Tuesday, 8 March 2022 — SORUK

Thank you to everyone that has so far responded to the Human Rights Act consultation and shared posts on social media.

If you’ve seen the posts but haven’t responded to the consultation yet please do NOW as today is the last day. It takes less than 5 minutes here.

If you haven’t heard yet the Government are trying to get rid of the Human Rights Act in it’s entirety. This is proposed through a document on the Ministry of Justice consultation site.

There are so very many things wrong with this proposal that I had to break it down into 10 days worth of info as it is also hugely complex.

If you go to Save Our Rights Facebook page you will find a post with all 10 days on it here and you can also listen to Louise talk through the information with Dan Astin-Gregory on Pandemic Podcast here.

You can also find similar on Twitter, Telegram and Instagram.

 But to summarise there are eight main problematic areas.

For the individual:

– PERMISSION REQUIRED – You will now need to seek permission to bring your Human Rights case to court – this will prevent many cases being heard

– REDUCED RESPONSIBILITY – It will reduce the positive obligations put upon public bodies – disadvantaging the most vulnerable in particular

– GREATER GOOD – Society could be given more rights than the individual – so whatever the Government can justify for the greater good will be more important than you or your child

– RIGHT TO RIGHTS – A persons right to rights will no longer be universal but instead be judged by the courts – are you good enough to have your Human Rights? Is your neighbour?

On a procedural level:

– WILL OF PARLIAMENT – Judicial amendments will not be allowed unless in line with the will of Parliament – the courts must obey the Government

– SECRETARIES OF STATE FREE FOR ALL The courts will be prevented from getting rid of Statutory Instruments even if they’re not compatible with Human Rights – allowing Secretaries of State free reign

– JUDGES NO LONGER JUDGING – The Government will be more prescriptive to the courts giving it explicit guidance and no longer allowing it to interpret legislation – preventing judges from doing their job

– STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE – Where legislation was once underpinned by the Human Rights Act it will no longer be required to have this committed to in a statement of compliance – opening up the potential for many Human Rights abuses.

So as you can see, it is a pretty dire set of proposals, especially when you combine all of the individual points.

Currently it is in consultation phase so we have created a really easy template for you to use to respond to the consultation in less than 5 minutes. The more we raise our voices before it even comes to Parliament the better. Find the template here.

We will keep on standing for our rights and freedoms, thank you for standing with us.

SORUK Team