Shami Chakrabati

Shami Chakrabati is a leader in human rights, a barrister and a former director of Liberty. 

She was one of the panel members of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards throughout 2011 and 2012. Between 2014 and 2017, she served as Chancellor of the University of Essex. In August 2016, Chakrabarti was made a life peer in the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours. 

As director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016, Chakrabati campaigned vehemently against 'excessive' anti-terrorism legislation in a post 9/11 world. She famously called the Prevent programme the "biggest spying operation in Britain in modern times."

A trained barrister, The Times described her as "the most effective public affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years."

In the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, she was one of eight Olympic flag holders, alongside Nobel Peace Prize winner Leyma Gbowee and Muhammed Ali.

Returning to the college in July 2013 to speak on the subject of liberty and the law, Shami said: “Goldsmiths is world famous as a place of creativity and culture as well as learning and logic. I cannot think of a better place to discuss how our rights and freedoms reflect and protect everything that makes life worth living.”

Image courtesy of the South Bank Centre.