The Queen’s speech on 10th May 2022 announced the Government’s plans to rip up the Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Act incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law. Articles 6 and 8 of the ECHR are some of the few protections in law that boat dwellers have from summary eviction and seizure of their homes. While the proposals in the Queen’s speech will not do away with the rights that we have by virtue of the ECHR itself, scrapping the Human Rights Act will make it almost impossible to exercise those rights. Human Rights campaign group Liberty has started a petition. Sign the petition here: https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/100020/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=Website
Liberty Director Martha Spurrier said: “For more than 20 years the Human Rights Act has protected us all from abuse of power and enabled everyone in the UK to stand up for our rights when public authorities – like the Government and local councils – fall short. It protects us all from misuse of power. But the Government plans to rip it up and replace it with a so-called “British bill of rights” that only protects the powerful.
The Human Rights Act places an obligation on public authorities to respect our rights, and empowers people to take them to court if they don’t. The Government wants to remove these obligations. Whereas the Human Rights Act protects everyone in the UK, ministers only want to give rights to people they think ‘deserve’ them. When rights are weakened for one section of society, they are weakened for all of us. The Government’s proposals will force people to take the expensive legal trip to the European Court of Human Rights to protect their rights – meaning justice may only be available to those who can afford it.”