Your Human Rights: Know them. Engage them. Defend them
On 23 and 24 February, the Global Justice Academy (GJA), Strathclyde Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law and Newcastle Forum for Human Rights and Social Justice, along with other partners in the Northern UK Human Rights Network, hosted a sandpit webinar on responding to the Ministry of Justice Human Rights Act Reform Consultation. The events brought together experts across public law, international law and human rights to offer concise insight on the key issues raised by the Ministry of Justice consultation on human rights reform.
Human rights experts’ preliminary views of the consultation paper are that the UK government aims to dismantle important human rights protections. The events were designed to assist individuals with different levels of engagement with human rights to distil the main legal tensions presented in the consultation paper and respond to the questions posed therein. The underpinning purpose is to assist those who have little time or experience responding to government consultations to develop their own responses by the consultation deadline of 8 March 2022.
Speakers included:
- Ed Bates, Leicester University
- Helen Fenwick, Durham University
- Elisenda Casanas Adam, Univeristy of Edinburgh
- Hélène Tyrrell ,Newcastle University
- Conall Mallory, Newcastle University
- Lynsey Mitchell, University of Strathclyde
- Lewis Graham, Wadham College, Oxford University
- Dimitrios Kagiaros, Durham University
- Nicole Busby, University of Glasgow
- Elizabeth O’Loughlin, Durham University
- Douglas Jack, University of Strathclyde
- Alison Seaman, University of Edinburgh
The recording of day 2 can be found HERE.
If you would like to develop your own response using the working document developed by the speakers and other contributing colleagues, it can be accessed here: March 2022 – Consultation Response – Mod Bill of HR – Shareable. We encourage you to build on our work and add your own thoughts. In a democratic society it is essential that we use our voices to let the government know our views.
The Human Rights Act has protected the people of the UK for two decades. Use your voice to let the Ministry of Justice know that we will not give it up without a fight.
Useful documents:
- Ministry of Justice, Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill of Human Rights, consultation paper
- Independent Human Rights Act Review, Final Report
- Joint statement, Amnesty International Scotland, the Human Rights Consortium Scotland, JustRight Scotland, Making Rights Real, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission
- Scottish Government Response to consultation paper