Weekly Human Rights News: 14-07-23

Our CEO, Sanchita, and Human Rights Officer, Phoebe headed to the north of England this week to deliver an in-person workshop focused on putting human rights into practice. At the beginning of the website, participants were asked how they felt about human rights and gave answers like “intimidating”, “misunderstood” and “legal minefield”. Afterwards they were asked the same question and said “enlightening”, “thought-provoking” and “real and honest”.

We held the first workshop in our latest Practice Leads programme and asked participants what their goals were for the programme. They told us they want to “apply human rights to support teams in their decision making”, “listen within every clinical conversation with my human rights hat on” and “have a much clearer understanding of human rights …. And to apply with in practice confidently but also sharing this with the teams I support”.

MPs raised concerns about the human rights implications of the Victims and Prisoners Bill

In a Committee Debate, Ellie Reeves MP raised concerns that in spite of the Rights Removal Bill being stopped, some clauses in the Victims and Prisoners Bill “may be another way for the former Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, to dilute our human rights framework through the backdoor.” She explained, “Section 3 of the Human Rights Act requires courts to interpret legislation compatibly with rights under the European convention on human rights as far as is possible. The clauses would disapply section 3 to prisoners as a group when it comes to legislation about their release. A number of groups have rightly raised concerns about that. The Prison Reform Trust said: “The introduction of specific carve-outs from human rights for people given custodial sentences contradicts one of the fundamental principles underlying human rights—their universality and application to each and every person on the simple basis of their being human. Moreover, it is precisely in custodial institutions like prisons that human rights protections are most vital, because individuals are under the control of the state.”"

Read our letter on protecting Section 3

The Court of Appeal granted the UK Government permission to appeal the Rwanda ruling

On Thursday 29^th June, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Rwanda policy is unlawful because sending people to Rwanda puts them at risk of Article 3 (inhuman or degrading) treatment. The UK Government has been granted permission to appeal this ruling so the case will proceed to the UK Supreme Court.

Read the judgment