Liberty (advocacy group)

Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith (later Scaffardi), motivated by their humanist convictions. During the 1950s, the NCCL campaigned for reform of the mental health system, under which people known to be sane but deemed 'morally defective' – unmarried mothers, for example – could be locked up in an asylum. By 1957, the campaign had seen the release of around 2,000 inmates, the abolition of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, and the establishment of new Mental Health Review Tribunals which culminated in the Mental Health Act 1959. Since 2016, Liberty's work has been dominated by a High Court challenge to the Investigatory Powers Act, as well as campaigning against the so-called 'hostile environment' policies which allow indefinite immigration detention in the UK. In autumn 2019, the organisation set up Liberty Investigates, an editorially independent journalism unit. Its initial focus was on how the coronavirus pandemic affects Human Rights in the UK. The immediate spur to the organisation's formation was the National Hunger March 1932. The first Secretary was Ronald Kidd, and first President was the novelist E. M. Forster; vice-presidents were the politician and author A. P. Herbert and the journalist Kingsley Martin of the New Statesman. H. G. Wells, Lewis Clive, Vera Brittain, Clement Attlee, Rebecca West, Edith Summerskill and Harold Laski were also founder members. The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) was founded in 1934. The inaugural meeting took place in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 22 February.

À propos de ce résultat

Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.

Concepts associés (2)

Convention européenne des droits de l'homme

La Convention de sauvegarde des droits de l'homme et des libertés fondamentales (CSDHLF), communément appelée Convention européenne des droits de l'homme (CEDH, ou ConvEDH afin de ne pas être confondue avec la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme, qui en contrôle l'application et qui possède le même sigle), est un traité international signé par les États membres du Conseil de l'Europe le et entré en vigueur le . Elle a pour but de protéger les droits de l'homme et les libertés fondamentales en permettant un contrôle judiciaire du respect de ces droits individuels.