Strengthen, not abolish, the Human Rights Act

Adrian Sanders, Member of Parliament for Torbay, is supporting a UK Bill of Rights which will provide vital and comprehensive protection of human rights in the UK. 

The UK has led the cause of human rights for the past 60 years but this eminent history is now in jeopardy following the Conservative Party's vow to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998. Public faith in the current human rights regime has also been damaged by its complexity which often causes confusion and can on occasion produce judgments which are difficult to explain. 

In contrast to the Conservatives, Mr Sanders and the Liberal Democrats are committed to strengthening the UK's human rights regime to ensure that civil liberties protection remains available to and understandable by all. This Bill seeks to create home grown UK human rights legislation which is both rational and understandable by everyone in the UK and not just lawyers and politicians.  By streamlining the legislation the Government can restore public faith in human rights both in the UK and further afield.  

The Bill is currently under consideration by the Commission on a Bill of Rights which is tasked to report on this issue by the end of 2012.  Mr Sanders today responded to the Commission's Discussion Paper on the Bill expressing his strong support for a UK Bill of Rights and calling for it to include new rights such as a right to a clean environment, a prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and torture and greater protection against discrimination for a wider range of groups.

Adrian Sanders MP says:

"There is a pressing need to improve, not abolish, the current system of human rights in the UK which is too complicated and unwieldy. This is damaging the cause of human rights in UK and allowed the last government to infringe upon our civil liberties. The Tories' policy to scrap the Human Rights Act, which judging by "Catgate" appears to have been based on research gleaned from the front pages of tabloid newspapers, is mistaken and misconceived. This can only serve to increase the number of perverse judgments from Strasbourg and lead to a further loss of public faith in the human rights system.  A UK Bill of Rights will complement and clarify the Human Rights Act and show that human rights principles are not obligations imposed by faceless bureaucrats in Europe but principles which are at the heart of the British notion of justice and fairness."

Image from Wikimedia Commons.