Ms Shami Chakrabarti has been the director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since September 2003.

After graduating from the London School of Economics, she worked as a barrister at the Home Office from 1996 until 2001.She joined Liberty on 10 September 2001, and she spent the following two years campaigning against the anti-terrorist measures which followed the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, such as Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA), and is a prominent opponent of recent counter-terrorism legislation. She is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 4 and to The Independent newspaper on the topic of human rights and civil liberties.

Since becoming Liberty’s Director, Ms Chakrabarti has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-World War II human rights framework as an essential component of democratic society. She is a Governor of the London School of Economics and the British Film Institute, a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple.

Ms Chakrabarti was awarded a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Roehampton University in 2006 and an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of East Anglia in June 2007. She was appointed CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2007.