HUMAN rights champion and Independent Life Peer Lord Alton of Liverpool launched the Royal School’s 2017 lecture programme with a stirring speech about religious persecution and the refugee crisis.

Lord Alton, a professor of citizenship at John Moores University, in Liverpool, and established the Roscoe Foundation for Citizenship, spoke on ‘Persecution, the denial of freedom and a push factor for migration’.

Sixth-form students at the Haslemere private school were asked to think about atrocities that are committed on a daily basis in the name of religion and to consider how each of us can make a positive difference – no matter how small – if we choose to stand up to brutality and persecution. 

They were fascinated to hear about Lord Alton’s visits to North Korea, and questions from the floor included requests for more information about the closed country.

At the dinner following the talk, Lord Alton continued the theme of the importance of making a difference and gave several examples of young men and women who had courageously and peacefully, often through education, changed the world for the better.  

School principal Anne Lynch said: “Lord Alton is a very compelling speaker and gave a fascinating talk. We would like to thank him for such a thought-provoking lecture.”