Six types of execution are practiced in the industrialized world, torture is openly sanctioned by the US, and infringements of people's civil liberties, such as racial profiling by the police, take place on a daily basis. Yet in 2005 only 61 per cent of the British voting public chose to stand up for their rights. When most people agree with the maxim 'innocent until proven guilty' but the British government is proposing to detain terror suspects for 42 days without charge, Tom Head asks, can we afford to be apathetic? Explaining what civil liberties are and why they're worth defending, he covers key issues as how every ethnic group on Earth has been victimized by racist laws, how laws banning hate speech can become dangerous, and how you can make a difference.