In today’s video from Liberal Democrat conference, Ming Campbell previews the opening night rally on civil liberties and human rights, where he will be speaking alongside the party’s Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg, Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty and Philippe Sands QC.

Ming Campbell has written an article for The Guardian’s Comment is Free site about China’s human rights record in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

China would win no medals for human rights. But things are still fluid, and there are hopeful signs in a mixed picture. China has promised to be more open and to put in place greater safeguards over its use of the death penalty. It has promised to reform its use of “re-education through labour” camps, a process of administrative detention used on a massive scale.

You can read the full article here.

Writing for The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Ming Campbell said:

Two years ago, Tony Blair said that the world’s most powerful countries “will not allow violence to change our societies or our values”. In truth, he has done exactly that. Too many of our hard won freedoms have been lost. They will not be easy to recover: the challenge is Mr Brown’s.

You can read the full article on Comment is Free.

In a speech to Muslim community leaders at a Mosque in Birmingham today, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell called for an urgent review of stop and search powers, stating that these powers are being overused and alienating minority communities.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000:

• Over 166,894 people have been stopped and searched
• Only 40 people to date have been convicted
• For every person convicted 4170 have been stopped and searched
• For every person arrested 148 have been stopped and searched

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On Thursday evening Ming Campbell encouraged those from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities to become engaged with the Liberal Democrats in an effort to make his party more representative of modern day Britain.
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