Susie Alegre & Shami Chakrabarti: What Makes Us Human

In a vital conversation two authors examine threats to human rights in the 21st century from different angles. Baroness Shami Chakrabarti’s Human Rights reasserts the case for dignity and universal freedoms in the face of increasing authoritarianism, inequality, and conflict. While Susie Alegre’s Human Rights, Robot Wrongs explores the impact of AI on our right to life, liberty, privacy, and free expression.

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Anne Donovan, Kirstin Innes, Allan Radcliffe and Jason Donald (2010 event) Anne Donovan, Kirstin Innes, Allan Radcliffe and Jason Donald (2010 event) From the word 'Elsewhere' four writers have created very different tales, Not Scotland, Horror Story, Chicago and Puerto Galera, join chair Jenny Brown and the authors as they discuss their commissions from the Book Festival… Amelia Gentleman: Windrush – A Very British Betrayal Amelia Gentleman: Windrush – A Very British Betrayal From the gnawing dread of the red-stamped letter to the shocking closed-door deportations of our fellow citizens, it’s hard to imagine a tragedy more of our times than the Windrush Scandal. A perfect storm of hostile policy-making and an ‘institutional… Fergal Keane with Allan Little: The Scars of War Reporting Fergal Keane with Allan Little: The Scars of War Reporting ‘The suffering of others was my daily bread.’ This brutally honest, heartfelt assessment of the job of a war reporter is central to Fergal Keane’s memoir, The Madness: a riveting account of how he survived war, fear, and PTSD, against a backdrop of… Aravind Adiga (2017 event) Aravind Adiga (2017 event) The last debut novelist to win the Man Booker Prize (in 2008 with White Tiger), Aravind Adiga now brings us Selection Day, widely held to be even better. In this event filmed live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he tells us about his… Iain MacRitchie & Rich Thanki: Healing the Digital Divide Iain MacRitchie & Rich Thanki: Healing the Digital Divide 2020 has seen a huge surge in online content. From festivals to healthcare, and from galleries to schools, the internet is providing services, resources and networks to connect us to each other, from the safety of our self-isolation bubbles. But with 41%… Amartya Sen: Home and Humanity Amartya Sen: Home and Humanity Amartya Sen is Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. His many books include The Idea of Justice, a critique of existing theories of social justice, with which he last visited the Book Festival in 2010. Now, Professor Sen has written… Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Every year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we celebrate the talent, wit and skill of emerging writers. In this event, we are joined by two of the freshest voices in fiction, whose coming-of-age narratives are by turns tender and cynical in… Hannah Ritchie: Hope in a Warm Climate Hannah Ritchie: Hope in a Warm Climate When our newsfeeds are flooded with disaster, despair can seem like the only logical response to climate change. Yet in a bold, radically hopeful book, Not the End of the World, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that zooming out reveals a very… DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival In 2014 DeRay Mckesson quit his job and moved to Ferguson, Missouri to protest against the police shooting of Michael Brown Jr, an unarmed African-American teenager. He spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist and helped bring the Black Lives… Matt Haig at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Matt Haig at the Edinburgh International Book Festival The modern world can make us feel like the walls are closing in, but a vanguard of writers are here to help us cope – and none more so than Matt Haig. After the storming success of Reasons to Stay Alive comes Notes on a Nervous Planet, a wise and witty…