One of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers gave QE boys some thought-provoking insights into the complex area of British attitudes towards discrimination and the law.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, who is both Chief Executive and Chief Legal Officer to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was a guest speaker at QE’s Politics Society. Her son, Adam Hilsenrath, (OE 2008–2015) is a former School Captain who won a place to read History at Oxford.
The commission, which is Great Britain’s national equality body, exists to “make Britain fairer…by safeguarding and enforcing the laws that protect people’s rights to fairness, dignity and respect”, according to its website.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I am most grateful to Rebecca for visiting us. The boys were clearly very engaged in the discussion that ensued and it is a great strength of the QE community that we can draw on people like her to come in and provide their knowledge, advice and inspiration to the boys. Her insights on the importance of voluntary work and of generally contributing to society accord fully with the tenets of our School mission.”
Ms Hilsenrath began her talk with a story of hill-climbing in Wales, where she thought she could see the top but realised that each time she got there, she had been deceived by the angle and there was in fact much further to go. A similar situation obtained with human rights in the UK, she said.
As the country of Magna Carta, Britain has “a fantastic tradition of leading on human rights and the development of law,” (which is why people in Brussels are so devastated at Brexit, she added.) The UK has done well in dealing with ‘direct discrimination’, but there are still many challenges around ‘indirect discrimination’. This results when groups are adversely affected by factors which, at face value, are not about them, but which particularly affect them. These groups often comprise those who do not enjoy high levels of public sympathy, such as gypsies or transgender people. Even with indirect discrimination, the picture is not altogether negative: there have been significant improvements for some groups as a result of cultural change, including much greater acceptance and equality.
The public, Ms Hilsenrath said, are generally supportive of single-issue matters of equality, but “people are scared of the big picture” and are negative on the advancement of human rights as a whole. There may, she believes, be some correlation between this and periods when Government finances are especially stretched: “People tend to be nastier to each other at these times, to hit out. Unhappiness can be manifested as xenophobia.”
The other important context is the continued prevalence of terrorism in the public and political discourse. The 9/11 attacks happened soon after the Human Rights Act came into full force in the UK. “Debate about human rights has been wrapped up in discussions of terrorism ever since,” she said. The public’s focus has often been on asking whether the country is being too lenient on terrorists, and there is a corresponding reluctance to grant terrorists rights: “It is much easier to give rights to those we like.”
Ms Hilsenrath argued, however, that it is possible both to have human rights and to implement robust measures to deal with terror, since many rights are “qualified” in relation to matters such as national security.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s last report two years ago showed big improvements for many, but made clear that there was still work to do. Some groups seemed to have fared worse than others as a result of policy and tax changes. She clarified the organisation’s mission: “We are not aiming for total equality – trying to make two people the same – instead we are after equality of opportunity.”
The boys asked a host of questions covering everything from her views on communism as a tool for trying to make society more equal and whether there should be a codified British Bill of Rights, to whether income inequality is necessarily a bad thing and whether some rights are more important than others.
She also provided some more general advice about working in law and public life, explaining that changing jobs can be a way to progress, as it helps you get a rounded experience.
She stressed the importance of voluntary work and encouraged boys to do as much of it as possible. Helping others was a key theme here: “Everybody needs to do what they can for other people out of love, to reach out and make a difference. Success in life is about being ‘the best you’, and to do that you need to do more than the day job.”
When he came to the QE Politics Society event, the shoe was on the other foot, with boys from all year groups seizing the chance to grill the famous interviewer. However, that did not prevent some boys, including Politics Society Chairman Tej Mehta, from being ‘Paxmanned’ – robustly taken to task for the slant of their questions – albeit in very good humour.
“Such visits give our boys unique opportunities to learn from national and international experts. They also foster our pupils’ skills in asking good questions, which we see as an important aspect of developing boys’ intellectual capabilities – and who better to learn from than the master questioner himself?”
After being introduced by Nikhil Shah, of Year 12, Mr Joshi told the boys that security covers a broad range of issues and regions. It concerns not just weapons, but is about everything from climate change (insofar as it affects security) to investigating how a large bet against the value of Borussia Dortmund’s shares helped the authorities track the perpetrator of the recent attack on the football team’s bus.
Research is also important, and it was essential to gather views from diverse perspectives: “You can’t do this from your desk; you have to travel and speak to people,” he said, although he conceded that ‘open source’ research could also be valuable. “A lot of what we do is about making educated guesses… having gathered information from a range of perspectives.”
Mr Joshi then posed some questions around the psychological impact of countries having nuclear weapons, and inter-continental ballistic missiles, in particular. The acquisition of such weapons is considered a ‘game-changer’: it changes thinking in the US and UK, for example, if suddenly we think we can be hit. But, he asked, would we act to protect a third-party nation if we could be hit in retribution?
Q. Are we at risk of another global conflict?
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Mock elections constitute an excellent means of engaging boys’ interest in politics and current affairs. They develop debating skills, while at the same time giving pupils an insight into the democratic process.”
Mr Enright thanked the six boys who stood as candidates, all from Year 10, commending them both for their research and for the passion they evinced during campaigning. He also thanked the poll clerks, who issued ballot papers and checked voters’ names against the register, and the pupils who voted, as well as Head of Politics Liam Hargadon and members of the History department, who organised the election.
The six candidates debated issues central to the real-world election at a special Question Time-style hustings, including austerity, Brexit, education funding and security. During the event, which was was chaired by Head of History Helen Macgregor, an enthusiastic audience eagerly asked the candidates questions. The six boys also cross-e xamined each other, requiring them to think on their feet and testing the depth of their research.
Voting in the mock General Election was open to boys in Years 7–10. (Boys in the older years are currently on study leave for their public examinations.).png)
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