European decisions stopping Rwanda deportations could be ignored under Raab’s plans

Dominic Raab will present the proposed legislation to Parliament on Wednesday after the Strasbourg court halted the Government’s controversial flagship policy for asylum seekers arriving on unauthorized journeys.

The Deputy Prime Minister wants the successor to the Human Rights Act to say that UK courts do not always need to follow Strasbourg case law and that it is the High Court in London that makes the final decisions on human rights.

And the legislation would confirm that interim measures such as the one issued on the Rwanda policy are not binding on UK courts.

Labor warned that the “scam” would take away rights by removing a key obligation that has allowed women to compel police to investigate rape and families seeking justice after atrocities like Hillsborough.

But told that a legal human rights group had said the plans would make access to justice very difficult, Government Minister Victoria Atkins told the BBC’s Newsnight: “We just don’t accept that.”

Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry questioned whether the move would actually change anything, or rather add “more and more layers of bureaucracy in the application of the Human Rights Law”, thereby simply “bogging up the system”.

He accused the government of “behaving like a kind of drunk” calling for a fight over politics.

“They’re just trying to think of anything they can take on right now to distract all of us from what’s really going on, which is their inability to govern, they’re trying to pick another fight,” he said. BBC.

The bill would create a clearance stage in court in which plaintiffs must prove they have suffered significant harm before their case can move forward, to reduce “trivial” cases.

It would also seek to restrict the circumstances in which foreign-born people convicted of crimes can argue that their right to family life takes precedence over public safety in a bid to avoid removal from the UK.

They would have to show that their son would suffer overwhelming and unavoidable harm if they were deported according to the plans, which need Parliament’s approval.

Mr Raab, who is also Justice Secretary, said: “The Bill of Rights will strengthen our tradition of freedom in the UK while injecting a healthy dose of common sense into the system.

“These reforms will strengthen free speech, allow us to deport more criminal aliens and better protect the public from dangerous criminals.”

But Beth Gardiner-Smith, executive director of Safe Passage International, said the bill “would strip all of us, including refugees, of our ability to challenge injustice and stand up for our human rights.”

And Steve Crawshaw, director of policy and advocacy at Freedom from Torture, described the move as “yet another brazen attempt to concentrate power in the hands of the executive and weaken the public’s ability to hold the powerful to account.”

Raab backed away from calls by some Conservative MPs to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

The first forced removals of asylum seekers to Rwanda on one-way tickets were due to start last week, with ministers initially expecting around 130 passengers.

But legal challenges whittled down the manifest until on the morning before takeoff only about seven or fewer immigrants were expected to be on board.

The European court then granted an interim order barring the removal of an Iraqi asylum seeker until UK courts rule on the legality of the government’s policy.

Strasbourg-based judges removed two others from the plane, while the Supreme Court issued injunctions preventing the immediate removal of three more.

Mr Raab’s legislation would confirm that the court’s interim measures under so-called rule 39 are not binding on UK courts.

The bill would also seek to shield government plans to increase the use of separation centers for extremists from legal challenges based on the right to socialize.

Sacha Deshmukh, executive director of Amnesty International UK, said the legislation would represent “a huge step backwards for the rights of ordinary people”.

“Destroying the Human Rights Law means that the public is being stripped of its most powerful tool to question the irregularities of the Government and other public bodies. It’s not about playing with rights, it’s about taking them away,” he said.

The Justice Ministry has also said the bill would boost press freedom by introducing a stricter test for courts to consider before ordering journalists to reveal their sources.

But Labor issued a warning about the government’s intention to limit the ability of the courts to impose “positive obligations” on public services, such as the police, that the Human Rights Act provides.

Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said: “Labor is proud that the Human Rights Act has enabled millions to access justice, protect victims of crime and ensure our loved ones get the care they deserve. they need.

“But this Conservative ‘Bill of Rights’ scam will take those rights away from them, preventing people with health problems from challenging ‘do not resuscitate’ orders placed on them in the hospital without their consent, preventing women force police to investigate rape cases, and it will prevent victims of terrorist atrocities and major disasters like Hillsborough from seeking justice.”