CAJ responds to review of the Human Rights Act
CAJ has responded to the Independent Human Rights Act Review. The review was set up by the UK government to ‘consider how the Human Rights Act (HRA) is working in practice and whether any change is needed’.
We believe is important to see this review in the context of a long list of attempts by the Conservative government to weaken or entirely scrap the HRA. At the outset, we query the need for this review, not least because the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) through the HRA has been a central tenet of our peace settlement.
We consider any amendment or weakening of these protections to be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement, which could lead to a potential undermining of one of the most successful underpinning elements of our hard-won peace process.
Our full submission to the review, in which we defend the HRA in greater detail, is available via this link.