UK: Government’s ditching Rights Removal Bill is welcome first step

In reaction to the announcement that the Government is scrapping the dangerous Bill of Rights Bill, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said: 

“It is welcome that the Government is finally seeing sense and scrapping the complete mess that was the ‘rights removal’ bill.” 

“If passed, the disastrous bill would have stripped people of our Human Rights Act, their most powerful tool for challenging wrongdoings by the Government and other public bodies. It helped people get proper public inquiries into the Government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, forced reform of how police investigate endemic violence against women, as well as formed a crucial part of the delicately balanced peace settlement in Northern Ireland. 

“But the fight is not over and scrapping this dangerous bill is only the first step.

“Other legislation going through Parliament now - particularly the current immigration bill and Northern Ireland Troubles Bill - are fundamental attacks on human rights and will be disastrous for the protection of the rights of everyone in the UK. There are also serious concerns about growing threats to the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.  

“The Government must drop all of its attacks on human rights, not just the widely condemned ‘rights removal’ bill.”