WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF THE LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL BRITISH GROUP
MESSAGE FROM JULIE SMITH, CHAIR OF LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL BRITISH GROUP
Liberal International British Group works actively with Liberal and Democratic parties and other sister organisations throughout the world, particularly through our membership of Liberal International, the world-wide federation of liberal political parties. We also try to help newly-formed liberal groupings to move their countries towards better governance and respect for human rights.
The aim of our website is to provide information on our activities and those of Liberal International across the world and to promote a better understanding of international liberal issues beyond the confines of the European Union.
I invite those of you who are not yet members to join, attend our Forums and foreign visits, and read our magazine InterLib, which records what we do and what liberal thinkers are saying.
3 Chair's letter
3 Diplomatic Reception
4 The Pearl of Africa - Uganda. Kay Barnard
6 The Arab Spring at Inverness
7 The Revolutionaries versus the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: a year after the Egyptian Revolution. Mohammed Nossier
9 Ronnie Fraser Scholarship (deadline 31 May)
9 Time to Rethink Iran - the Garden Lecture
10 Has Global Trade Liberalisation come to an end? Nick Hopkinson
11 The Future of interLib
12 Palestine & Israel in 2012. Guy Burton
13 Gateshead Lib Dem conference report
14 Is there a future for the Arabs in Israel?
14 Belarus Forum report
15 Viv Bingham Obituary
15 Reviews Pages
20 David Griffiths
The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE
Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow is to give the 2012 Tim Garden Memorial Lecture on the theme: 'Time To Rethink Iran?'
"For the three decades since the Islamic Revolution, the West has failed to develop a policy beyond ostracisation.
"For three decades Iran has been perceived as a threat rather than any thread that might lead to the resolution of any of the towering problems in the region. Is oblivion the only way, or is there evidence that engagement might chart another way?
Please note the deadline for entries has been extended to 31 May 2012
Applications are invited to the Ronnie Fraser Memorial Travel Fund. This Fund, established thanks to a generous bequest to Liberal International British Group from the late Ronnie Fraser, is intended to assist students and young people to undertake international travel.
LIBG's joint forum on Belarus with Liberal Youth on 6 February looked at how proponents of democracy and human rights can seek to engage with Europe's last dictatorship.
Belarus lies immediately west of Russia and was briefly a democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union before its current leader Alexander Lukashenko secured the president in 1994.
UK Liberal Democrats welcome new Gibraltar government
The Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP, President of the British Group of Liberal International and deputy leader of the UK Liberal Democrats was one of the first today to congratulate the new government on its success in the Gibraltar general election.
Mr Hughes, who had been kept informed of the count throughout the night, was given the final good news at 7.44 this morning.
As a recent recruit to Liberal International British Group, this was the first Liberal International Executive Meeting that I have had the pleasure to attend.
The first session was on a workshop for a permanent Human Rights Committee which exceeded all expectations.
It was great to seeing leading politicians like Hans Van Baalen, MEP and President of LI, and our very own LI Patron Richard Moore, making very key decisive points in an open and consensual discussion on human rights, superbly well managed by the newly-appointed Chair of the Liberal International Human Rights Committee, Swedish MP Abir Al-Sahlani.
The paper was given by former LIBG chair Jonathan Fryer at the Liberal International executive seminar on the Responsibility to Protect, held in London on 15 October 2011.
Page