UK Human Rights Act vital to all, Quakers say
This Human Rights Day Quakers have joined 157 other organisations in calling on the UK government to protect the Human Rights Act.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, constitutes the foundations of the UK's Human Rights Act.
But a government bill introduced by Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab would, if passed, repeal the 1998 act and replace it with a Bill of Rights. The bill has been delayed for a third time but remains a significant threat.
Organisations including Quakers in Britain, Amnesty International UK, Liberty, and UNISON are concerned that the government's approach to domestic law is divorcing us from the legal protection of human rights in the UK.
Quakers believe that everyone is unique, precious, a child of God, regardless of whether they break society's conventions or its laws and should be protected by the same laws.
They are particularly troubled by the government's plan to link human rights to perceived good conduct. Legal experts say the proposals will make it harder for people to access justice when their rights have been violated.
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Our common humanity transcends our differences
- Paul Parker
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Recording Clerk Paul Parker said: “Quakers are called to bear witness to the humanity of all people.
“Our common humanity transcends our differences: human rights must be upheld for all, uniting all humanity. They should not be linked to perceived good conduct."
Signatories to the letter write that human rights laws are uncomfortable for governments because they set limits on the exercise of power, for the benefit of people.
“No UK Government need fear this; and rather than harking back to Magna Carta and rose-tinted history, should embrace the fact that our Human Rights Act provides universal protections for everyone and ensures those with public power are accountable," the letter says.
As millions of people face a cost-of-living crisis, forced to choose between heating or eating, the last thing anyone needs is for a government to strip away fundamental legal protections, it adds.