By Lucy Caulkett-
The Council’s commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović,(pictured) has warned against the Uk replacing the Human Rights Act with a British bill of rights, stating that it would send the “wrong signal”.
The organisation, which was co-founded by Winston Churchill following the Second World War, has sharply criticised the proposals to repeal the Human Rights Act, as well as new protest laws and moves to criminalise asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
The Human Rights Act (HRA) directly incorporated into domestic law rights set out in the European convention on human rights (ECHR) was ratified by all members of the Council of Europe, including the UK.
Mijatović, said: “It is worrying that the proposed legal reforms might weaken human rights protections at this pivotal moment for the UK, and it sends the wrong signal beyond the country’s borders at a time when human rights are under pressure throughout Europe.”
Mijatović expressed concern that the weakening of the ECHR would widen the gap between the protection of ECHR rights by UK courts and the case law of the European court.
She added that the changes had been proposed in a wider context of recent laws and policies already heavily affect human rights in specific areas, such as the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, or on specific groups, such as refugees and asylum seekers or Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Mijatović also expressed concern about the impact of the repeal of the HRA on the peace settlement in Northern Ireland, given that incorporation of the ECHR was an explicit commitment of the Good Friday agreement.
“It is crucial that this foundation is not undermined as a result of the proposed human rights reforms,” she said.
She highlighted that the proposals were part of a “wider context” of laws affecting the freedom to protest and specific groups, such as asylum seekers and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Ms Mijatović warned that the effective protection of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was a “foundation” to the Good Friday Agreement, warning that attempts to preserve peace in Northern Ireland must not be undermined.
The human rights commissioner said new proposals on how to review Troubles-related cases may not be compliant with ECHR standards on independent and effective investigations and “could lead to impunity”
The Council of Europe which oversees the European court of human rights and is the continent’s leading human rights organisation, has already heavily criticised the UK over a plan to grant conditional immunity to people accused of murder and other offences through the Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill.
Mijatović also said the high number of children living in, or at risk of, poverty in the UK was “a serious human rights problem” and criticised public discourse relating to transgender people in the UK. “Contrary to what some are trying to suggest, protecting women’s rights and the rights of trans people is not a zero-sum game,” she said.
Following the announcement by the Uk government to introduce the Bill of Rights, the Law Society criticised the move as potentially damaging against the rule of law by preventing some laws from being challenged if they were not deemed to constitute a significant disadvantage.
The Law Society’s president, Stephanie Boyce, when addressing the new Bill Of Rights, said it would lead to an erosion of accountability which signalled a deepening of the government’s disregard for the checks and balances that underpin the rule of law.
Boyce also described the bill as ”a lurch backwards for British justice, leading to acceptable rights violations because these could no longer be challenged under the Bill of Rights”.
She added that the bill would ”grant the state greater unfettered power over the people, which would then belong to all future governments, whatever their ideologies”.
Many critics have pointed out that the Bill of Rights will reduce the power of UK judges where legislation is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, and limit important duties such as the positive duty to protect life.
Amongst the main concerns are that it will place the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights in jeopardy by empowering UK courts and parliament to not comply with judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.