Don’t weaken rights protections

R&RA has expressed concern about the Government’s review of legal human rights protections. Submitting evidence to the Government’s Independent Human Rights Act Review, we questioned why the Government has thought it necessary to establish the review of the Human Rights Act (HRA). The timing is incredibly troubling, taking place during a global pandemic which has seen the rights of older people undermined by the Government’s mismanagement of the virus. The technical, legal nature of the consultation questions seem designed to limit the responses to those who agree with the Government’s position that there is a ‘problem’ with the HRA.

In the context of the Conservative Party’s repeated commitment to ‘scrap’ the HRA, and plans to reform judicial review, we are extremely concerned that this is part of a wider move to weaken human rights protections and people’s ability to hold the Government to account.

We also submitted evidence to the parallel inquiry by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. We welcomed the wider scope of their inquiry, ensuring the review hears about the impact the HRA has had on individuals and service delivery.

Our written evidence to the review is available here.

Our written evidence to the JCHR inquiry is available here.