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Nazir Afzal OBE
Nazir is Director, CPS London South. He is service champion for advocacy, promoting best practice in case presentation, together with championing legal training and law scholarship. He was one of the very first CPS Higher Court Advocates (HCAs) and one of the lead trainers.
He became the first CPS Governor of a university (Thames Valley) where he is responsible for widening participation amongst a diverse group. He developed the first formal witness familiarisation training programme for police officers at the Metropolitan Police Crime Academy and joined in a groundbreaking partnership with BPP plc to do so. He recently worked with the UN development programme on the Rule of Law.
Nazir organised the first CPS/Police Conferences on a number of subjects:
The Honour Crimes Conference (2004) and subsequent work has led to Nazir becoming the foremost criminal justice practitioner in this field. He is now regularly invited to be the keynote speaker at events as diverse as those organised by women's groups and the European Commission (he spoke in Turkey in July 2006). He has given more than 200 media interviews in the last 18 months on the subject in both mainstream and South Asian media from Sky to Al Jazeera. The present high profile of the subject owes a considerable amount to Nazir's tireless 'campaigning' on the issue, raising victims' rights, attacking the complacency of some, and sending out messages through successful prosecutions which he himself handles and which are intended to improve victim/witness confidence in particular. He developed a programme to create specialist prosecutors and investigators nationally that commenced in June 2007.
The Sports Crime Conference (2005) led to the beginning of work with the Home Office which eventually commissioned the first team of prosecutors to attend the World Cup. He is working closely with the FA on ticket touting and racial abuse.
The Airport Crime Conference (2006) was the first opportunity for public and private sectors to develop a relationship to tackle disruptive passengers, land and airside crime.
The Gangs conference (2007) has led to Nazir being invited onto the Mayor of London's Gangs Board.
Nazir's exceptional relationships with the leaders of faith groups in particular the Muslim groups were highlighted by the response of the Muslim community after the bombings of 7 July 2005. 'Leaders' contacted him to seek reassurances about the handling of any potential backlash and re-emphasise a commitment to tackle the radicalism that led to the bombings. He joined the National Muslim Safety Forum to represent the CPS, he became a Commissioner of the Commission on British Muslims, and a founding trustee of the Centre for Muslim Affairs. He was invited and gave oral evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Tackling Terrorism and to the Home affairs Select Committee on tackling domestic violence.
Nazir is trustee of the Wayout Dreams Foundation, the Henna Foundation, an ambassador for the Kids Taskforce, a tutor for both Common Purpose and the Young Foundation's programmes for the country's emerging leaders and has recently presented papers to the University of London, SOAS and LSE.
He was selected for both the Muslim Power 100 and Asian Power 100, recognised thereby as one of the 100 most influential Muslims and Asians in the UK. He was awarded the CPS's Public Servant of the year and most recently the Daily Mirror "People's award" voted for by Mirror readers.
He is a judge of both the Lloyds TSB Excellence Awards and the Asian Woman magazine Excellence awards.
He was honoured with an OBE in 2005 New Year's Honour's List.