Advisory board

We are lucky to be able to draw on a wide variety of knowledge, experience and skills thanks to the members of our advisory board. Members meet on average twice a year and many also provide strategic and other advice and support to BIHR in between meetings. The advisory board also appoints the President and Vice President of BIHR from among its members, on the recommendation of the trustees.

Rt Hon Lord Justice Stephen Sedley (President)

Sir Stephen was elected president of BIHR in January 2000. He practised at the Bar for 28 years, principally in the fields of civil liberties and discrimination law, until 1992 when he was appointed as a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court. He took office as a Lord Justice of Appeal in January 1999. He is currently an honorary Professor of Law at Warwick University and the University of Wales at Cardiff, and the Judicial Visitor at University College, London. He also holds a number of honorary doctorates. He delivered the 1995 Paul Sieghart Memorial Lecture, the 1996 Radcliffe Lectures (with Lord Nolan), the 1998 Hamlyn Lectures, the 2005 Holdsworth Lecture and the 2006 Blackstone Lecture. He also writes for the London Review of Books.

Frances Butler (Vice President)

Frances Butler became vice president of BIHR in 2004 having been vice chair from 1998 to 2003. She is an independent adviser on human rights policy, particularly the implementation of the Human Rights Act. Recent published work includes:

Rights for Real: Older People, Human Rights and the CEHR (Age Concern, 2006)
Improving Public Services: Using a Human Rights Approach; Strategies for Wider Implementation of the Human Rights Act Within Public Authorities (ippr/ Department for Constitutional Affairs, 2005)
Human Rights: who needs them? Using Human Rights in the Voluntary Sector (ippr/ Comic Relief, 2004).

She was formerly a visiting research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a member of the task force advising the Government on arrangements for establishing the Commission for Equality and Human Rights and a specialist adviser to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. She is also a member of the executive board of Liberty.

The Hon Susan M Baring OBE

Ex-Chair of BIHR. Lifelong interest in human rights, penal reform and the arts.

Professor Robert Blackburn

Professor of Constitutional Law at King’s College London.

Sir Nicolas Bratza

Judge of the High Court and the British Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, where he is currently one of the Section Presidents.

Shami Chakrabarti

Director, Liberty. Writes, speaks and broadcasts widely on the importance of the post-war human rights framework as an essential component of democratic society.

Baroness Frances D’Souza

Ben Emmerson QC

Barrister, Matrix chambers.

Dame Audrey F Glover DBE, CMG

Human rights lawyer, former Head of ODIHR/ OSCE and of the UK Delegation to the UN Human RIghts Commission.

Stephen Grosz

Head of Public Law and Human Rights at London solicitors Bindman & Partners.

Professor Colin Harvey

Director of the Human Rights Centre, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast.

Professor Sir Francis Jacobs QC

Professor of Law, King’s College London; formerly Advocate General, Court of Justice of the European Communities.

Sir Sydney Kentridge QC

Barrister, Brick Court Chambers.

Professor Francesca Klug OBE

Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE. Commissioner on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR).

Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC

Member of the Joint Parliamentary Select Committee on Human Rights. Has written extensively on human rights and has argued leading human rights cases (including free speech, discrimination) in English European and Commonwealth courts.

David Marks

In practice at the Bar specialising in insolvency and commercial work. Formerly on the committee of the lawyers group attached to the British section of Amnesty International.

Professor Aileen McColgan

Professor of Human Rights Law, King’s College London; Barrister, Matrix Chambers. Specialises in human rights/ discrimination/ labour law.

Alex Milne

Practising barrister, specialising in criminal law. Former Governor of BIHR.

Caroline Moorehead OBE, FRSL

Biographer. Writes about human rights, including her book about refugees and asylum Human Cargo, A journey among refugees.

Professor Zoran Pajic

International expert on state building and rule of law. Currently visiting professor at the International Policy Institute, King’s College London.

William Sieghart

Chairman of Forward Thinking – an organisation that engages groups deemed beyond diplomacy.

Sarah Spencer

Chair of the Equality and Diversity Forum and Associate Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford.

Geraldine Van Bueren

Professor of International Human Rights Law, Queen Mary, University of London and Visiting Fellow Kellogg College, Oxford currently working on a UNESCO project on poverty and the law.

Professor Rebecca M M Wallace

Professor of International Human Rights Law at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

Jenny Watson

Director of Global Partners and Associates; works extensively on human rights in the UK. Currently Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Baroness Janet Whitaker

Has had various professional, voluntary and parliamentary posts in international development and human rights.