Spotlight on Clive Stafford Smith OBE

Part 2 of 2 Each month, the HRC Blog features a significant figure from the Human Rights community to go under the Spotlight, answering questions put by students from the University of Essex.  This month, we feature Clive Stafford Smith OBE.  Part 1 covered questions about the death penalty and COVID19.    Note from the […]

Spotlight on Clive Stafford Smith OBE

Part 1 of 2 Each month, the HRC Blog features a significant figure from the Human Rights community to go under the Spotlight, answering questions put by students from the University of Essex.  This month, we feature Clive Stafford Smith OBE.  This is part 1 of 2. About Clive Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of ‘Reprieve’ […]

Spotlight on Sami Al Haj

By Pauline Canham Each month, the HRC Blog will feature a significant figure, or team from the Human Rights community to go under the Spotlight, answering questions put by students from Essex University.  This month, we feature Sami Al Haj. About Sami Sami Al Haj is the Director of the Centre for Public Liberties & […]

Amnesty International’s Tanya O’Carroll on privacy & the ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ argument

By Ajay Sandhu  I recently interviewed Tanya O’Carroll, a Technology and Human Rights advisor at Amnesty International, to discuss government surveillance and its impact. I framed our discussion around the most common response researchers studying surveillance receive from the public: the “nothing to hide” argument. The nothing to hide argument alleges that government surveillance programs serve […]

“People just don’t get it” an interview with Kade Crockford of the ACLU of Massachusetts about why surveillance issues aren’t getting the attention they deserve

By Ajay Sandhu  The precarious state of privacy often fails to stir public attention. For example, the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), a piece of legislation granting police and intelligence agencies sweeping surveillance powers in the UK, is said to have passed into law “with barely a whimper.” What explains this lukewarm response? How does the US […]

Data for Social Change | An Interview with Andrew Stott

  By Daniel Marciniak and Vivian Ng The open data initiative has gained traction and visibility in recent years, particularly with various governments releasing a wide range of public data. Andrew Stott, the former Director for Transparency and Digital Environment for the UK Government, is an expert in this area who has been deeply engaged with the British […]

Privacy: System Failure | An Interview with Gus Hosein

  By Vivian Ng and Daniel Marciniak Gus Hosein has worked at the intersection of technology and human rights for over fifteen years. He has acted as an external evaluator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), advised the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms […]

The revised standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners: Interview with Taghreed Jaber

By Munira Ali On the 7th of April 2016, experts on prison reform and management were convened for a two-day meeting by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and Penal Reform International (PRI) to discuss the recently revised standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners (also known as the Mandela rules- a name […]