Asylum: A Touchstone for Human Rights

Advent Lecture at Westminster Abbey by Canon Theologian Nick Sagovsky.

When	Dec 10, 2008 from 06:12 PM to 08:12 PM
Where	Westminster Abbey
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Human Rights Day, 10 December 2008, marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the founding document of a new era of human rights thinking and human rights legislation. Some of its most important applications have been in the field of asylum and refugee law.

Yet the ��War on Terror,�� climate change, the huge global disparities of wealth and opportunity, and the ease with which we now travel internationally, have severely pressurised the commitment of democratic governments to the human rights of those who seek asylum. With the imminent prospect of yet more UK asylum and citizenship legislation, this lecture will discuss the present and future operation of the UK asylum system, and call for the consistent application of human rights throughout as a ��touchstone�� of an open and democratic society.

Nicholas Sagovsky is Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and Visiting Professor of Theology and Public Life at Liverpool Hope University. He was a Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission, which reported on the UK asylum system in 2008, and is the author of Christian Tradition and the Practice of Justice (SPCK, 2008). A supporter of CAP's Living Ghosts campaign, he took our Endurance Challenge in summer 2008.

All are welcome. Tickets are not required .