THE NEXT head of Britain’s foremost human rights organisation should consider the internet “the new frontier of rights and freedoms,” Shami Chakrabarti says in an exclusive interview with the Morning Star today.

Ms Chakrabarti, who announced on Thursday she is stepping down as Liberty director, said her 13 years at the helm “haven’t been easy.”

But she argued that a younger generation was better placed to understand the human rights struggles of the next decade.

“I think this is the new frontier of rights and freedoms and I think it’s going to be challenging and it’s going to be exciting as well.”

But she refused to speculate on her own future, saying: “I’ve agreed with my colleagues that I’ll talk about Liberty today and if anybody gives a monkey’s in a few months then I’ll talk about Shami.”

Ms Chakrabarti savaged the government’s Trade Union Bill as an attack on civil liberties in an address to TUC Congress last autumn.

She said unions were the “best place” to advance the cause of women in the current political climate.

“We’ve got our first-ever woman general secretary and that’s great at the helm of the movement. We need change and progress … everywhere else in the movement too.”

She said of the future of Liberty: “We are not individualists. We are collectivists — we believe in solidarity and struggle and common humanity, and I feel confident that this movement is back on the map.

“I’ll be watching, I’ll be supporting, but other people will be leading, and that’s why we are who we are.”