Dreams of Peace and Freedom

To mark 75 years since the European Convention on Human Rights, explore the history of the Convention in its birthplace, and discover how it continues to impact lives today.

In its 75th anniversary year we have forgotten why we have the Convention. On Saturday 1 November the Museum of Liverpool will be filled with singing and stories telling how Liverpool is its birthplace and how the protections of the Convention are applied throughout our city every day.

 A living commemoration of a living law, this beautiful song cycle Dreams of Peace and Freedom, offers a new way to view the Convention, telling its story through the words of its creator David Maxwell Fyfe and how its foundation lay in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials over which he was Lead Prosecutor, and a resolution that this would never be allowed to happen again. 

David Maxwell Fyfe was a Liverpool lawyer and MP for West Derby. He met and married his wife, Sylvia Harrison in the city. Through his personal papers, Sue Casson's ethereal music and archive film blend in this powerful celebration of the protections afforded by the Convention. 

To illustrate the continuing relevance of the ECHR in the lives of people in Liverpool and beyond today. Liverpool John Moore University' s Living Library of human 'books' will be at the museum. The Living Library draws on LJMU research, the work of its award-winning free Legal Advice Centre and other legal practitioners in the city. It brings to life real examples of how lives have been changed by the Convention in recent years. Each human book represents one of the articles of the Convention and you are invited to talk to them and ask questions. 

The Convention provided the basis for the museum's own The People's Republic Gallery on the second floor.