Hoping lawyers, civil society & MPs examine carefully the #RetainedEULawBill. It will hand sweeping power to the executive over critical areas of people’s lives like workers rights, environmental & consumer protections, with alarming implications for legal certainty & stability.
If it feels like Groundhog Day, that’s because it is. But this is not an argument about Brexit.

We have left the EU. That doesn’t enable a free pass for any govt of the day to deregulate in an arbitrary way.

The risks of unintended consequences, at the very least, are high.
This is a really excellent @commonslibrary background briefing which I would urge people to read carefully.

Warning: It’s hot towel over head territory. It is dry & helps to consider substantive examples in workers rights or environmental protections . commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…
Important for Conservative backbenchers as well as Opposition parties to pick this up quickly & understand the details. I am willing to assist those who might like to set the technical detail against the substance & reality of what this Bill actually means in its current form.

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More from @WomaninHavana

Jul 1
As Hong Kong marks 25 years since the handover from Britain, the rapid & undisguised transformation of Hong Kong just 2 years after the National Security Law was imposed sees the fears confirmed in this piece I wrote in 2020 for @prospect_uk. prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/why-h…
This is an excellent deep dive into how Hong Kong has been transformed by China into a landscape where journalists, lawyers, elected democrats, unions & civil society operate in a climate of fear or are silenced by the State in a harsh crackdown on rights and freedoms.
The pace of change has been sharp. Even as John Lee, former security chief is sworn in as Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive, the crackdown extends in all directions, even on labour rights. Whatever Xi Jinping claims about democracy in #HongKong today, the reality is undisguised.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 23
Woke up early to read Raab’s Bill of Rights Bill, wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when I started reading the dangerous tangle of incoherence, like some teenage anti-HRA wish list & then saw @ProfMarkElliott had written a blog. Read it. It’s brilliant.
publiclawforeveryone.com/2022/06/22/the…
One point that really struck me when I read this Bill was on international law.

We don’t seem to have a government that understands its obligations in international law at the moment - see NI Protocol, Rwanda, WTO scandals just from last week.

And now this Bill of Rights Bill.
However much Raab wants to constrain UK courts in their interpretation & application of the ECHR as a matter of domestic law, the UK is still bound by its treaty obligations as a matter of international law. That remains true so long as the UK remains a party to the Convention.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 21
As the Bill of Rights is due to be published, a piece I wrote when the latest #HRA review was announced.

“The championing of parliamentary control sits uncomfortably alongside this government’s consistent attempts to bypass scrutiny and accountability…” prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/a-hum…
A reminder that the govt effectively ignored the IHRAR, the previously commissioned independent review of the #HumanRightsAct, which made clear there was no proper basis for the narrative that judges are out of control, nor that groundless human rights claims are proliferating.
Govt didn’t much like those conclusions & commissioned a new consultation for a Bill of Rights last December.

Some 12,483 individual responses were received in response to the consultation which ended on 7 March. They have not been published by the MoJ. h/t @BIHRhumanrights.
Read 21 tweets
Jun 14
Tonight’s ECtHR intervention is a measure granted only exceptionally where there’s a “real risk of irreversible harm”.

That no removal should take place until 3 weeks after the final domestic decision is the common sense this govt so often mentions in the human rights context.
On a day when the UK Prime Minister’s attacks on lawyers have led the leaders of the profession to issue a strong statement, where Johnson has unleashed at least a question mark over the ECHR itself, this is a confrontation his govt has brought on itself - perhaps foreseeably.
Where culture war meets Brexit goals, this is the day after the govt claims preservation of the Good Friday Agreement forms part of a barely plausible justification for its #NIProtocol Bill.

Meanwhile,the GFA expressly preserves the ECHR, & direct enforceability, as a safeguard.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 12
This powerful piece by @Lees_Martina reconstructs the horrifying tragedy of Grenfell & explains why, 5 years on, 640k people still live in flammable flats & up to 4.2million are trapped in #claddingscandal created by govt failures, corporate wrongdoing & regulatory incompetence.
When you read the painful details of the multiple failures which led to tragedy of Grenfell, & when you have personally experienced the fallout as millions of us have, it’s been very hard to believe that we live in a country, properly regulated, that values people over profits.
I want to thank those journalists who have kept asking questions, supporting Grenfell families who still wait for justice, & those millions trapped in the #claddingscandal. Without you, this would have vanished from public sight, esp @PeteApps @insidehousing @Lees_Martina.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 7
British journalist Dom Philips remains missing in the Amazon following threats. Situation alarming.

@FCDOHumanRights @trussliz @ukinbrazil @mhopkinsfco must work with @jairbolsonaro govt to act urgently now.

Thanks to Brazil & @Everton striker Richarlison for lending his voice.
Part of an important thread which shows why the highest level urgent intervention by the Brazilian authorities is needed. The terrain, the drug trafficking routes & illegal mining make this an operation fraught with danger & difficulty.

Dom Philips & Bruno Pereira need help now.
If you haven’t read any of @domphillips excellent environmental journalism over the last decade or so, this is as good as any to understand his valuable work.

A sobering reminder of the intolerable threats journalists face globally.

Be safe, Dom & Bruno.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Read 10 tweets

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