The Peace Party is grateful to Human Rights Watch for reminding us of the erosion of human rights currently in progress in the UK:
“To say the United Kingdom government was busy over the past week would be a classic British understatement. It steamrollered through parliament four separate pieces of legislation that will do real harm to people’s rights.”

“The government’s attacks on civil liberties and the frameworks protecting them, alongside its failure to meaningfully address an escalating cost-of-living crisis, add up to a grim picture for human rights protection in the UK.”

“The Nationality and Borders Bill effectively dismantles the UK’s asylum and refugee law regime, criminalizes asylum seekers, sets up a fundamentally discriminatory structure, and lays the legal groundwork for pushbacks and offshore refugee processing. It also makes stripping citizenship easier.”

“The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, imposes new restrictions on peaceful protest, increases protest-related fines and sentences, and strengthens police powers to crack down on “unauthorized encampments” which risks exacerbating discrimination against Traveller, Roma, and Gypsy people.”

“The Elections Bill’s plans to introduce voter identification requirements, which creates a real risk of disenfranchisement on the basis of socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity, will go ahead without a clear demonstration about how the new powers are proportionate, or indeed necessary. The bill also gives the government power to set the priorities of the Electoral Commission, the elections watchdog, creating fears for its independence.”

“New measures in the Judicial Review and Courts Bill will limit the extent to which people who fear their rights are affected by immigration or social security decisions can challenge them in the courts.”

In its statement, Human Rights Watch concludes,

“Imagine for a second how much less bleak the outlook would be if the government dedicated half the energy and legislative effort to improving living standards and rights protections as it has done to watering them down.”

The “Acceptance of the Rights of Others” is one of the eight Pillars of Peace identified by the Institute for Economics and Peace. One Pillar threatened makes the work of the Peace Party that bit harder.