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Lord Navnit Dholakia

Lord Navnit Dholakia

NAVNIT DHOLAKIA, who has been the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat Peers since 2004, is an untiring campaigner for racial equality, as well as criminal justice and penal reform.

The age of criminal responsibility, now fixed at 10, is one area of concern he takes particular interest in. This means children as young as 10 can be convicted of a crime in England and Wales, the lowest minimum age in the West, and Lord Dholakia says we don’t need this tag.


He has sponsored a private member’s bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12, the internationally recognised minimum, in the House of Lords in June 2017, which was passed by the chamber two years later and proceeded to the House of Commons in June 2019. But, the bill failed to complete its passage due to the dissolution of the parliament later that year, and Dholakia in February 2020 reintroduced the bill at the Lords.

“At 10 years, children do not have sufficient maturity to understand the seriousness of their offences. It is not to absolve them of their action, but we should understand they will come out of prison one day and a long-term pro[1]cess of rehabilitation may be more productive,” he says.

And, when Dholakia asserts that our “prison model is wrong,” it comes from the experience of working closely with the country’s prison system in various capacities since the 1970s. He has been a member of the board of visitors at HM Prison Lewes, the Howard League for Penal Reform, Lord Carlisle’s Committee on Parole Systems Review, Sussex Police Authority and Police Complaints Authority, and the president of National Association of Care and Resettlement of Offenders.

“We lock them up for 23 hours a day with no purposeful activity. Over 60 per cent reoffend within two years of being released. Surely, it is time we re-examine what prisons are for,” Dholakia notes.

His involvement with the cause of social justice had started soon after his arrival in Britain, from Tanzania, to study at Brighton Technical College. An address by Roy Jenkins in 1966 and his comments about equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance, would affect him profoundly and encourage his political engagement with race related issues.

His extensive work in this area started soon after, serving as the development officer for the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants, which he continued with the Community Relations Commissioner. From 1976, he headed the Administration of Justice section at the Commission for Racial Equality for nearly two decades.

Dholakia was nominated for peerage in 1997, and from 2000 to 2004, he served as the president of Liberal Democrats, becoming the first Asian to head a political party in Britain. One of the senior political leaders from the Asian community, he has been an influential and much respected figure in the community.

The 85-year-old still keeps a busy schedule, with his wife Ann – both have now been married for 54 years – always by his side. They have two daughters and three grandchildren. Dholakia also counts photography, gardening and travel among his passions.

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