Joel Joffe, Baron Joffe

Who is Joel Joffe, Baron Joffe?

Joel Goodman Joffe, Baron Joffe CBE is a Labour peer in the House of Lords.

Born in South Africa, he was educated at the University of Witwatersrand, and worked as a human rights lawyer 1958–65, including at the infamous 1963-4 Rivonia Trial, representing Nelson Mandela. Later he moved to the United Kingdom, and worked in the financial services industry, setting up Hambro Life Assurance with Sir Mark Weinberg as well as in the voluntary sector. He was associated with Oxfam in various roles between 1982 and 2001, including being its Chair 1995–2001.

He was also an early supporter of Technology Trust.

In 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Bath.

He was awarded the CBE in the 1999 New Year Honours, and made a Life peer on 16 February 2000, being raised to the peerage as Baron Joffe, of Liddington in the County of Wiltshire. In February 2003 he proposed as a Private Member's Bill the "Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill", which would legalise physician-assisted dying. After deliberation by a Lords committee, the bill was put forward again in November 2005.

On 12 May 2006; the Bill was debated once again in the House of Lords and an amendment to delay its introduction by six months was carried by a margin of 148–100.