Biography – Audrey Adams
Audrey is a loyal and committed individual. She beleives in self determination and the promotion of respect for diversity. She is committed to bringing about, economic and social development in the lives of people who would otherwise be disenfranchised. She is a passionate campaigner for equality, human rights, justice, the protection of individuals, and sustainable standards of living for poor and vulnerable people from around the world. Audrey is an avid campaigner for Global justice and more recently has focused her attention on establishing the principles of human rights, that of Freedom, Respect, Equality, Dignity and Autonomy for all.
Most recently Audrey was nominated for the award entitled Notable Women of Colour who have changed the UK.
Audrey was responsible for the Human Rights Programme for the 1990 Trust a leading policy organisation on issues affecting African, Asian, and Caribbean communities in the UK and Europe during the 90′s and 2000’s. Although Audrey worked for a number of years in both the private and public sectors, she has always had a keen interest in human rights issues. Her interest in issues of human rights started at an early age when she took part in the anti apartheid movement, she has been a participant in many campaigns around racial justice; but it was the brutal murder of her stepson, Rolan Adams, by racist thugs in 1991 that was the final impetus that led to her dedicating her life to challenging racial, social and political inequalities and injustice.
Audrey headed the 1990 Trust’s and Comic Relief Human Rights for All Programme that trained NGOs on the use of the Human Rights Act and the core UN conventions in challenging forms of discrimination. She created the Know Your Rights website which offered useful information about human rights. Audrey also created and managed a steering group, the National Human Rights Consortium, for this work drawing representatives from all over the country. The Consortium worked with grassroots organisations to raise awareness of human rights issues, including sensitive issues such as Reparations and Palestine.
In 2001, Audrey was part of the Black-led UK coalition that attended the United Nations (UN) World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. She contributed to the Durban Declaration and Programme Of Action. Thereafter, she campaigned to get the UK government to adhere to its international obligations following their signing of the document, in particular the production of the cross governmental National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR), and the establishment of a national tribunal or equivalent body to examine the role of Reparations in todays world.
In 2003, Audrey led a 15 strong Black-led UK coalition to the United Nations Human Rights Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. This was to present a joint submission, of over 30 organisations’ alternative shadow Report to the CERD who were examining the UK’s 16th Period Report on the measures the UK had taken to fulfil its obligations under the International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
At that time the expelled people from the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean were campaigning to get the British government to lift the restrictions banning them from returning to their homeland. Through negotiations with the collective NGO organisations and members of the ICERD Committee Audrey was able to persuade the Committee to ensure that at the next round of reporting, the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office reported on the progress of resettlement and compensation for the displaced peoples of the Chagos Islands. Since then, the Court of Appeal has ruled that the Islanders can return home and criticised the Government’s tactics in preventing their return. Audrey was later invited to give oral evidence on the government’s adherence to CERD’s Concluding Observations to the House of Lords and House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR)
In 2004, Audrey began working on the White Paper on the new Equalities Bill that was due to come into force. She organised a number of consultative seminar meetings in England and Scotland to ensure that the voices of Black communities were included in the Department for Trade and Industry’s consultation to establish the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR). Audrey worked with other interested organisations from the other equality strands to lobby MPs, academics and key civil servants to effect and manage the desired outcomes The outcome was that for the first time, over 400 organisations responded to a government consultation exercise.
Audrey has worked on a number of high profile campaigns from deaths in custody to the Stop the War campaign. In 2005, Audrey worked with a coalition of organisations on the CADAS Campaign (Campaign Against the Destitution of Asylum Seekers) which she led on behalf of the 1990 Trust. CADAS sought to challenge the way in which Asylum seekers were being made destitute because of the inclusion of Section 55, the “Destitution Clause”, in the Immigration and Asylum Bill. CADAS challenged under judicial review, that the government were violating Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Appeal Court ruled that Section 55 had breached human rights saying it was “abhorrent, illogical and expensive”.
2006 was a busy year for Audrey. She continued her work to raise the issues of inequalities of Black communities in the UK and as part of many issue based networks Audrey worked with a major influential women’s organisation to ensure that for the first time, there was participation in the monitoring process of the International Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), particularly Black women from African, Asian and the Caribbean communities, as well as the Gypsy and Traveler communities and the Refugee and Asylum communities.
Similarly, Audrey worked with the Council of Europe’s (CoE) committee responsible for the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM) to ensure participative engagement from Muslim communities in the monitoring process of the Convention. Audrey facilitated the participation in the monitoring process of the Convention and wrote the alternative shadow report using examples and experiences from those involved in the process.
2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade. To mark the anniversary the 1990 Trust developed a new project aimed at tackling poverty and economic exclusion of minority groups in the UK. Audrey led the launch of the project and organised a 10 city tour, over seven days, which included national and international speakers, the key speaker being the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The tour held 35 speaking events and spoke to over 11,000 people.
Audrey has also been recognised for the community work she has done with young people in respect of crime prevention. She was part of a team that worked with young people in the London Borough of Lambeth to organise the StreetDreamz Teen Summit. Over 600 young people attended the launch of the StreetDreamz CD compilation.
Audrey has sat on a number of Boards including the Home Office’s Stop and Search Community Action Panel. She currently sits on the Board of Operation Black Vote, the Home of Black Politics, (www.obv.org.uk ). OBV’s primary objective is to increase voter registration in Black communities, lobbying politicians, mentoring schemes and political leadership programmes.
Audrey has appeared on various community affairs programmes and has published briefing papers and topical reports, including being a major contributor to the Black Manifestos in 2005 and 2010 and the Race Audit – a Snapshot of Black Britain.