Cameron’s Bill of Rights isn’t really about human rights – it’s about sovereignty

Anna Sonny, 3 October 2014

David Cameron has vowed to scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act and introduce a British Bill of Rights instead, preventing the European Court of Human Rights from intervening in British law.

The Human Rights Act, brought in by Labour in 1998, enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights. The Prime Minister, who has repeatedly called for the act to be repealed, wants to remain in the Convention but remove the power of the Strasbourg Court to intervene in British legal decisions, treating their judgements as advisory only; if this compromise is not accepted by the Council of Europe, he is threatening to withdraw from the Convention completely.

Although the act was introduced to safeguard human rights, Conservatives argue that it has failed to protect law-abiding British citizens and has instead been used as a tool for terrorists and criminals seeking to avoid deportation and remain in the country. High-profile cases such as that of Abu Qatada have given weight to this argument and have provided more ground for the Tories to dislike anything that ties us to European legislation (much like our membership to the EU) when it is against our own interests.

But despite high-profile cases appearing in the tabloids and portraying the British government as embarrassingly powerless before the ECHR’s sweeping judgements, the figures show that in reality these cases are rare.

Last year the European court in Strasbourg dealt with 1,652 applications against the UK. Of those, 98.8% were declared inadmissible or struck out. In only eight cases (0.4%) did the court find at least one violation of convention rights.

Civil rights groups such as Amnesty UK and Liberty have spoken out against the Prime Minister’s plans to scrap the act. Amnesty UK’s campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said: “Theresa May made much in her speech about how we must stand up and fight for human rights abroad, it makes absolutely no sense to denigrate those same rights at home.” But claims about Cameron trying to draw up his own version of human rights are missing the point. Cameron’s proposals aren’t about human rights, they’re about sovereignty. The Prime Minister is trying to send out a message to UK voters that he wants Britain to decide her own laws without interference from anyone – especially anyone in Europe.