UK leaving European convention on human rights would be a mistake, equalities chief warns | Immigration and asylum
The new head of Britain’s equality watchdog said it would be a mistake to take Britain out of the European human rights treaty to quell right-wing anger over immigration, as he warned against demonizing people migrating to Britain.
Mary-Ann Stephenson, who chaired the Equality and Human Rights Commission in December, said the European convention on human rights was part of a framework that provided for rights that most people would recognize as fundamental. But he said the tone of public speaking on the issue is often dangerous.
“I think it’s really important that we’re honest when we talk about human rights, but also that we recognize that the demonization of immigrants – creating the idea that immigration poses huge risks to the country – can make the lives of not just immigrants coming to the UK, but also UK citizens who are ethnic minorities, very, very difficult.”
When discussing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Stephenson noted that “there is a real risk that people often use cases where human rights arguments have been made in court but have not been successful”.
It highlighted a University of Oxford study earlier this year, highlighting “several high-profile examples of misleading reporting, including the ‘chicken nugget’ case, which was widely reported as preventing a person from being deported because their child disliked foreign foods, even though the decision was not based on that detail and has already been overturned.”
Political debates have flared around the UK’s membership of the ECHR, mostly in relation to cases in which the government has sought to deport people. Some on the right have argued that the convention hindered these efforts. Both the Conservatives and the Reform Party announced that they would abandon the international agreement.
The Labor government is reviewing human rights law to make it easier to win deportation cases. Amendments to Article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 8 (right to family life) are being included in the government’s plans to overhaul the asylum system, and both are being invoked in high-profile cases.
Stephenson said the convention was “really important” because of its inclusion in the UK Human Rights Act, and said leaving would undermine the rights to which everyone depends.
As examples, he gave the case of the black taxi rapist John Worboys, in which the high court ruled that police could be held accountable for serious failings in their investigation, and a case involving threats to separate an elderly couple when they needed to go into residential care.
“These are the kinds of situations where most people would think, ‘This is the kind of thing we’d like to see. These are the kind of rights we’d like to have.’ That’s why I think it’s a mistake to leave the European convention. It undermines the rights we all depend on.”
Earlier this month, the head of the body that oversees the convention said member states had taken “an important first step forward together” by agreeing to consider reforms to combat immigration within its legal framework.
