Clarke , the Bard of Salford, after all some of...

Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001? It’s one of those days that most people remember – most people with access to TV and the internet that is – because the events of that day were so shocking. I was working in a call...

Type ‘Mexico’ into Google and the vast majority of the links presented to you will relate to tourism (unless that’s just a result of scarily accurate user profiling…yes Google, I have just got back from a holiday and yes, Google, I do...