John Wadham - Solicitor, consultant and independent expert on equality and human rights for the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
He is currently the Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Chair of the UK’s National Preventive Mechanism (overseeing the systems for preventing ill-treatment in detention) and a member of the Ministerial Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody.
Member of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales, Associate Member Doughty Street Chambers, Visiting Fellow at Bristol University and Visiting Senior Research Fellow Kings College London
Previously - the Executive Director of INTERIGHTS (the Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights). For six years he was General Counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and for four years the Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Between 1995 and 2003 he was the Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties).
He studied at the College of Law, Surrey University and the London School of Economics. He is a co-author of the Blackstone’s Guide to the Human Rights Act (OUP), the Blackstone’s Guide to the Freedom of Information Act (OUP), the Blackstone’s Guide to the Equality Act (OUP) and many other articles and publications.
His recent work as a human rights and equality expert includes:
Equality and Human Rights Commission & Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions: research on the protection of human rights during election (in Africa and Asia);
Human Rights Implementation Project, University of Bristol: interventions & amicus in cases before the African Court & Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights
Commonwealth Secretariat: (1) Assessment of the Seychelles National Human Rights Commission; and (2) Rule of Law, expert panel member.
United Nations Development Program: (1) Coaching & training Equality Council of Moldova non-discrimination principles & decision-writing; (2) Research report discrimination decisions by courts and Equality Council Moldova; (3) Research report on regional structures: Ombudsman, Ukraine; (4) Georgian government on Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (co-ordination, focal points & capacity building.
Council of Europe projects: Albania: Effectiveness of the Albanian system of human rights protection and anti-discrimination; Armenia: (1) Discrimination and prohibition on torture; (2) Prohibition on torture and arbitrary detention - training judges); (3) Combating Ill-Treatment and Impunity; (4) Assessing the ECHR Compliance of the draft Criminal Code; Azerbaijan: (1) Liberty and arbitrary detention; (2) Development of ECHR Curriculum for training judges with the Academy of Justice; Georgia: (1) Gender violence and discrimination, and (2) Amicus Curiae and the Public Defender; (3) Justice academy training of judges on hate crime; (4) assisting prosecution authorities with guidance to comply with Istanbul Convention; HELP platform (1) Pre-Trial Investigations; (2) Article 5, arrest and detention; Kazakhstan (1) expert on National Preventive Mechanisms (2) expert on prosecution and investigations; Kosovo: Assessing the complaints and police oversight body; Macedonia: (2) legal assessment of the Law on the Police and Protest; (2) training programme for police officers to avoid ill-treatment; (3) training programme for the Ministry of Internal Affairs: investigating misconduct by police officers; Moldova: (1) The Moldovan Constitutional Court: Protection of personal data; (2) Hate speech, Discrimination and Freedom of Expression; (3) Strategic litigation for human rights; Montenegro: Protection of human rights of detained and sentenced persons to avoid ill-treatment by police officers; Romania: Preparation of training materials and leading training of police officers responsible for remand detention in Romania on issues of ill-treatment in five two-day training seminars Serbia: (1) Assessing the police complaints system; (2) Assessing the independent oversight of police complaints system; Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: panel expert; Turkey: Freedom of expression and personal information, training judges; Ukraine: (1) Effective Police Investigations; (2) Council of Europe opinion on The Special Bureau of Investigation; (3) Training Article 6 of the ECHR, the right to a fair trial in Criminal Proceedings; and (4) Enforcement of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights.
