Here are the terms of reference for Sue Gray’s report, as published. H/t @GAVClaw
No matter how much the PM & govt repeat the mantra “Sue Gray”, this is an internal report that cannot and should not bear the weight of establishing what is now required.
Thank you to all the peers who are showing great commitment & integrity as they stay late to knock back some of the disturbing provisions in the #PolicingBill, despite govt attempts to prevent scrutiny by scheduling.
This is no way to run a democracy. But the govt knows that.
No pretence, no disguise left. Hong King’s National Security Law is being used as a tool to silence expression, crush dissent. One of HK’s most senior barristers is arrested again, as part of another crackdown, this time on @StandNewsHK where she was formerly a board member.
Nothing to see here. Only Hong Kong’s second most senior politician trampling over a free press, protected under Hong Kong’s Basic Law by the ICCPR, without qualms.
#Egypt BHRC considers the continued prosecution & detention of activist @alaa, human rights lawyer Mohammed El Baqer & blogger Mohamed Oxygen are emblematic of the profound rule of law crisis.
Here is Laila Soueif in the @nytimes y’day on her jailed son.
Verdicts today.
We @BarHumanRights stand w/ the legal community & in solidarity with human rights lawyer Mohammed El Baqer, founder of Adalah Centre for Rights & Freedoms, as he awaits a verdict today in Egypt’s security court, on baseless charges. His client, @alaa & Oxygen should all be freed.
There is so much political chaos & distraction that we often don’t see the detail of what govt does.
The promised warm welcome to Afghans has not materialised, the Afghan resettlement scheme is still not open, & today govt has made it harder for Afghans to seek safety here.
See this detailed legal opinion by @UNHCRUK on #BordersBill. UNHCR warns it undermines the Refugee Convention, the policies would risk the lives & wellbeing of vulnerable people & would undermine govt stated goal of improving protection for those at risk. unhcr.org/uk/615ff04d4.p…
Dominic Raab’s long campaign against the Human Rights Act takes shape in a cynical attempt to water down rights protections, including for some of the most vulnerable in our society, under the nationalist guise of reframing arguments about what is ‘quintessentially British’. A 🧵
2. Although i need to read the details of the proposals, there are multiple alarm bells in this piece by a sitting Justice Secretary. It is hard to square any ‘common sense’ justification with the severe & regressive bills on rights before Parliament.
3. Current bills before Parliament:
-impair our right to meaningful protest
- permit citizenship to be summarily removed without notice
- violate the spirit & letter of our international legal obligations to asylum seekers
- introduce a controversial electoral Bill on voter ID.
“While the whole country is still compulsively debating whether, when, & how often its Prime Minister has lied and cheated…this government is hammering away at the very foundations of what Britain once stood for more than any other country: liberal democracy.” @annettedittert
We have had far too little focused debate on the detail of draconian legislation put forward by govt, ramming it through Parliament with a huge majority & little scrutiny. Protest rights, citizenship, electoral ID, refugees & aconstant chipping away at the separation of powers.
The comparisons with Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) party in Poland, which won an absolute majority in 2015, and its subsequent “assault on the two pillars of any democracy – the judiciary & media” - are important. We assume it can’t happen in our democracy.