THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Today we will talk about the hypothetical withdrawal
of Britain from the European Court of Human Right (ECHR).
Indeed, in a "strategy paper" entitled
Protecting human rights in the UK, published on 2 October 2014, the
Conservative Party said that, if they win a majority in next May's General
Election, they will ensure that: "The European Court of Human Rights is no
longer binding over the UK Supreme Court” and that "The European Court of
Human Rights is no longer able to order a change in UK law and becomes an
advisory body only."
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference
that took place on October 1st 2014, David Cameron said: "Of course, it's not just
the European Union that needs sorting out - it's the European Court of Human
Rights”.
The Conservative Party would like the UK to have a veto over decisions of the European Court
of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the body responsible for enforcing the European
Convention on Human Rights. It seems to be asking that the UK alone be accorded a veto over Court judgments: other
Convention signatories, for example, Russia, would still be required to abide by all Court
judgments.
The strategy paper added: "in the event that we
are unable to reach that agreement [with the Council of Europe], the UK would be left with no alternative but to withdraw
from the European Convention on Human Rights”.
On the face of it, the Conservative Party is now
committed to the UK's withdrawal from the Convention since amending the
Convention to accord the UK a veto over the European Court's judgments seems impossible.
In
order to study what would happen if the UK withdrew from the European court of
Human Rights, we will first see the ECHR and its relationship with the UK. Then we will study the major cases
that acted as a turning point to the decision of the Conservatives and finally
we will observe what would be the consequences of such a withdrawal.
I-
Britain and The European convention on human rights
The European convention of human
rights is an international treaty aiming to protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms in Europe. It was drafted in 1950 by the Council of Europe, a
newly created institution. But this text entered into force in 1953. The
ratification of the convention is a prerequisite for joining the organization.
At the beginning, at the aftermath
of the Second World War, this text has
been thought to avoid serious human rights violation as it had been the case
during the war. That’s the reason why it is inspired from the Universal
declaration of human rights and aimed to achieve greater international unity by
claiming granted equal rights for men and women. Moreover, it enforces
traditions of civil liberties. The convention protects the right to life, freedom
and security, respect for private and family life, freedom of expression, or
thought, conscience and religion, vote in and stand for election, a fair trial
in civil and criminal matters, property and peaceful enjoyment of possessions.
It prohibits the death penalty, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, slavery and forced labor, arbitrary and unlawful detention,
discrimination in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms secured by the
convention, and deportation of a state’s own nationals or denying them entry
and the collective deportation of foreigners.
This treaty also establishes the
European court of human rights (ECHR). The ECHR was set up in 1959. It is
composed of 47 judges elected for non-renewable term every nine years. The
court provides the protection of fundamental civil and political rights. As an
organ of the council of Europe, it is based in Strasbourg.
As a European citizen, you can file
a claim in front of the European court of human rights. But several conditions
have to be respected before applying to the court. In fact, the ECHR only hears
cases about human rights violation, as defined in the text. It means that you
can apply if you think one of your rights granted in the convention has been
violated. But you cannot file a claim in front of the ECHR if you have not
exhausted all local remedies. Then the court has to decide if your claim is
admissible or not : was there an actual violation of your rights. If judges
find there is no reason to apply, your case will be struck out.
Moreover, the court only hears the
case if the defending state has accepted its jurisdiction.
As far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the Human rights act 1998 made the
European convention of human rights part of domestic law.
In fact, the United Kingdom was one of the first member of the Council of Europe
to ratify the convention in 1951. This can be explained by the fact that the
country, as part of the winners of WW2, took part to the redaction of the text,
hoping to bring peace in Europe.
Despite this attitude, United Kingdom took time to grant “individual petition”, which is
the right for its’ citizens to take a case to Strasbourg.
In 2013, the court had decided on
1652 cases concerning the UK but 1633 were declared inadmissible or struck out.
Nowadays, the British government
shows a kind of reluctance in front of the convention. In fact, in an article
from the Guardian, we could read that Chris Grayling, the justice secretary,
“says conservative government would withdraw if parliament failed to secure
right to veto Strasbourg court rulings”. Such a withdraw could jeopardize UK membership.
