The British government is presenting a bill that will allow the country to disregard the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab calls it the ‘law for rights’, which states, among other things, that the highest court on human rights is the British Supreme Court and not the European court in Strasbourg.
He denies that the country will withdraw from the European court, but if the legislation comes into force, it will no longer be the highest body.
Raab takes action after the European court raised legal obstacles to the government’s plan to fly illegal migrants to Rwanda. An agreement has been concluded with the African country for this. However, the forced evictions have led to lawsuits and the human rights court in Strasbourg blocked the first flight of migrants to Kigali. Interior Minister Priti Patel called this a political judgement.
The plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda is the result of the huge influx of migrants via boats across the Channel. This year there have been about 10,000 and sometimes hundreds of boats come ashore in one day.
The European Court of Human Rights is separate from the European Union and was established to promote compliance with the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Britain left the European Union early last year after Britain voted for Brexit in 2016, but EU membership has nothing to do with the court in Strasbourg.