Do we go or do we stay?
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is an international convention designed to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. It was drafted shortly after the Second World War, the UK having a major influence on the drafting of the convention. It has no relationship to the European Union, which the UK left in 2020. Members of the current Conservative Party are campaigning to leave the convention in order to ease the deportation of illegal migrants and refugees, yet it is hard to see which of the list of human rights they are thinking of. By making deportation easier, the hope is that this will deter other people from attempting the journey.
A Brief History
The ECHR was initially set up to prevent the repeat of the most serious human rights violations carried out during the Second World War, and to protect the member states of the Council of Europe from dark, communism. The main rights are listed here. Wikipedia has a very comprehensive entry on it
- the right to life (Article 2)
- freedom from torture (Article 3)
- freedom from slavery (Article 4)
- the right to liberty (Article 5)
- the right to a fair trial (Article 6)
