London wants to distance itself from further European rules after Brexit. After the Human Rights Court prevented a deportation flight of refugees to Rwanda, London wants to involve him in fewer cases in the future. The British co-authored the human rights conventions in 1950.
After a deportation flight to Rwanda was stopped as a result of a judgment from Strasbourg, Great Britain wants to partially dissociate itself from the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). According to Justice Minister Dominic Raab, an expected draft law provides for the circumvention of the ECtHR in certain cases. This should also make it easier to deport convicted foreigners. However, Raab ruled out a complete withdrawal by Great Britain from the jurisdiction of the ECtHR.
“This Declaration of Rights will strengthen our British tradition of freedom while injecting a healthy dose of common sense into the system,” Raab told Sky News. Freedom of expression would thus be strengthened and the authorities would be able to “expel more foreign criminals and better protect the public from dangerous criminals”.
Last week, the British government initially failed in its plan to bring asylum seekers who had come to Great Britain irregularly to Rwanda. The expulsion of the 130 asylum seekers originally planned for the first such deportation flight was gradually prevented by legal challenges on human rights grounds.
The last remaining people who were still to be deported were then saved from this at the last moment by intervention by the Strasbourg ECtHR. The judges ruled that the British judiciary still has to examine in detail the legality of the deportations. The British government reacted angrily and spoke of a “politically motivated” decision.
The portrayal that the European court’s decision has a political dimension fits with London’s portrayal of a threat to British sovereignty from European institutions. However, the ECtHR is not part of the European Union, from which Great Britain has left. The Court is the Council of Europe’s judicial body and oversees compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, which Britain co-authored in 1950.
London now wants to change British human rights law, which has so far been based on the European Convention on Human Rights. The opposition Labor Party and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International sharply criticized the plans.
London had signed an agreement with Rwanda that provides for housing asylum seekers in the East African country for money. This is to deter other refugees from trying to cross the English Channel to Britain. Human rights activists, churches and the UN sharply criticize this approach.
