Opinion piece. Docklands and East London Advertiser; Barking and Dagenham Post. 11 Sept 2025
I never thought I would see the day in this country when ‘Human Rights Lawyer’ became a term of abuse. The sentiment finds expression in growing demands to pull out of the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), a move slammed by Humanists UK as ‘dangerous and divisive.’
Reform leads the charge. They argue it is essential to withdraw from this and other international agreements on torture and human trafficking so that asylum seekers can be rounded up and deported on a mass scale. In their wake, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch anticipates they too will advocate pulling out following a review. Meanwhile, former Labour Home Secretaries David Blunkett and Jack Straw have advocated ‘suspending’ or ‘decoupling’ from it. It’s worth remembering their complicity in the catastrophic interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, from where so many refugees have fled.
Turning our back on the Convention would take us into the territory of despotic regimes such as Russia and Belarus. Some say this is nonsense – that we can still uphold human rights without being part of a convention which ‘ties our hands’ on immigration. Such arguments are blind to history and the character of those who want to turn back the clock.
The ECHR emerged from World War II and the slaughter of millions because of their ethnicity, religion, disability, sexuality or political beliefs. Those who witnessed these horrors vowed ‘never again.’ As then Conservative leader Winston Churchill said in 1948 “In the centre of our movement stands the idea of a Charter of Human Rights, guarded by freedom and sustained by law.” International cooperation, fairness and humanity remain the keys to tackling the issue of mass migration.
Some will say these are different times and the ECHR is no longer fit for purpose. Actually, persecution and bigotry have not gone away. Does anyone honestly believe the fate of the vulnerable and minorities will be safer under the oversight of those who now rubbish the Convention and its values?
Withdrawing would put us all at risk. Without it the Hillsborough victims would never have got justice. It’s been used to fight for victims of domestic violence let down by police and disabled veterans facing Government discrimination. For Humanists, it paved the way for teaching non-religious views in schools and non-religious patients accessing pastoral care.
As the song says, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’
Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists
