PILS Autumn Social 2025
When communities and lawyers unite to defend the public interest, incredible things happen.
The PILS Autumn Social is our opportunity to celebrate these public interest victories.
Public interest litigation has proven to be a creative tool for change, in the face of political stasis and played a significant role in ensuring human rights and equality protections in Northern Ireland.
Our Autumn Social is the perfect occasion to celebrate the local activists and lawyers who have used the law so creatively.
As the UK’s Human Rights Act turns 25, PILS also invite you to join us to explore how, together, we will protect Northern Ireland’s vital human rights safeguards.
- Date: Thursday, 16 October 2025
- Time: 17.30 – 19.00
- Venue: Belfast Exposed, 23 Donegall St, Belfast BT1 2FF
- Special guest speaker: John Wadham, outgoing Human Rights Advisor to the NI Policing Board
Book your place now.
Why you should be there:
Community:
Featuring music, good food and even better conversation, the Autumn Social is a moment of solidarity for changemakers in Northern Ireland. Reconnect with your sector colleagues in the stimulating Belfast Exposed gallery.
Clarity:
Hear from our special guest speaker, John Wadham. Not only is John a dedicated member of PILS’ Board and former solicitor, he’s also the outgoing Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. This is your chance to see John speak publicly about why the UK’s Human Rights Act matters right now.
Context:
If you are interested in what is happening on the frontlines of legal changemaking in Northern Ireland, this is the room you need to be in! Join PILS’ growing network of activists, lawyers and supporters to better understand their needs in 2025.
More information:
Dress code: come as you are!
Entertainment on the night: live music and a photography exhibition.
Venue and accessibility: Belfast Exposed is is Northern Ireland’s principal gallery of contemporary photography, commissioning, publishing and showing work by artists and photographers. The gallery’s access guide is available here.
Special Guest: John Wadham – Solicitor, consultant and independent expert
John is a solicitor, consultant and independent expert on equality and human rights for the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
He has been the Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board for six years and will be leaving the role at the end of this year. John was the Chair of the UK’s National Preventive Mechanism (overseeing the systems for preventing ill-treatment in detention) (2016-2022) and a member of the Ministerial Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody. John is also a member of the board of Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS).
He studied at the College of Law, Surrey University and the London School of Economics and is a co-author of the Blackstone’s Guide to the Human Rights Act (OUP). Between 1995 and 2003, John was the Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties). Previously, John was the Executive Director of INTERIGHTS, General Counsel for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
