Human Rights Symposium: Realising Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the UK

The Law Society is organising a conference on ‘Fairness, Justice and Human Rights: Realising Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) in the UK’, in partnership Just Fair, Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex.

The conference is designed to enable delegates, including judges, scholars, policy makers, legal practitioners and community representatives, to exchange views and consider the problems and prospects for the effective enjoyment of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) in the UK. It will feature a mixture of keynote addresses, breakout sessions/workshops as well as informal opportunities to exchange ideas and build relationships.

Key speakers include:

• Lady Justice Arden (Lady Justice of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales),
• Justice Albie Sachs (Former Justice of the South African Constitutional Court),
• Chief Justice Juan Carlos Henao Pérez (President, Constitutional Court of Colombia)
• Kate Green MP (Labour MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty)
• Anne McGuire MP (Labour MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Disability Group),
• Age UK, Amnesty International, British Institute of Human Rights, Child Poverty Action Group, Doctors of the World, Freedom from Torture, Save the Children, UNICEF, Crisis, the Refugee Council, Women’s Budget Group, the Pavement and Poverty Truth Commission.
• Baroness Ruth Lister (Professor Emeritus Sociology Loughborough University, Honorary President Child Poverty Action Group),
• Baroness Joan Walmsley (co-Chair of the Lib Dem Policy Committee on Education, Families and Young People, sponsor of the 2009 Children’s Rights Bill), 
• Professor Sir Jeffrey Jowell KCMG QC (Director Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law), 
• Professor Francesca Klug OBE (Director LSE Human Rights Futures Project, former Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Academic Expert at Doughty Street Chambers),
• Professor Geraldine Van Bueren (Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers and Professor of International Human Rights Law at Queen Mary),
• Professor Richard Wilkinson (Director of Equality Trust, author of ‘The Spirit Level’), 
• Professor Monica McWilliams (Former Chief Commissioner for Human Rights Northern Ireland),
• Professor Alan Miller (Chair the Scottish Human Rights Commission).