David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, spoke this week in defence of the Human Rights Act during a conference in Liverpool for museums that fight injustice.

Dr Fleming is President of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM), which held its annual conference at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool from 11th-13th October.  He said:  “This conference comes during a period of British uncertainty (…) with talk of the Human Rights Act being abolished.  Misuse of the Act by a small number of people does not invalidate its impact in demonstrating that Britain is a civilised country with civilised values.  It is embarrassing that there is talk of repealing the Human Rights Act rather than of implementing it sensibly.”

He continued: “We have campaigners from all corners of the globe in Liverpool for this conference, which shows the widespread commitment to tackle contemporary forms of racism, discrimination and human rights abuses.  This is about key museums joining each other with a common goal – fighting for the basic rights of people.

Institutions represented at the FIHRM conference included the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, National Museums of Malawi, Waikato Museum in New Zealand, University of Indonesia and National Museum of Australia.  Angela Melo, Director of the Division of Human Rights at UNESCO delivered a keynote speech.

FIHRM was launched last year to bring together some of the world’s leading museums and organisations which deal with sensitive and controversial subjects such as transatlantic slavery and the Holocaust.  The Federation offers proactive ways in which museums and institutions can work together to challenge forms of racism, discrimination and human rights abuses.  Other members include the Canadian Museum For Human Rights, Galicia Jewish Museum in Poland, Te Papa Museum of New Zealand and the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian).

For further information visit: www.fihrm.org