The Ministry of Justice, has opened a call for contributions towards expanding and making clearer UK’s commitments to human rights. The document released today, December 14 2021, is titled “Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill Of Rights. A consultation to reform the Human Rights Act 1998.”
Responses to:
https://consult.justice.gov.uk/human-rights/human-rights-
act-reform
Alternatively, you can also send your response via post
or email to:
Human Rights Team
International, Rights and Constitutional Policy Directorate
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Tel: 020 3334 3555
Email: HRAreform@justice.gov.uk
Deadline: 8 March 2022
Para 1-
“This command paper sets out, and seeks views on, the government’s proposals to
revise and replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a Bill of Rights.”
…
Para 9-
“Specifically, the Bill of Rights will:
• retain all the substantive rights currently protected under the Convention and the
Human Rights Act 1998. Some rights, such as the right to freedom of expression
(paragraph 204 onwards), will be strengthened and others, such as the right to trial by jury, added, reflecting the UK’s specific history and traditions (paragraph
202 onwards);
• empower domestic courts to apply human rights in the UK context, taking into
account our common law traditions and judicial practice amongst other common
law nations, not merely the case law of the Strasbourg Court, and strengthen the
primacy of the UK Supreme Court in determining the proper interpretation of such
rights (paragraph 190 onwards);
• provide greater clarity regarding the interpretation of certain rights, such as the
right to respect for private and family life, by guiding the UK courts in interpreting
the rights and balancing them with the interests of our society as a whole
(paragraph 282 onwards);
• implement a permission stage, similar, but not identical, to those in other
branches of law, to ensure that spurious cases do not undermine public
confidence in human rights (paragraph 219 onwards); and strengthen the courts’
discretion when granting remedies for human rights breaches (paragraph 224
onwards);
• restrain the ability of the UK courts to use human rights law to impose ‘positive
obligations’ onto our public authorities without proper democratic oversight
(paragraph 229 onwards);
• make sure that the UK courts are not required to alter or interpret legislation
contrary to Parliament’s clearly expressed democratic will (paragraph 233
onwards);
• provide more certainty for public authorities to discharge the functions Parliament has given them, without the fear that this will expose them to costly human rights litigation (paragraph 266 onwards);
• safeguard the vital protection for the right to life and the absolute prohibition on
torture, confirming that people should not be deported to face torture (or inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment) abroad, whilst ensuring that other rights in
the Act cannot be used to frustrate the deportation of serious criminals and
terrorists (paragraph 292 onwards);
• recognise that responsibilities exist alongside rights, and that these should be
reflected in the approach to balancing qualified rights and the remedies available
for human rights claims (paragraph 302 onwards); and
• enact a process, centred on Parliament, for assessing the implications of
judgments from the Strasbourg Court for the UK, including providing a ‘democratic
shield’ preserving Parliamentary sovereignty in the exercise of the legislative function (paragraph 309 onwards).”
Furthermore, rather helpfully Appendix 1 provide “some non-exhaustive examples of domestic legislation and common law principles which cover some of the same ground” of the current HR Act.
