Plans to replace Human Rights Act with ‘narrower, meaner’ Bill of Rights will undermine justice campaigns from Covid families and rape survivors.
The UK Government announced a series of measures in the Queen’s Speech today which Amnesty claims would make it harder for ordinary people to challenge unfair treatment and would damage the UK’s ability to stand up for human rights internationally.
Plans announced included a long-threatened move to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a “Bill of Rights”, an intention to move forward with legislation around the legacy of the Northern Ireland conflict, and a renewed attempt to push through highly authoritarian anti-protest measures in a new Public Order Bill.
Responding to the Queen’s Speech, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s CEO, said: “This highly regressive legislative agenda represents a systematic gutting of key legal protections for ordinary people.
“Scrapping the Human Rights Act and replacing it with a narrower, meaner Bill of Rights will make it even harder for ordinary people to challenge mistreatment at the hands of the state.
“Relatives of the Covid bereaved, women challenging serious failures to investigate and prosecute rape, activists fighting for abortion services in Northern Ireland – all these rely on the Human Rights Act.
“Quite simply, the Human Rights Act is the single most important piece of human rights legislation in the UK.”
Commenting on the Public Order Bill, Sacha Deshmukh said:
“It’s frightening to see the Home Secretary demonising people who are simply exercising their right to peaceful protest.
“These authoritarian provisions, recently removed by the Lords from the Policing Bill, are similar to repressive policies in countries the UK regularly criticises – including Russia, Hong Kong and Belarus.
“It follows a pattern of a Government voicing support for protest around the world but cracking down on the right to speak up here at home.”
The Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ Bill does not depart from current government plans and would introduce a de facto amnesty for ‘Troubles’ cases in Northern Ireland, despite widespread opposition from victims and significant international concern.
Deshmukh concluded: “Taking an axe to human rights at home will significantly undermine our ability to hold other countries to account, just when we need to be speaking out from a position of strength on the horrors in Ukraine, Xinjiang or Tigray.
“If the Government pushes ahead with these plans, the UK will be a diminished country on the international stage.”
