Everybody is talking about human rights

14 May 2015 by Adam Wagner

As I am sure will not have escaped you, these are interesting times for human rights. We still await the detailed Conservative proposals for replacing the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights, so it is difficult with any certainty what will happen.

I wanted to gather together a few pieces of commentary and media appearances I have done in the past week, so here they are. We will, of course, be following closely what comes next.

• Victoria Derbyshire Show, BBC2, 12 May 2015 – I debated Conservative MP Peter Bone on whether we need to reform human rights, and there were interesting Skype interventions too.
• Independent, 5 ways to win the human rights debate, 13 May 2015
• Times Red Box (A bill of rights may be more trouble than it’s worth for the Tories), 12 May 2015 – I think you will need to be a subscriber to read this.
• RightsInfo, The Election Result Means Big Changes Are Coming For Human Rights, 8 May 2015
• BBC’s The Big Questions (iPlayer) on Sunday 10th was about human rights are religion. It was recorded before the Election results. Don’t hold your breath for me to speak – it happens about 30 minutes in.

There has been a huge amount more already. Some illuminating pieces (certainly not comprehensive):

• David Allen Green on Michael Gove and Tories and civil liberties: the fascinating appointment of Dominic Raab (requires sign in)
• Matthew Scott in the Telegraph
• Dr Mark Elliott generally and particularly on the relevance of the devolved nations to the debate (and here) and on the Tory government plans
• Why human rights reform could trip up Michael Gove by the ever lucid Joshua Rozenberg – I hope Michael Gove is reading this one.