'Let me write the songs of the people and I care not who makes their laws.'
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
(a favourite quotation of David Maxwell Fyfe)
The ‘songs of the people’ conjure for us the rights and freedoms of all under the protection of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Europe.
We perform the words and songs of our song cycle Dreams of Peace & Freedom to confirm
and celebrate the rebirth and evolution
of human rights during that 75 years.
This website, formerly thehumansinthetelling.org, will soon be launched as songsofthepeople.co.uk For now it remains our social media hub. See below.
Edinburgh Fringe performances mark 75 years since first discussions about a Human Rights Convention
‘We consider that our light will be a beacon to those in totalitarian darkness
and will give them a hope of return to freedom.’
David Maxwell Fyfe, speaking at the signing of the ECHR, Rome 1950
English Cabaret’s widely-acclaimed song cycle, Dreams of Peace & Freedom, celebrating the birth of modern human rights returned to the Edinburgh Fringe for two very special performances
at C aurora in Lauriston Street this August.
They marked the dates in August 1949 when Winston Churchill, a leading voice in the newly formed Council of Europe, was working alongside other nations to put into practice the vision for a Convention on Human Rights at the very first meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. Over the following 18 months, Nuremberg prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe, whose story is told in Dreams of Peace & Freedom played a significant role in drafting and refining this Convention, which was finished and passed a year later, and signed by 12 countries in November 1950. European signatories now number 46.
12 Articles of Freedom
We believe in human rights, democracy and the rule of law, values enshrined in law in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Following the recent General Election we are delighted that the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally 'draws strength and value from it every day' and leads a party that is unequivocal in its support of ECHR. Speaking at the recent EPC Summit he described the Convention as being 'built on the blood bond of 1945 and our shared sacrifice for freedom.'
November 2025 marks the 75th anniversary of ECHR's signing and we must do everything in our power to reassert the Convention as a vital living and evolving force throughout Europe and be grateful for the protection it affords. To do this we must start by learning its history.
75 years on, members of the family of David Maxwell Fyfe tell the story of his journey from Nuremberg to Strasbourg to become an artisan of the ECHR
Magna Carta Progress 8
We launched our Magna Carta Progress in June 2022, to educate, celebrate and protect that great charter of rights and freedoms. Magna Carta and ECHR, both written in response to profound abuse of power nurturing barbarism, are two totems of natural law - the quest to make things right.
There will be performances of Dreams of Peace & Freedom for the 75th anniversary of the ECHR’s signing in November 2025. But as a prologue, we are making our way down the country to centres of David’s life, criss-crossed with the Magna Carta trail.
See details below.
And we're off!
Our 12 Articles of Freedom tour, following our mystical streams of natural law down the country, has begun.
So far we have visited these three centres...
Dornoch | Article 2 Right to Life
Edinburgh | Article 8 Right to Respect for a Private and Family Life
Durham | Article 10 Freedom of Expression
Runnymede | Article 7 No Punishment without Law
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A must for all those who want to build a better world
Dominic Grieve