One of the key battlelines for next year’s election has been drawn following this year’s party conference season on the continued existence of the Human Rights Act. On Wednesday, Cameron pledged a future Conservative government would scrap the HRA for a new British Bill of Rights whilst remaining in The European Convention on Human Rights. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband pledged in his speech that Labour would protect this vital piece of legislation.
The ECHR is an international human rights treaty created after the atrocities of the Second World War. Championed by Winston Churchill, the ECHR is an institution with British values and laws at its heart. Many of its principles directly echo the Magna Carta, unsurprising considering that many UK lawyers were involved in its drafting. The Human Rights Act, passed by a Labour government in 1998, enshrines the ECHR into UK law. The act makes it illegal for any public body to act in a way which is incompatible with the articles of the ECHR and puts the UK in line with international human rights standards.
The concept of a ‘Bill of Rights’ originated in the UK after the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when Parliament was given supremacy over the monarch, entrenching fundamental rights and liberties. A Bill of Rights guarantees individual rights and freedoms and provides a vital check on the power of a national government.
Do these sound familiar? That is because the HRA is a de facto British Bill of Rights as it was passed by our parliament in 1998. It entrenches many of what are considered to be this country’s most virtuous values such as freedom of thought, the rule of law, the right to life and freedom from torture. These are not Labour or Conservative rights. The HRA embodies the best of British values and is a logical continuation of centuries of tradition. Cameron is yet to tell us why he does not consider these values to be British and what he would replace them with in a Bill of Rights.
Further confusion has arisen after Cameron claimed that the bill may look to remove the right to appeal to the ECHR above the UK Supreme Court. It is unclear how this would be possible while remaining within the ECHR, not to mention the dangerous message it would send to other countries with less appetising human rights records who could look to do the same. Cameron has been light on the details of his intentions and there may be some truth to the idea that he is seeking to find a way to put distance between himself and Europe. While it might briefly please the Eurosceptic members of his party, it would be irresponsible to sacrifice such important protections, especially as both the HRA and the ECHR are unrelated to the European Union.
The ECHR has become a bogeyman the Tories want to use to claim that some people do not have the same human rights as others, immigrants being the noticeable example, forgetting that human rights are exactly what they say on the tin: rights for all humans. We are frequently told that ‘Europe’ tries to govern us by ruling against the UK government, but this does not stand up statistically. In 2012 there were 3,308 applications made by individuals to the ECHR involving the UK. Of these, only 21 were deemed ‘admissible’ and in only 10 of these cases was any violation was found. Consequently, 99 per cent of cases are being dismissed at the earliest stages.
At Labour Campaign for Human Rights we have campaigned to rehabilitate human rights from their unfortunate association among some with terrorists and prisoners. We have reframed the HRA debate on to ‘our’ human rights, showing how the act helps and protects the UK public. Our website explains how the HRA has been used to achieve justice for rape victims and ensured the dignified treatment of the elderly in care homes.
The HRA is a vital piece of legislation and any reform of it, including a Bill of Rights, should be carefully considered. A ‘HRA-plus’ which adds to the framework by including new protections, such as digital rights, can be the only reform option. We do not know the Tory vision for a Bill of Rights but it does not bode well for their commitment to human rights that the past few months have seen Cameron dismiss pro-ECHR ministers such as Dominic Grieve, Ken Clarke and Damian Green. A Tory Bill of Rights could undo much of what has been achieved by the HRA and we must fight to protect it. If a future Labour government wishes to expand the HRA, or create a Bill of Rights that builds on it, we should be supportive. Until then, it is too risky to play around with a bill designed by the Tories that could take away our very British human rights.
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Ailar Hashemzadeh is vice-chair of the Labour Campaign for Human Rights. She tweets @a_hashemzadeh