“It is worrying that the proposed legal reforms could weaken human rights protections at a critical time for Britain,” Dunia Mijatovic said in a statement at the end of a five-day trip across the Channel.
The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner warned on Monday of the risk of weakening human rights protections in Britain in response to London’s bill allowing the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to be bypassed.
“It is worrying that the proposed legal reforms could weaken human rights protections at a critical time for Britain,” Dunia Mijatovic said in a statement at the end of a five-day trip across the Channel.
“This sends the wrong message beyond the country’s borders, at a time when human rights are under pressure across Europe,” added the Commissioner.
The British government, determined to have a free hand on immigration, unveiled on June 22 a reform of human rights legislation through a new “Bill of Rights” that will allow London to ignore certain orders of the European Court of Human Rights.
A Council of Europe court that ensures respect for the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECtHR has opposed the controversial deportation to Rwanda of migrants who arrived illegally in Britain. His decision grounded a plane that had been specially chartered at high cost just before it took off from a British military base on June 14.
The text presented by London will replace the Human Rights Act which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, emphasizing “the authority of the Supreme Court” and the fact that “British courts they have no obligation to follow Strasbourg case law,” said Justice Minister Dominic Raab.
He had, however, assured that the UK intended to “remain a state party to the European Convention on Human Rights”, which it had helped to draft.
After her talks with the British authorities, Mijatovic also reminded that the European Convention on Human Rights is one of the foundations of the peace agreements in Northern Ireland.
“It is essential that this foundation is not undermined by the proposed human rights reforms,” ​​he added.
In her sights, a bill introduced by London in May, which advocates abandoning legal proceedings related to the conflict in Northern Ireland for British soldiers and paramilitaries involved in the “Unrest” who decide to cooperate with the authorities.
The Commissioner considered the text to be a “unilateral closing of options” for victims and their families.
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