Today, I exchanged with the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on my recent work. We discussed urgent priorities: defining human-centred pathways to peace in #Ukraine, securing effective #AI oversight, and the critical need to defend the #ECHR and #HumanRights system. 👇
https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/exchange-with-the-committee-of-ministers-human-centred-pathways-to-peace-in-ukraine-ai-oversight-and-defending-the-echr

Mark Elliott sees four areas where Labour's shift to worsen the rights of refugees is intended to confront the European Convention on Human Rights:

Removing obligations around destitution;

Reducing weight of private & family life;

(as noted yesterday) changing the threshold for inhumane & degrading treatment;

Shifting legal practice(s) on refugees.

Elliott sees this as explicitly intending to provoke the Courts into conflict with the Govt.

#politics #ECHR #refugees

https://publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/11/17/the-legal-and-constitutional-implications-of-the-asylum-white-paper-some-initial-thoughts/

My message at the #HumanRights Seminar in Warsaw today: we must resist the temptation to weaken the #ECHR. We must reaffirm the Convention as the only credible roadmap for human dignity against drivers of volatility like AI, inequality, and violence.👇
https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/the-european-human-rights-architecture-a-roadmap-for-navigating-volatile-times

Today, I exchanged with the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on my recent work. We discussed urgent priorities: defining human-centred pathways to peace in #Ukraine, securing effective #AI oversight, and the critical need to defend the #ECHR and #HumanRights system. 👇
https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/exchange-with-the-committee-of-ministers-human-centred-pathways-to-peace-in-ukraine-ai-oversight-and-defending-the-echr

Mark Elliott sees four areas where Labour's shift to worsen the rights of refugees is intended to confront the European Convention on Human Rights:

Removing obligations around destitution;

Reducing weight of private & family life;

(as noted yesterday) changing the threshold for inhumane & degrading treatment;

Shifting legal practice(s) on refugees.

Elliott sees this as explicitly intending to provoke the Courts into conflict with the Govt.

#politics #ECHR #refugees

https://publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/11/17/the-legal-and-constitutional-implications-of-the-asylum-white-paper-some-initial-thoughts/

My message at the #HumanRights Seminar in Warsaw today: we must resist the temptation to weaken the #ECHR. We must reaffirm the Convention as the only credible roadmap for human dignity against drivers of volatility like AI, inequality, and violence.👇
https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/the-european-human-rights-architecture-a-roadmap-for-navigating-volatile-times

Having proposed the UK will only allow refugees temporary residence, returning them when their home countries are 'safe', it looks like this will involve a shift in the interpretation of Article 3 of the ECHR, which blocks states from returning individuals to a country if they face the risk of torture or 'inhumane or degrading treatment'!

Shabana Mahmood (Home Sec.) believes the definition of 'inhumane & degrading' has expanded 'beyond what is reasonable'!

#refugees #politics #ECHR
h/t F T

Having proposed the UK will only allow refugees temporary residence, returning them when their home countries are 'safe', it looks like this will involve a shift in the interpretation of Article 3 of the ECHR, which blocks states from returning individuals to a country if they face the risk of torture or 'inhumane or degrading treatment'!

Shabana Mahmood (Home Sec.) believes the definition of 'inhumane & degrading' has expanded 'beyond what is reasonable'!

#refugees #politics #ECHR
h/t F T

Today, we celebrate the incredible legacy of the European Convention on #HumanRights as a powerful catalyst of legal and social development across Europe! In my own country Ireland, arguably the most powerful tool of social change in the past century. The Convention system must be protected for future generations. #ECHR75 #ECHR

Human rights underpin our everyday lives, often in invisible ways but always there when you need them.

Easily sacrificed for political expediency. Hard felt by all of us when gone.

ORG joined Liberty and hundreds of groups to defend the ECHR ✊

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/human-rights-echr-treaty-kemi-jenrick-b2851708.html

#humanrights #ECHR #rights #ukpolitics #ukpol

Human rights underpin our everyday lives, often in invisible ways but always there when you need them.

Easily sacrificed for political expediency. Hard felt by all of us when gone.

ORG joined Liberty and hundreds of groups to defend the ECHR ✊

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/human-rights-echr-treaty-kemi-jenrick-b2851708.html

#humanrights #ECHR #rights #ukpolitics #ukpol

I intervened in the #ECtHR case on #Georgia’s Transparency of Foreign Influence Law, lodged by 120 civil society organisations, 16 media outlets and 4 individuals. The law restricts #FreedomOfExpression and #FreedomOfAssociation.

👇Read my submission to European Court of Human Rights #ECHR
https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/commissioner-o-flaherty-intervenes-in-ecthr-case-on-georgia-s-foreign-influence-law

Professor Francesca Klug, a human rights expert (quoted by Rachel Sylvester in the Observer):

'Withdrawing from the ECHR is like a sacrifice to the gods. It would have little bearing on stopping asylum seekers from coming over on small boats, but it would severely reduce cooperation with other European states'.

It seem likely that behind this clamour to constrain human rights' protection is the Right's paymasters' desire to reduce workers' protections!

#ECHR #workers
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/a-useful-political-scapegoat-how-human-rights-play-out-in-the-uk

Professor Francesca Klug, a human rights expert (quoted by Rachel Sylvester in the Observer):

'Withdrawing from the ECHR is like a sacrifice to the gods. It would have little bearing on stopping asylum seekers from coming over on small boats, but it would severely reduce cooperation with other European states'.

It seem likely that behind this clamour to constrain human rights' protection is the Right's paymasters' desire to reduce workers' protections!

#ECHR #workers
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/a-useful-political-scapegoat-how-human-rights-play-out-in-the-uk