I am proud of the United Kingdom‘s long historical record of supporting human rights, both at home and abroad. Fundamental rights are precious and must be constantly defended. As an elected representative I take that responsibility very seriously.
However, it is obvious that something has gone badly wrong. When our elected Parliament is effectively ordered by the European Court of Human Rights, against our democratically firmly held beliefs to, for example, scrap a provision of an Act of Parliament that stops convicted prisoners from voting, it is time to reflect on how human rights are being applied.
I have recently co-written the foreword to a new book entitled “Human rights: Making them work for the people of the UK”. This book, written by Robert Broadhurst, shows that the main problem with current human rights law is that we have to accept judges’ interpretations of human rights, even when those interpretations strike us as a gross distortion of such rights. Who really believes that some or all convicted prisoners have an inherent right to vote while they are behind bars for their crime? Not me. And yet the only opinion that matters is that of the judges in Strasbourg. This cannot be right in a democracy.
This effective supremacy of the European Court of Human Rights stems from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). We must radically change our relationship with the ECHR so that it can no longer impose perverse notions of rights on the people of this country. If necessary, the UK should be prepared to withdraw from the ECHR, something it is perfectly entitled to do.
The Government is pushing for reforms to the European Court of Human Rights, so that it would interfere less in British affairs. I support these efforts as far as they go, but would like to see a firmer guarantee that the Strasbourg Court will no longer be able to override the mainstream British understanding of human rights.
Alongside this, the UK Parliament should enact a new British Bill of Rights, to replace the so-called Human Rights Act introduced under Labour. This would uphold broadly the same rights as those found in the ECHR, and these rights would continue to be applied by the independent British judiciary. Parliament should however, have the right to check whether a legislative change was needed to respect human rights, or if a judges‘ verdict had gone beyond those rights.
In short, these proposed reforms seek to end rule by judges and reinstate parliamentary democracy in this area. The sooner we reconnect genuine and real human rights with the British people through these reforms, the better, and I will continue to make this case in Parliament.
Henry Smith - MP for Crawley