Forest Hill residents back human rights campaign

Forest Hill Lib Dems collecting signatures outside The Capitol in support of retaining the Human Rights Act

Hundreds of local people backed a Liberal Democrat campaign to save the Human Rights Act, when Forest Hill Lib Dems held a street stall as part of a national action day on June 27th.

South London Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, one of the leaders of the campaign nationally. explained:

“By drawing up plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) and laying the groundwork to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – the Tories are revealing their true colours.

“The HRA and ECHR are not some piffling pieces of legislation, dreamt up by bureaucrats in Brussels to tie us in red tape. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers.

“They were forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War and fought for by Winston Churchill.

“They are designed to place public authorities in the UK under a strict, non-negotiable obligation to treat people with fairness, equality and dignity.

“Frequently they have been all that has stood in the way of injustice, most usually inflicted on the individual by an over-powerful state.”

Forest Hill Lib Dem campaigner George Crozier said:

“The Human Rights Act has achieved a huge amount. It’s held the state to account for spying on us, supported peaceful protest, defended victims of rape and domestic violence and shielded press freedom.

“How could we seriously expect to persuade other countries to take human rights seriously if we are about to join the dictatorship of Belarus as the only countries in the whole of Europe not signed up to the ECHR. It would destroy every thread of moral authority we have.”

Campaigner Margot Wilson, who organised the street stall, said:

“In Coalition, the Tories wanted to abolish the Human Rights Act, and to walk away from the ECHR, with no guarantee about what would come in its place. But the Liberal Democrats blocked them.

“Now the Tories have a majority they are trying again.

“But we are determined to fight them every step of the way and stop them from trampling on our hard-fought freedoms and rights.”

Anyone who hasn’t yet signed the petition to save the Human Rights Act can do so here.

For more information see this article by Tom Brake.