Our Head of Department, Prof Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, delivered a human rights workshop at Varndean College, one of the most dynamic and successful Colleges in Brighton, with an outstanding academic track record and real community ethos. We are very thankful to the Head of the Law programme there, Jo Hambleton, for inviting us to the College, and the exceptional hospitality they have shown us.

Prof Giannoulopoulos delivered a two hour lecture, to a 70 student large assembly, bringing together A level students from Law, Politics, and Philosophy, critically analysing the government’s proposals to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. This is a human rights reform project that is unique, Dimitrios argued, in seeking to undermine, rather than reinforce, human rights, all the more so at a time when it could not be more urgent to renew our commitment to human rights and international law, in view of the current crisis of liberal democratic values that we witness across the world, including in western liberal democracies, unfortunately in the UK too.

Goldsmiths LLB student, Fabian Higgins, discussing the crucial role of human rights in regulating the use of Facial Recognition technologies

Dimitrios was joined by our final year student (and very soon to be a graduate student) Fabian Higgins, who contributed crucial insights on the positive impact that the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights have had in the UK, including in relation to regulating the impact of modern technologies upon human rights or anti-racism. It gave us unique pleasure to see Fabian connect so effectively with the A level students; we hope that all those outstanding Varndean students who will go on to study Law, Politics, Philosophy or similar subjects at University will have found great inspiration in Fabian’s example.

We were also very impressed by the engagement that Varndean students showed, and pointed questions they asked. Deep scepticism seemed to quickly form around the government’s plan to repeal the Human Rights Act.

The workshop was delivered in the context of the Knowing our Rights project, which Prof Giannoulopoulos launched in 2017 with support from the Open Society Foundations. Since launch, Prof Giannoulopoulos and his team have taught human rights to over 2,500 students across a number of secondary schools and Colleges in London and beyond. Knowing our Rights workshops in schools are also embedded in the Human Rights Law & Clinic module in Year 3 of the LLB programme. Goldsmiths Law students taking this Clinic are given the unique opportunity to engage College students in important debates around the future of human rights in the UK.

To learn more about our LLB programmes, see here.