DPP attacks Tory policy on Human Rights Act
Director of public prosecutions attacks current Conservative policy on Human Rights Act
Thursday, 22, Oct 2009 11:47
By Richard James.
The director of public prosecutions has attacked current Conservative policy on the Human Rights Act.
The Tories have called for a scrapping of the law, with David Cameron stating in the past it "flies in the face of common sense", and replacing it with a bill of rights.
The Act came into UK law in 2000 aimed at formally setting out citizens' most basic rights.
There has been some criticism though that the law has allegedly prevented the extradition of foreign prisoners and allowed terrorism suspects to take refuge in Britain.
Keir Starmer, however, described the rights set out in the Act as "basic and fundamental" in a speech last night.
"I find myself in difficulty when I hear talk of the need to 're-engineer' or 'rebalance' the criminal justice system. Such talk usually emerges after a particularly questionable decision which receives undue notoriety," he said.
"Usually this has a thread back to the Human Rights Act of how a victim's rights have been trampled on by an almost Orwellian spectre of European-inspired legislation.
"It would be to this country's shame if we lost the clear and basic statement of our citizens' human rights provided by the Human Rights Act on the basis of a fundamentally flawed analysis of their origin and relevance to our society."
In a speech at the Royal Society of Medicine in London he said the Act had become such a central part of people's lives that it was now taken for granted.
"Human rights do not mysteriously disappear if one is a victim of a crime. Human rights do not recognise any form of boundary," he added.
"Contrary to what appears to be a widely-held, but ill-informed, view, human rights do not magically appear when a suspect is stopped on the street; or is arrested; or is charged; or is prosecuted; or when they appear in court."
The Conservatives have said they will abolish the Act if elected in next year's general election, replacing it with a new bill of rights.
Justice secretary Jack Straw has backed Mr Starmer's comments and attacked the Tories' plans.
"What Mr Starmer has said underlines what Dominic Grieve knows but daren't say: that Tory plans make no sense at all," he said.
"The Tories' dogmatic opposition to the Human Rights Act makes a mockery of their claims to be progressive."