II- The major cases that acted as a turning
point to the decision of the Conservatives
First of all, the major
conflict between the United Kingdom and the ECHR began with Hirst v. the United Kingdom case ruled
in 2005 by the ECHR. On the occasion of it, the grand chamber of the court
ruled unanimously that a blanket ban on British prisoners exercising the right
to vote is contrary to the ECHR. The facts are the following ones. John Hirst
was a prisoner who has served thirty five years in prison for manslaughter. He
initiated proceedings against the government over the interdiction preventing
prisoners from voting.
This ban is the result of section
3 of the Representation of the People Act of 1983. This act prohibits prisoners
from voting during their incarceration in penal institution without taking into
consideration the length of sentence, the gravity of their offences or their
individual circumstances. We have to add that this restriction was extended to
the European elections with the section 8 of the Parliamentary Election Act of
2002. Consequently, prisoners were not able to vote for the European elections
of 2009. And the United Kingdom was convicted by the ECHR
for this in August 2014.
To return to Hirst’s case,
in 2001, Hirst brought a case to the High Court but the case was dismissed. So,
the same year, he lodged an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. He
has waited three years before the chamber of the ECHR ruled that Hirst’s voting
right was violated. Of course, the United Kingdom lodged an appeal to the
grand chamber. On 6th October
2005, the court confirmed the ruling because she
considered that the restriction of prisoner’s voting rights violated protocol
1, article 3 of the convention. This article required right to free elections.
Then, the Committee of
Ministers was responsible to supervise execution of the judgment. But the
committee has faced repeatedly opposition from the British Government and
Parliament because they stand their grounds. Following this decision, the United Kingdom was given until 22nd November 2012 to repeal its blanket ban
on prisoner voting. The UK failed to comply, resulting in a reprimand from the ECHR, but no sanctions.
Moreover in 2011, the House of commons voted a motion reaffirming the
interdiction to vote for all prisoners.
The position of the ECHR
was confirmed in two cases: one against Austria in April 2010: Frodl case and one against Italy in May 2012: Scoppola case.
The United Kingdom was again convicted in
2011. It was the case Greens and Mt v.
the UK. In 2008, two British nationals who were both serving a sentence,
posted voter registration forms to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO),
using the address of the prison as their own. But they have faced a refusal
justified by their prisoner statute. Applicants argued the ERO committed a
fault by not respecting Hirst case law. The court anew ruled there is a breach
of rights and regretted that during the last five years since Hirst judgment,
no amending measures had been taken by the government.
Today the situation is still the same despite the several
convictions and the ECHR rekindles discussion over prisoners’ voting rights by
passing more than thousands criminal complaints on to London. But, on 16th October 2013, the Supreme Court refused
to grant righting vote to two prisoners.
There are also some other cases at the roof of the animosity
against the ECHR.
In 2010, there was The
Secretary of State for the Home Department v. Respondent case. It was the
story of Mohammed Ibrahim, an Iraqi asylum seeker who killed a 12 years old girl.
The Border Agency tried to deport him but an immigration tribunal dismissed the
application with regard to ECHR rules. The ECHR ruled that Mohammed Ibrahim
could not be expulsed because since his conviction for the accident , he has
married an UK citizen, fathered two
children and acquired two stepchildren. Consequently if he has been expulsed,
it would have violated the article 8 of the convention which protects the right
to family life. Of course Cameron and girl’s father were outraged.
Then, in 2013, we have the case of Vinter and Others v. the United Kingdom in which the ECHR has
upheld three applicant’s complaints that their imprisonment for life should be
considered as inhuman and degrading treatments because they have no hope of
release. Consequently the British law violated article 3 of the convention. In
order to respect this article, the national law has to introduce possibility of
release and possibility of review. But Cameron wants got round judgment by
creating sentence of hundred years. He wants to create system alike American
system. Indeed the ECHR case law would be respected because; possibility of
review would be possible in the framework of temporal sentence.
