Our human rights are under threat, we must wake up - Yorkshire Post Letters

The European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) was drafted after the end of the Second World War by the Council of Europe in the Hague, politicians including Winston Churchill, Francois Mitterrand and Konrad Adenauer along with business, trade union leaders, academics and civil society leaders.

It set out to deliver a human rights agenda in order to prevent human rights violations and to protect democratic society against authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

It was not part of the European Economic Community, which grew from the European Common Market.

The Human Rights Convention has done much to safeguard our human rights, some of which are under threat by our current Westminster government.

The Convention was designed to incorporate a traditional civil liberties approach to securing effective political democracy, from the strongest traditions in the United Kingdom, France and other member states of the fledgling Council of Europe.

The Government has come up with a policy of exporting its migration policy to the African state of Rwanda, which quite understandably has garnered opposition from the Church, some courts and society’s leaders as well as the ECHR.

The response by the current government is to withdraw from the ECHR and to replace it by a British Bill of Rights.

This hastily drawn up document does little to preserve and enhance the rights of the citizen. It is more to serve the needs of the Government and to dull scrutiny of some of its actions.

In addition, other recent moves that the Government has made, may effect our rights:

- The recently adopted requirement of photo ID to vote could well deter the poor, the young and elderly from voting, thereby slanting the outcome in the Government’s favour.

- The Police and Crime Bill has the provision to remove our right of peaceful demonstration. It can also have a draconian effect on our right to peaceful protest over a wide range of issues.

- The Nationality & Borders Bill demonstrates the overly harsh treatment being meted out to refugees, many of whom are escaping persecution in their homelands.

It is time for you the public to wake up to the threats to our human rights and liberties before it is too late.

Share your concerns with your MP, who should be there to safeguard your interests and values!