I NOTE with interest the Agenda contribution from Professor Aileen McHarg's ("Tory plans could open the door to a stronger human rights regime", The Herald, May 15) as the comments of W Hunter Watson's (Letters, May 15).
Both make important points.
If a Bill of Rights matches the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, something may be preserved. This cannot be assumed. The Conservative proposals go well beyond this. They set out not only to repeal the Human Rights Act, but also render the Court of Human Rights judgments unenforceable in the UK, and they require courts to read legislation as compatible with human rights. There are also proposals to limit the use of human rights law to the most "serious cases", with yet no definition of such cases. One suspects that unpopular groups may end up being excluded.
This is not idle speculation. It happened before: when the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme was changed back in 2012, the rights of foreigners were sharply reduced (with remarkable tact, just avoiding the London Olympics).
While the current debate is dominated by a small number of headline cases, it is worthwhile remembering that the benefits of the Human Rights Act has been brought to virtually every area of life.
"Police station law" and the rights of accused persons to have a solicitor present when they are being interviewed have been transormed. This was as a result of a Supreme Court decision.
There has been a comprehensive reform of the procedures for the detention and compulsory treatment for people suffering from mental health problems. This reform is positively steeped in principles developed from a strong Human Rights culture.
We have had a developing legal supervision of unlawful restrictions in the freedom of older people.
There has been some Legal Aid provision for employment tribunals and some Children's Hearing matters, of particularly use for very vulnerable people.
We have seen a vigorous development of the importance of court scrutiny of decisions to evict tenants: even in cases where a local authority may hold draconian power over a vulnerable family. This has gone along with the development of an entirely new post Human Rights Act defence for homeowners in mortgage arrears who would otherwise lose their homes.
There has also been an ongoing transformation of the way policy makers and, to some extent, the law treats victims of crimes of violence: both in the context of the court process, historic crimes as well as generally the accountability of the police and prosecution authorities.
The "sharp end" of the development of human rights law focuses on people who have little opportunity to influence the democratic system: for instance, prisoners, asylum seekers, people with severe mental illnesses or who are severely excluded. However the vigorous development of human rights remedies has not only helped them but, as can be seen from the small number of examples above, us all.
State power affects us all. The Human Rights Act is a key way that power is balanced, made accountable and capable of review by the courts.
Paul Brown,
CEO, Legal Services Agency,
Fleming House,
134 Renfrew Street , Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article