Having joined the day before 9/11, she leaves with counter-terrorism, surveillance and privacy concerns still high on agenda

The human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, once called “the most dangerous woman in Britain”, is stepping down as director of Liberty after leading the organisation for 12 years.

Having joined Liberty the day before the 11 September 2001 attacks, her departure comes as counter-terrorism legislation, surveillance concerns and privacy issues continue to rise up the political agenda.

Chakrabarti, 46, will remain in post until the organisation has chosen her successor. She has declined to say what her next challenge will be, but has said she is looking forward to stepping aside from what she described as unrelenting pressures.

During her time at Liberty – initially as in-house counsel, then as director from 2003 – the organisation has seen off attempts to impose compulsory ID cards, derailed plans to extend the period suspects can be held without charge to 42 days, defeated the internment of foreign nationals and challenged powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act to stop and search individuals without suspicion.

She also embraced the Sun newspaper’s labelling of her as the most dangerous woman in Britain to the extent that the quote appeared on an early edition of her memoir On Liberty.

I want “loads and loads of people” to apply to be the next director, she said. “And for us to generate real energy around the competition and the issues. I don’t have a candidate who I’m promoting.”

The Conservative MP and civil liberties campaigner David Davis paid tribute to Chakrabarti’s work. “She has been a remarkable director of Liberty,” he said. “She arrived there just before 9/11 and government responses around the world since then have been sometimes necessarily, but mostly unnecessarily, antagonistic to individual freedom.



On Liberty review – Shami Chakrabarti exposes the tyranny of the state we’re in Read more

“She has been a doughty fighter in defence of that freedom and very successful. She was very much instrumental in the rejection of ID cards and the control order regimes – perhaps one of the most illiberal policies of any government. She has a formidable track record and will be greatly missed.”

Chakrabarti, a London School of Economics law graduate, qualified as a barrister and worked for the Home Office as a legal adviser between 1996 and 2001, providing her with an insider’s understanding of the development of legislation.

“I had one day of blue skies thinking when I arrived at Liberty on 10 September 2001,” she said. “The next it was the twin towers attack and counter-terrorism has been one of the dominant themes since then.”

“Authoritarian” tendencies, however, pre-date the 9/11 attacks, she said, including the destruction of legal aid and the denigration of refugees. She puts the process down to Michael Howard and Tony Blair taunting each other over rival home affairs policies.

When Chakrabarti arrived at Liberty, the new Human Rights Act was bedding in. David Cameron’s government is now committed to its repeal, and the fight to save it will be one of her successor’s first tasks.



“I have spent time with Conservative backbenchers who realise that [repeal] is not as simple as they thought,” she said. “A lot of people have woken up to the dangers.”

She also acknowledged: “When you do a job like mine, you can’t be vainglorious about it. You can ask have you built up the movement? There have been positives.”

On the plus side, there is less complacency about rights and freedoms than before 9/11. “We have had great leaps forward on gay equality,” she said. Among the deficits, politicians have not stepped in to “lead people’s compassion” toward refugees and the Human Rights Act is still under threat.

“The rhetoric about refugees is almost worthy of Rwanda in the dark times,” she said. “Do people understand the importance of giving safe haven to refugees? That was something we were supposed to have learnt from the Holocaust.”

“Liberty’s first president, E M Forster, rightly called defending civil liberties ‘the fight that is never done’,” she said. “I leave Liberty secure in the knowledge that we’re stronger and more ready for that fight than ever.

“I’m a bit of a Marmite personality. People’s views of me vary greatly. I’m looking forward to more movies, theatre and time to catch up with friends.” Leading Liberty has been “very, very all-encompassing”.

Liberty was founded in 1934 in response to hunger marches. Its main efforts are now directed at protecting civil liberties and promoting human rights.

Frances Butler, the organisation’s chair, said: “Under Shami’s transformative leadership, Liberty has greatly extended its expertise, influence and membership.

“Thanks to Shami’s passion and fearlessness and absolute dedication to championing human rights and civil liberties, Liberty’s long-term campaigning effectiveness is secured.”

Chakrabarti has already been branching out into other high profile activities for some time. She is chancellor of the University of Essex, was a member of the Leveson inquiry panel and was made a CBE in 2013. She also appeared as a flag bearer at the 2012 Olympics.



One possible internal candidate to be the next director is Isabella Sankey, Liberty’s current director of policy.

