Professor Connor Gearty’s legacy of dignity

Last week the world lost a brilliant and inspirational human rights academic, barrister and author. A magnetic teacher, a principled activist and a hugely-loved and respected figure: Professor Connor Gearty.

For one brief year, while he was Director of the LSE Human Rights Centre and I was an MSc student, he was my tutor.
I remember his charisma, his kindness, his humour, his red socks...
and what he told us in our first lecture about what 'Human Rights' means:
Dignity.

I wasn't having any of it, walking out of the lecture theatre pushing my sleeves up ready for a fight - dignity?? How weak! Surely it's about justice!!
In the last twenty years every day has brought another reminder of how wrong I was. Of course.

No experience brought it closer to home for me than when work went wrong and I needed to get out. It was so clear I didn't belong (I should have listened to my gut; on some level I always knew it wasn't a good fit).
I began to lose my confidence, feel invisible and get more anxious. I stopped sleeping well. I didn't like who they thought I was. I didn't like myself.

When I did finally leave, I wrote a thank you to the person who had helped me most. I told her she'd given me back my dignity - and I told the story about Professor Gearty.
"He taught me too" she said.

No job, no workplace, no employer, no manager should ever take away your dignity.

I can't fight great, global injustices - although I daily thank and celebrate those who do. What I can do is help you get your dignity back if your work has taken it away from you. I can help you see that it's not you; that you're not stupid, not wrong and you're not broken. That nobody can ever take your dignity from you.