As the Conservative government's Rwanda bill enters the crucial committee stage, the United Kingdom is about to cross the Rubicon. The proposed legislation would prevent key sections of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act from being applied in Britain, and threatens to erode the rule of law globally.
EDINBURGH – Last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made an astonishing admission: the United Kingdom would have all but abandoned the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were it not for the intervention of the Rwandan government. I cannot imagine any previous Conservative leader – from Winston Churchill, an early advocate of the ECHR, to John Major – ever suggesting that Rwanda, a country with one of the world’s worst human-rights records, should serve as Britain’s moral compass.
EDINBURGH – Last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made an astonishing admission: the United Kingdom would have all but abandoned the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were it not for the intervention of the Rwandan government. I cannot imagine any previous Conservative leader – from Winston Churchill, an early advocate of the ECHR, to John Major – ever suggesting that Rwanda, a country with one of the world’s worst human-rights records, should serve as Britain’s moral compass.