III- Consequences of the British withdrawal from
the ECHR
If Britain withdrew from the ECHR, Labour’s 1998 Human Rights Act which is the domestic legislation which enshrines the international
principles of the European Convention on Human Rights and obliges all British
public institutions to abide by the ECHR would be scrapped to be replaced by a “British bill of rights and
responsibilities” that would set out the application of human rights law in a
more flexible way. The Tories’ strategy
would seek to prevent the use of ECHR Article 8, which stipulates the right to
a ‘family life’, by illegal immigrants in order to avoid their deportation. The
new Bill will limit some individual rights in certain circumstances. For
example, a foreign national who takes the life of another person will not be
able to use a defense based on Article 8 to prevent the state deporting them
after they have served their sentence.
The text of the original convention would be written into UK law and the European court's rulings would no longer be binding over the
Supreme Court. ECHR would become an advisory body and its decisions would no
longer be enforced without the consent of British Parliament. Actually, Parliament would be asked to vote every time the Strasbourg court judged that UK law was incompatible with the European Convention on
Human Rights, and the judgment would be binding only if MPs agreed it should be
enacted.
Britain should remain signed up to the European convention on
human rights, the principles that guide the court. By doing so they avoid an
immediate diplomatic crisis, but there is a clear threat of withdrawal if no
agreement is reached with the Council of Europe. Britain would “be left with no alternative but to withdraw
from” the convention, giving the six months’ notice required by article 58. The
Head of the Council of Europe told the Financial times that “Ministers calling for Britain to abandon the European
human rights framework are encouraging Russia in its illegal action
in Crimea”.
Membership
of the Council of Europe is a requirement for EU member states so a withdrawal
from the convention could jeopardize Britain’s membership of the EU. Indeed,
Some lawyers say all EU member states will be automatically covered by the
provisions of the Council of Europe once the EU has become a signatory to the
European Convention on Human Rights under the terms of the Lisbon treaty so no
longer being a signatory of the European convention on human rights would force
the UK’s premature exit from the European Union. The Prime Minister has said he
will seek to reform Britain's place in the EU, including on
issues such as freedom of movement of migrants, before holding an in–out
referendum in 2017.
Senior
Conservatives believe that the threat to pull out of the human rights
convention will be seen as further proof that Britain is prepared to leave the EU if Brussels is not prepared to offer major
concessions over issues including immigration and welfare.
A withdrawal from the convention could also place Britain in breach of its international obligations in the
1998 Good Friday agreement, which helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland. The agreement, which was approved by referendums on
both sides of the Irish border and lodged at the UN, said the two communities
in Northern
Ireland would be protected by safeguards that include “the
European convention on human rights”.
This decision is seen as a move to reach out to UKIP
voters. UK Conservative Party fears the prospect of the Eurosceptic United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) jeopardizing their chances of getting
re-elected in 2015. This threat has become even more realistic as the UKIP have
managed to win its first seat in the UK House of Commons. The Liberal Democrat
Junior justice minister, Simon Hughes, declared that “the Conservatives don’t
care about the rights of British citizens – they care about losing to UKIP.
These plans make no sense: you can’t protect the human rights of Brits and pull
out of the system that protects them” and their leader, Nick Clegg, has claimed
“Trashing human rights basically… to cater for, or to go after, UKIP votes is a
legally illiterate thing to do and is not in keeping with fine British
tradition”.
To conclude, the withdrawal of ECHR by Britain would have terrible impact internationally speaking.
The purpose of human rights protection is clearly to constrain states from mistreating
individuals. In particular, the ECHR guarantees a fair trial, protects
against torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment, prevents arbitrary
detention and ensures freedom of speech and privacy. While a Eurosceptic Member
of European Parliament called Daniel Hannan suggests that the UK could solve
all those problems by itself, the fact is that it didn’t. Every individual who has won a case against the UK in the ECHR
had to try first to obtain a remedy in the UK courts, but
failed.
And although it is true that the UK does not breach the Convention as often
as some other States, its continued participation in the system is valuable not
only as regards protection of British citizens and residents, but as a
contribution to supporting human rights protection across the rest of Europe
and worldwide. The withdrawal of a large EU Member State from this
sophisticated system for the protection of human rights would be bound to deal
a significant blow to that system.
According to The President of the ECHR, Judge Dean
Spielmann, it would even be a “political disaster”, the ECHR would lose international credibility and it
would set a dangerous precedent which could lead to the collapse of unified
human rights accords.
Caroline Rivoire, Alexandra
Lecomte, Margot Leclavier.
