Lord Avebury passed away

By Ansar Ahmed Ullah ::

Lord Avebury has passed away on the morning of 14 February. Lord Avebury, his full name Eric Reginald Lubbock, passed away peacefully at his home in south London, at the age of 87, attended by his wife, Lindsay, and other family members. He was suffering from myelofibrosis, a form of blood cancer, for more than a year.
Lord Avebury, born on 29 September 1928 was a British politician. He served as the Liberal Member of Parliament from 1962 to 1970, and served in the House of Lords, having inherited the title of Baron Avebury in 1971. In 1999, when most hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords, he was elected by his fellow Liberal Democrats to remain. He was the longest-serving Lib Dem member of the House of Lords.
He was educated in Toronto, Canada, and Harrow School, and he read Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He served as a Second Lieutenant in the Welsh Guards from 1949-51.
Having joined the Liberal Party in 1960 he won a sensational by-election victory at Orpington on 15 March 1962. During his life in Parliament as an MP, he campaigned for many causes, which later on became law.
He loved his work at the House of Lords and, prior to his ill health, he had one of the best attendance records there. As much as the formal debates, Lord Avebury also enthusiastically dealt with a huge caseload of work mainly espousing various causes for which he was well known. Within Parliament, his expertise and experience were widely recognised and his networks together with knowledge of the system was a valuable asset in facilitating progress on tasks for both colleagues and those he sought to help.
Throughout his time in politics he was at the forefront of human rights activism, both in and beyond Parliament. In 1976 founded the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, which he chaired for the next 21 years. He continued to be Vice-Chair until his death. He had also established the International Bangladesh Foundation in 2005, specifically to highlight the human rights situation of minority communities and secular activists. He was a strong advocate of war crimes trial. In addition Lord Avebury was a Co-Chair of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, which monitors the implementation of the CHT Peace Accord by the Bangladesh Government.