Brexit and Human Rights

Torrin Wilkins
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

I often hear the idea that the EU has protected our human rights and our workers rights. The International Labour organisation and the Council of Europe deserve most of the credit for that. I also highly doubt that Brexit will make much difference to the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

I support the European Convention on Human Rights because it does what it says on the tin. It guarantees the basic rights of every human no matter what. It is controversial in areas, yes. Of course people dislike the fact it takes a long time to deport someone because of their “right to family life” so yes it sometimes makes things difficult but nothing good comes without a cost, this I feel it too good to lose.

I am horrified that the Conservatives want to get rid of the European Convention on Human Rights but it will probably happen whether we chose remain or leave. “Others, whether they like the idea or not, claim that this is impossible because EU members have to be signed up to the human rights convention. That is the case in practice for countries that want to join the EU as new members, but there isn’t a hard and fast rule for existing members”. So if there isn’t a rule there isn’t really anything stopping the UK as an EU member from leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. So Brexit or not these rights are at risk, we need to work together to maintain them.

The second part to this is the International Labour organisations role in protecting workers rights. The Leave Alliance makes the argument that apart from some “fringe entitlements” that the EU gives us it is really down to global bodies that workers rights are protected. Even if the rights that the EU gives to the UK that are threatened there are two things to take into account. The ILO will probably agree to a similar right soon anyway and we have trade unions there protect the existing workers rights.

Sources:

https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-and-human-rights/

http://leavehq.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=72

Torrin Wilkins

Written by

Director of the Centre Think Tank, Chair of Liberal Leave and studies politics at Aberystwyth University.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade