By Aadya Betadpur (Year 11) and Niya Nair (Year 11)

On Thursday 5th October, a new student-led group, Amnesty, run by Upper Sixth student, Avleen Jandu, hosted their first debate on Free Speech after school and it was a huge success.

Amnesty International is a global human rights organisation, and in affiliation with them, Amnesty at BGS focuses on creating a safe space for people to discuss controversial topics and express their opinions, becoming more aware of issues in the world. For example, women’s rights in Afghanistan or whether the death penalty is an acceptable form of punishment.

Last year we also collaborated with the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick to plan campaigns and raise awareness of female rights, expanding our impact and connections. This debate involved a range of discussions, from whether being too hot or too cold is better, to whether socialism is the new way forward and if freedom of speech is more important than the prevention of hate speech. Each subtopic had a different format, with some allowing people to argue for whatever side they wanted to, while others had people split into four groups, each working together to make their point. For example, ‘companies have a responsibility to prevent hate speech’. There were prizes for the following:

Most confident - Jada Stephenson

Best debater - Emaan Rashid

Most controversial take - Harmeen Kullar

Most interesting point - Gam Krobpetch

With Year 11 students Mitali Misra, Sonia Erwig, Grace Briers and Niya Nair leading the event, everyone had a wonderful time.

Tiya Dhaliwal (Year 11) reflected: “The Amnesty debate was a really fun experience and was definitely a good opportunity to improve debating skills and speaking out, in my opinion. I  much enjoyed the debate with my friends and it was fantastically organised by a great group of people who made an excellent effort for the evening.”