He entered the House of Lords in 1971. Throughout his time in politics, he has been at the forefront of human rights activism both within and beyond Parliament. He founded the Parliamentary Human Rights Group in 1976 and having chaired it for 21 years now acts as Vice-chair.

He was the Liberal Spokesman on Immigration and Race Relations until 1983 and went on to found the Parliamentarians for East Timor in 1988. He acts as Vice-chair on the Parliamentary Group for Tibet and as a member of the Liberal Democrats Foreign Affairs Team. Lord Avebury speaks frequently on conflict resolution and human rights issues in Parliament.

Beyond Parliament, Lord Avebury has campaigned on a wide range of global issues. Of particular note is his advocacy for the rights of people in Peru, Cameroon and Iran where he regularly speaks for the victims of poverty and discrimination. Lord Avebury has been co-chair of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (promoting implementation of the Peace Accords of 1997 with the Bangladesh Government) since April 2008. In his capacity of co-chair he has travelled several times to Bangladesh. Lord Avebury is also the President of the Kurdish Human Rights Project and has visited the Kurdish region of Turkey four times. He was in Ankara earlier this year (2009) launching the Turkish translation of The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, to which he contributed the foreword. In 2009 he was awarded the Liberal International Prize for Freedom for his contribution in campaigning for the protection of human rights in many countries across the globe.

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