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Chibli Mallat is a leading human rights lawyer. Currently Professor of Middle Eastern Law at the University of Utah’s College of Law in the United States, he was born in Beirut, and was one of the leaders of Lebanon’s so called ‘Cedar Revolution’, and a former Presidential candidate there. He assisted the Constitutional Review Committee of Iraq in completing the amendments to the 2005 Constitution and has been advising countries across the Arab world on constructing new laws post-revolution.

Shlomit Wallerstein is Fellow and Tutor in Law at St Peter’s College, Oxford and lectures on jurisprudence, international and national criminal law. Recently she has been advising the committee set up by the Indian government to look at how to reform sexual assault laws, after several disturbing high profile rape cases there.  She says new laws can only work when social perceptions are also altered.

Philippe Sands is a top British barrister famous for the high profile cases you’ve argued in front of various International courts, including one involving the former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, and another addressing the rights of Guantanamo detainees. He is also Professor of Law at University College London, and the author of The Lawless World and The Torture Team. Philippe’s next book will argue that good law is about protecting the rights of the individual rather than the group.

In this week’s 60-second Idea to Improve the World, Shlomit Wallerstein suggests we should abolish jury trials in any shape or form: this includes countries like the UK where trial by jury is very common, or other countries around the world where juries are still used for some very serious criminal cases. She argues that people who sit on juries have their own prejudices which they bring to the case whereas judges are trained and have the full expertise to bring to the situation.

At the Women of the World Festival at London’s South Bank, we ask four leading women of African descent, how you get your voice heard: space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, musician Ayanna Witter-Johnson, dub poet Jean 'Binta' Breeze and  fashion label owner Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah