Scrap the Bill of Rights

By Anooshah Farakish

WE ARE faced with yet another attack by the Conservative government as they intend to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with their Bill of Rights, and change how human rights are protected in this country. This will leave us with fewer rights, and them with more power.

Even the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) urged the government not to proceed with this Bill. They concluded that the Bill seriously weakens the ability of individuals to seek redress for human rights breaches, creates new barriers that would make it harder for people to enforce their rights inside and outside of court, undermines the universality of rights, shows disregard for our international legal obligations, creates legal uncertainty and hinders effective enforcement, will lead to an increased caseload in Strasbourg, and will damage our international reputation as guardians of human rights.

Obligations

These fundamental rights and freedoms belong to everyone without discrimination or prejudice and, as agreed internationally they must be universal, indivisible and interdependent, equal and non-discriminatory. The UK has obligations and duties under international, law to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. Unions and community organisations have been using the HRA to seek justice for their members which benefitted all of us. Without it, this vital route to redress will close.

The Bill of Rights, introduced to Parliament in June 2022, would change or remove provisions of the HRA and introduce new measures, including:

 requiring the person whose rights have been violated to show they have suffered a “significant disadvantage” before they can take their claim to court

 setting a higher threshold for challenges to deportations for foreign national offenders

 removing the duty on courts to interpret legislation compatibly with European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and to consider the interpretation of the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR)

 limiting the interpretation of rights to a literal reading of the ECHR text

 prohibiting courts from finding a public body owes a positive obligation

 requiring courts to give great weight to the views of parliament when balancing rights issues

 preventing human rights claims arising from overseas military operations

It is still unclear how these changes would operate in practice in relation to the ECHR. Many of the rights we enjoy including individual and collective labour law are underpinned by the HRA and the Convention.

The Council of Europe clearly states that the Convention is the lowest common denominator. This is what the Bill of Rights aims to dismantle, our minimum human rights.

Right to Strike

As trade unionists, we have been campaigning against this government’s attacks on our collective rights. In December 2022, the High Court granted permission to a judicial review of regulations that undermine the right to strike launched by eleven unions including Unite. The unions argue that the regulations are unlawful because they were not consulted and that they violate fundamental trade union rights protected by Article 11 of the ECHR.

Section 3 - Interpretation of legislation

Under the Bill, a court or public authority will no longer be able to rely on section 3 to interpret the legislation compatibly. This applies to all legislation including laws passed before the HRA came into force.

We would lose all the historical Section 3 decisions as they will be subject to ministerial review. This will erase decades of human rights cases developed by a balance of Parliament, the courts, and legal action by individuals and unions, and replace it with the discretion of one minister, the. A worrying reduction in government accountability.

Without this well-crafted interpretative section, the government’s obligation to bring UK law in line with the ECHR will be removed. Con-