Debating Freedom of Speech and Human Rights

Wednesday 18th June 2025
Dundee University, Scotland

A lively debate featuring FSU’s founder Toby Young, Dundee law professor Dr Claire Methven O’Brien, former SNP MP Joanna Cherry KC, and human rights academics Dr David McGrogan of Northumbria University and Professor James Allan from the University of Queensland, Australia.


The concept of Human Rights is a hotly contested area of political debate—perhaps never more so than now in Scotland. Scotland’s political and civic divisions are replicated in every jurisdiction across the western hemisphere. Free speech is under threat in a culture which prioritises the claims of those deemed at risk from offence or ‘hate’ speech. So how can rights be balanced in Scottish society?

How has human rights law, borne out of a desire for European peace after WWII, developed and been used? Are we as individuals entitled to ‘rights’? Where does the balance sit between fairness, equality and respect in a society where people feel unheard by government?


SPEAKERS
Dr Claire Methven O’Brien is a life-long human rights advocate, researcher and practitioner. She is Reader in Law at the University of Dundee’s School of Law and a member of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

Joanna Cherry KC was the MP for Edinburgh South West from 2015 to 2024. Laterally she chaired Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights. She has now returned to her practice at the Scottish bar and is a trustee of the LGB Alliance and a member of the advisory panel to the Free Speech Union in Scotland.

Dr David McGrogan - He is an Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School. His research looks critically at international human rights law, with particular reference to how it serves to buttress the power of the state.

Professor James Allan is Garrick Professor of Law at The University of Queensland, with special interest in legal and moral philosophy, constitutional law and bills of rights. He has previously taught in New Zealand, the USA and Hong Kong, but was born in Canada and practised law in Toronto and in London. His latest book is ‘The Age of Foolishness: A Doubter’s Guide to Constitutionalism in a Modern Democracy’ and he also writes for The Australian, The Spectator Australia, Quadrant and the Daily Sceptic.

Chair: Toby Young (Lord Young of Acton)
Toby Young is a British journalist and campaigner. He is the founder and general secretary of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of The Spectator and the editor-in-chief of the Daily Sceptic. He was made a life peer in 2024.