The Government
is getting itself in a state over Human Rights - again.
This is nothing new. It
doesn’t seem to matter which party is in power. Politicians do not like Human Rights
to get in their way –
Two recent
events have brought this subject back into the news. The first was the
deportation of Abu Qatada to Jordan
after years of legal wrangling. Home Secretary Teresa May complained that it
had taken 12 years and £1.2m in legal costs to get what they wanted. This has
again led to familiar rhetoric about the need to reconsider our whole
relationship with Europe and even to pull out
of the European Convention on Human Rights altogether. Politicians seem to be
comfortable in coming out with these statements despite the fact that the
Convention was driven by the UK
and largely drafted by UK
lawyers –
But the
problem with Abu Qatada was fairly straightforward. We could not deport
somebody who might face trial based on evidence obtained by torture. We have to
be consistent here. If we maintain that torture is never justified, then we
cannot make an exception just because we do not like the potential victim. Abu
Qatada did not go until after we were re-assured that there would be no reliance
on evidence obtained by torture. So why did we not focus on that from the
start?
Next we
have had the decision from Strasbourg
that whole life prison sentences breach Article 3 of the convention because
they constitute punishment which is inhuman or degrading. Both the Prime
Minister and the Minister of Justice have expressed their dismay.
But again if
we look closely at the decision it makes eminent sense. The court has not said
that anybody should be released. What they have said is that is not acceptable
that a prisoner should be deprived of ever having an opportunity to argue that
they no longer present a danger to society. It is the loss of the right to be
heard which is inhuman or degrading. Prisoners might still spend the rest of their days behind bars. The court has explained its decision as
follows-
‘Prisoners
must …have the possibility of arguing that at some point, after a lengthy
period in prison, their detention is no longer necessary in the interests of
punishment, deterrence and protection of the public and that their release
would be justified on grounds of rehabilitation.’
The
European Convention contains our basic human rights. I do wish that the
government would stop coming out with statements which attack those rights just
because particular decisions do not go their way. I notice that they never say
which of my particular rights they plan to abolish..
No comments:
Post a Comment