How to select your pantheon of lawyers

We set out the prizes in this year's Gazette-sponsored Liberty/Justice Human Rights Awards

The Human Rights Act may have been a legal reality for two years, but the substantive work of promoting and protecting human rights still continues.

For many lawyers, individuals and small organisations, this invariably means long hours and extensive pro bono work carried out behind the scenes.

The Liberty/Justice Human Rights Awards - sponsored by the Gazette - are an opportunity to recognise the dedication and commitment of many of these individuals and bring them into the public eye.

Presented each year around 10 December, UN International Human Rights Day, the awards are based on nominations submitted from the legal community and the public.

Last year's awards, presented at the Law Society's hall in London by leading legal commentator Marcel Berlins, recognised an impressive range of activities - from Barbara Cohen's lifetime dedication to racial equality, justice and human rights while at the Commission for Racial Equality, to the voluntary work of a Lovells trainee solicitor, Christian Tuddenham, in advocating the rights of prisoners abroad.

And from Nuala Mole's commitment to judicial training in human rights in the Balkans, as head of the AIRE Centre, to the extensive voluntary work of a small organisation in securing bail for immigration detainees.

This year's awards look set to reflect some of the key human rights issues of the past year.

Liberty and Justice are now seeking your nominations for the three main awards categories:

l Human Rights Lawyer of the Year - for the outstanding lawyer of the year;

l The Peter Duffy Award - for the young human rights lawyer of the year, and;

l The Human Rights Award - for non-legal individuals and organisations.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf QC, Lady Justice Hale and Sir Nicolas Bratza QC are just some of the leading legal figures sitting on this year's awards judging panel.

Decisions will be made following the nominations deadline on 11 November.

This year's ceremony - scheduled for 10 December -will be opened with a speech by Baroness Helena Kennedy, well-known for her extensive human rights work.

For details of the nominations process, visit the Web sites : www.justice.org.uk or www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk or contact Zoe Gillard at Liberty, e-mail: zoeg@liberty-human-rights.org.uk