MPs are calling for a British Bill of Rights, which would go further than existing human rights law. The cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights wants to include greater protections for vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. Currently, our main protection in law comes from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - an international treaty - and the UK's own Human Rights...

One of the things that is most execrable about Canada's so-called human rights commissions is that they trade on the words "human rights". And, like counterfeit money devaluing real money, their counterfeit human rights, like the "human right" not to be offended, devalue the term that once was reserved for real rights like freedom of religion, the equality of men and women before the law...

Liberty Human Rights and their Irish equivalents, the British Irish Rights Watch and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have actually won a case before the European Court of Human Rights against the United Kingdom Government, regarding domestic and international telephone and other electronic data communications interceptions.in the 1990s. See CASE OF LIBERTY AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM (A...

The ominously titled Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, claims he is as frustrated as anyone about the way the Human Rights Act has become a sort of "villains charter". He suggested that the rights in the legislation, which enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights in British law, could be balanced with new “responsibilities” to obey the law and to be loyal to the country. First of...

Plaid MEP Jill Evans will speak tomorrow (Saturday 28 February) at a human rights and civil liberties event which is taking place in seven parallel venues across the UK. Jill, who represents the whole of Wales in the European Parliament, will speak in the session on Human Rights, Democracy and Governance, at the Convention on Modern Liberty, at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. She will talk about t...

Should you wish to think about human rights, as many do in our country today, then bear in mind Lord Hoffmann on: The Universality of Human Rights 1. The claim of human rights to be universal can no doubt be traced back to mediaeval natural law theory and beyond, but for practical purposes I can begin in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson: “we hold these truths...

Surely by placing themselves outside of the law they divest themselves of the right to elect those who make the law? For a thousand years it has been the English and British tradition to deprive outlaws of some of their rights and liberties, including the right to vote. But a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights has now put a stop to this appalling breach of their human rights. HM Governme...

  On the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights on 10th December 2008, Human Rights Day, the Spokespersons of the European Green Party have said that there is no cause for complacency regarding the human rights situation within the EU itself and that EU Member States and institutions must also do much more to defend human rights in their dealings with countries ou...

  10th December 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, and is known internationally as Human Rights Day. European Green Party spokespeople say that there is no cause for complacency regarding the human rights situation within the EU itself and that EU Member States and institutions must also do much more to defend human rights in their dealings with countries outs...

I just spoke at the Canadian Jewish Law Students Association annual conference in Ottawa. The theme was human rights, so I'm delighted that I was invited to give my perspective, as someone who had been put through the wringer of a human rights commission. I compared the counterfeit Canadian "human rights commissions" with the Orwellian "human rights council" at the United Nations, and pointed...