Name Nazir Afzal | ||
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Nazir afzal honorary graduand speech at the university of birmingham
Nazir Afzal OBE (born 1962 in Birmingham, England) was the Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for North West England from 2011–15. He was the first Muslim to be appointed to such a position and was Britain's most senior Muslim lawyer within the CPS. He has campaigned for women's rights and spoken out against forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour killings. He was awarded an OBE in 2005.
Contents
- Nazir afzal honorary graduand speech at the university of birmingham
- Debate nazir afzal and ann barnes
- Career
- CPS
- After the CPS
- Media
- Awards
- References
He was also involved in capacity building in Somalia and more recently Chief Executive of the association of police and crime commissioners.
Debate nazir afzal and ann barnes
Career
Afzal has a degree in law from the University of Birmingham. He worked as a solicitor in Birmingham from 1988 to 1991. In London, he became a crown prosecutor in 1991 and assistant chief crown prosecutor in 2001. In 2011, he was appointed North West chief crown prosecutor covering Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Lancashire. As one of the 13 chief crown prosecutors that cover England and Wales, he was responsible for over 100,000 prosecutions a year and managed 800 lawyers and paralegals. He was awarded an OBE in 2005.
CPS
Afzal's prosecutions include a 1996 stalker of Princess Diana and the honour killing of Samaira Nazir in 2005. In May 2013, he was responsible for the prosecution of disgraced former BBC presenter Stuart Hall.
One of his first decisions on becoming a chief crown prosecutor was to initiate prosecutions in the case of the Rochdale sex trafficking gang, overturning an earlier decision by the CPS. He suggested that "white professionals' over-sensitivity to political correctness and fear of appearing racist may well have contributed to justice being stalled". He said "I do feel that there’s a deficit of leadership in some parts of the Muslim community. They could be much more challenging of certain behaviours". He attributed the attacks to "evil men", saying that the key driver was "male power".
Afzal's work against grooming gangs has led to criticism from "members of the Asian community" and from the far right. Regarding far-right campaigns to deport Afzal, he reiterated "I was born in Birmingham. They can deport me to Birmingham if they want to" and said "I think if you are getting it from both sides, you are probably getting something right."
In March 2015 it was reported that Afzal was leaving the CPS. A CPS spokesman said "Nazir Afzal is leaving the service as part of [an] on-going drive for efficiency" and that "there has been no impropriety on the part of Mr Afzal".
After the CPS
Afzal became chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.
Media
The BBC three-part drama "Three Girls", based on the Rochdale scandal, was broadcast on consecutive nights 16-18 May 2017 and featured the actor Ace Bhatti playing Afzal.
Following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, Afzal resigned from his post as Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) chief executive in order to appear on the topical BBC television programme Question Time.
Awards
In January 2013, Afzal was awarded the Services to Law award at the British Muslim Awards. He was awarded the Justice Award by the Daily Mirror newspaper in 2007 voted for by readers. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from University of Birmingham in 2014 and Fellowship of the University of Central Lancashire in 2013 for "raising public awareness of domestic violence, forced marriage and 'honour' based crimes". He is Honorary Lecturer in law at University of Manchester and Pro-Chancellor at Brunel University, London.