[lit-ideas] Re: Britain's Human Rights Act in trouble?
- From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 15:13:21 +0100 (BST)
"A couple of examples of its “failure” are presented:"
The cases of Aso Mohammed Ibrahim and Laith Alani
The failure to deport Aso Mohammed Ibrahim is nothing really to do with the
Human Rights Act, and the ruling that the Act means he must remain is nothing
to do with *his* rights:
>>>>>>>>>>The legal process may have failed Amy and her
family, but these failures have nothing whatsoever to do with the Human
Rights Act.Had there been an application to deport Ibrahim on his
release from prison, the immigration tribunal said, it would certainly
have succeeded.In the seven years since then, he has married a UK citizen,
fathered two children and acquired two stepchildren. Article eight
of the European human rights convention protects the right to family
life. The impact that his expulsion would have on these innocent members
of his family is what has kept him here.Deportation is not
punishment for crime. For a non-citizen, the common sense principle is
that committing serious crime is an abuse of hospitality by which any
claim to remain here is forfeited. But other factors may intervene. We
don't deport people to face torture.Nor has Article eight, to
which the UK has been committed since 1950, ever put family life ahead
of all other considerations. It can be overridden "in the interests of
public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, and
for the protection of the rights and freedom of others".....
Instead of seeking
to deport him after he had served his sentence, the government allowed
Ibrahim to stay and acquire a family. The judges found they had left it
too late. Rightly or wrongly, they put the family first.<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/libertycentral/2010/dec/28/human-rights-act-aso-mohammed-ibrahim
Laith Alani, Iraqi, who came here as a child, was a paranoid schizophrenic
committed to a secure hospital after his conviction for killing two doctors. In
January 2010, when he'd been imprisoned for 19 years, a tribunal ruled that he
should not be deported following his release because he would not, there, be
prescribed the drug that had controlled his behaviour for the last ten years,
and that made his release possible: that he would be a danger to others there,
and to himself.
In February 2010, Laith Alani hanged himself in his cell.
2.
LH>>>>>>>>>>>>
But it is not human rights the Home Secretary wants to do away with, just this
(apparently) poorly constructed bill.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The Act, which is not poorly constructed, writes the European Convention into
British Law. Scrapping it would simply mean plaintiffs might have to go to
Strasbourg to enforce their, our, rights. That is a retrograde step.
Judy Evans, Cardiff
--- On Sun, 2/10/11, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Britain's Human Rights Act in trouble?
To: "Lit-Ideas " <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, 2 October, 2011, 14:35
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8801651/Home-Secretary-scrap-the-Human-Rights-Act.html
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, according to this article by Patrick
Hennessey in “The Telegraph” is calling for the scrapping of the Human Rights
Act. On the face of it, in this world of sound bites, this sounds outrageous.
Who wants to get rid of Human Rights who is not an Islamist or the leader of an
authoritarian government?
No one. But it is not human rights the Home Secretary wants to do away with,
just this (apparently) poorly constructed bill. A couple of examples of its
“failure” are presented: “In one of the highest-profile cases involving
convicts and their human rights claims, a failed asylum seeker who killed
12-year-old Amy Houston, from Blackburn, in a road accident, used the law to
avoid deportation. “Other shocking examples uncovered by this newspaper
include an Iraqi who killed two doctors but
successfully argued that it would breach his rights to send him home.” I
don’t know if we have anything in the U.S. – we probably do, but what comes to
mind is one of our “rights” in our Bill of Rights: the prohibition against
unlawful search and seizure. A policeman in the U.S. is prohibited from
pulling a car over or entering a house and going on a searching expedition. He
has to have a reason, a “probable cause.” I quite agree with this “right” and
would hate to lose it. We do have cases where criminals go free because this
right was violated, but policemen have been trained in what they can and can’t
do; so it isn’t an impossible situation for them. Britain has comparable
laws so this “human rights” issue isn’t quite that. The British examples seem
different and they relate to earlier discussions about immigration. If Britain
is prevented from sending non-British undesirables and criminals back where
they came from that seems to work against the common good. Complicating this
matter is an agreement Britain has with the EU that allows non-British
governments to arrest British citizens and non-citizens (presumably) whether
Britain likes it or not. These
“European Arrest Warrants,” are “valid in all member states of the EU and saw
1,000 people in Britain last year seized by police on the orders of European
prosecutors, a 51 per cent rise in 12 months.” Hennessey doesn’t tell us that
any of these European Arrest Warrants have been unjust or unreasonable and if
not the problem with them might merely be that they make many in Britain,
especially the Eurosceptics, a wee bit insecure. They would bother me. The
two problems aren’t on the face
of it incompatible. I see no reason why someone couldn’t want the “Human
Rights Act” rewritten or replaced and at the same time want to give Britain a
veto-right over the seizure of its citizens by prosecutors of European courts.
But I imagine they can be presented in a way that makes them appear to be
incompatible.
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