“Legal reforms should not weaken human rights protections in the United Kingdom”, warned the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, on Monday 4 July.
At issue is the proposed repeal and replacement of the ‘Human Rights Act’ with a ‘Bill of Rights’ which, if passed, would change the way in which citizens can bring cases before the UK courts and enforce their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), widening the gap between the protection of those rights by the UK courts and the case law of the Strasbourg Court.
This is a “bad signal” sent by the UK “at a time when human rights are under pressure throughout Europe”, said Ms Mijatović on her return from a five-day visit to the country.
She also highlighted that the protection of ECHR rights is one of the foundations of the peace settlement in Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement. “It is crucial that this foundation is not undermined as a result of the proposed human rights reforms”, she stressed.
Link to Mijatović’s statement: https://aeur.eu/f/2i6 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)