“Do as I say, not as I do,” would be the UK’s message to abusive governments if Conservative Party plans for human rights go ahead.
In proposals published today, the Conservatives, currently the majority party in the UK’s coalition government, promise that if re-elected in May 2015, they would adopt legislation allowing the UK to choose whether or not to apply the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
Under the plans, the UK parliament and UK courts would be free to ignore any rulings from the Strasbourg court that they dislike. Even if they are never enacted, these proposals send a damaging signal to abusive governments in Europe and beyond. If the Council of Europe were to disagree with this approach, the UK would then withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Conservatives have also promised to scrap the Human Rights Act - which incorporates the ECHR into UK law - and replace it with a new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. The plans suggest the new bill would include fewer human rights protections for people in the UK, particularly those deemed undesirable.
Under these proposals, two scenarios are possible. Both would cause serious damage to human rights protection not only in the UK, not only in Europe, but around the world.
The first is that the Council of Europe would allow the UK to remain on the terms the Conservatives propose, reducing the role of the European Court to an “advisory body” whose rulings can be ignored by domestic courts and governments alike. As well as depriving people in the UK from an important level of human rights protection, this would tempt other governments to follow the UK’s example. This would, effectively, be the end of a system that for the past 60 years has protected the rights of millions of people across 47 countries. If the European Court is to have any meaning at all, member countries must comply with its judgments against them, as the Convention they have all agreed requires them to do.
In the more likely case that the Council of Europe refuses, the UK would be the first country to voluntarily withdraw from the ECHR since Greece in 1969, while it was under military dictatorship. It would join Belarus outside the club, and Venezuela in leaving a regional human rights body. This would send a dangerous trend that could ultimately unravel the convention system.
Beyond Europe, such a move would destroy the UK’s credibility to speak out on human rights abuses worldwide. The UK sits on the UN Human Rights Council and regularly and rightly calls on other governments to respect human rights. Victims of human rights abuses across the world lose the most.
