Big Ben, lit from below and viewed against a dark blue night sky. Photo: By Leandro Mazzuquini on Unsplash.
Rights and wrongs: Rebecca Hardy attends the relaunch of the Human Rights Protection Fund
‘We are in a trough right now.’
The House of Lords may seem an unlikely place to hear harrowing testimonies from persecuted human rights defenders, but the sumptuous surroundings seemed to outline the stark contrast even more – between the relative privilege and freedom of living in the UK, and the conditions that some people are escaping. With a recent name change to promote, the former Prisoners of Conscience group invited a group of donors and interested people to the fancy Lord’s Attlee and Reid Room to hear about the charity’s vital work supporting human rights defenders. As Gary Allison, director, later told me, the work is well supported by Quakers, including one or two trustees, and twenty Quaker Meetings, which have collections for the charity.
