Liberty, the human rights organisation, is looking for qualified and qualifying lawyers to staff its advice line.
This is a great opportunity – you can trust me on that, as I did it for a year whilst I was a pupil barrister. I learned a huge amount about practical human rights issues, as well as meeting some great people. The advice line provides an essential service to those who are unlikely to be able to obtain advice anywhere else.
All details after the break below, and on this flyer (PDF).
Are you interested in human rights? Would you like to work with Liberty?
Liberty is one of the UK’s leading human rights and civil liberties organisations. We carry out test case litigation and interventions, lobby Parliament, campaign on a wide range of issues, and provide advice and information to the general public.
Liberty operates a telephone advice line for members of the public to call to obtain advice and information about their human rights. We are now seeking new volunteers from the legal community to help us with this important pro bono work.
When it is
We currently need more volunteers to cover the evening sessions on Monday and Thursday evening from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.
Where it is
Liberty’s offices are on Strutton Ground, London, SW1P 2HR (nearest tubes are St James’s Park, Westminster and Victoria).
Who does it
The advice line is staffed by a pool of volunteers – solicitors, barristers, pupils and trainees. A Liberty staff member will always be available to provide information and assistance with calls. Unfortunately, the terms of our insurance mean that we are unable to accept paralegals or students as volunteers.
What you would do
Volunteers simply turn up on the required evening to take calls and provide appropriate human rights advice. The advice is given on a one-off basis and generally no further correspondence is entered into.
While the line is primarily a human rights advice line we receive a broad range of legal enquiries on diverse issues spanning criminal and civil law. Some queries raise human rights issues and some do not. However we always try to give advice or provide referrals as appropriate. Liberty will sometimes request that the caller write in providing further details if we feel that there is a case we are interested in taking on.
How it works
The advice line is a very flexible way to volunteer. Every month volunteers receive an email asking if they are available for one evening the following month. If they are available they email back specifying which evening they would like to attend. If they are not available for that month they simply do not email back.
If you would like to volunteer on the advice line or are interested in finding out more, please email Katy Watts at katyw@liberty-human-rights.org.uk
Filed under: In the news Tagged: human rights, Liberty
