‘Conservatives today are sceptical of the Human Rights Act’, finds an August 2017 Bright Blue report.
Fighting for Freedom (pdf) explores the development and importance of human rights in England. In particular, it examines the historical and philosophical relationship between conservatism and human rights.
The report identifies three main options for reforming the UK’s human rights legal framework:
- The UK repeals the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), withdraws from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and adopts a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (BBRR)
- The UK repeals the HRA but does not withdraw from the ECHR, and adopts a BBRR
- The UK does not pursue the proposal: it does not repeal the HRA and does not withdraw from the ECHR.
This report is an argument for the third option: against embarking upon any major legislative reform of the UK’s human rights framework, and against withdrawal from the ECHR.
