Thread by @stand_for_all

Thread: Once upon a time #humanrights were supported across political parties, across other ideologies. Now we have members of the House of Lords calling for the UK to leave not only human rights conventions, but the refugee convention. #HumanRightsDay2022, #r4today 1/

Attacking #HumanRights weakens them for everyone, not just people you don't like. More than that though, by weakening them here we risk also compounding a global undermining of human rights. There's nothing "democratic" or "taking back control" about forcing people to suffer. 3/

Certain people keep claiming that human rights laws are preventing the UK from deporting "dangerous criminals". Declines in enforced removals, which are now going up again, have nothing to do with any magic legal loophole used by "lefty lawyers". 4/
gov.uk/government/sta…

Only the other week Nick Timothy, former advisor to Theresa May who famously lied about human rights preventing removals, co-wrote a report which was widely condemned for many reasons, including its call to deny asylum seekers #humanrights. 5/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/d…

The big one which they seem to have an issue with is the right not to be tortured or face inhumane or degrading treatment. To risk deporting people to face that would make most people step back and reconsider, rather than call it a "loophole". 6/
independent.co.uk/independentpre…

Both @Conservatives and @UKLabour have claimed though that they should be able to "fast track" returns to "safe countries", the problem is that those countries might not actually be safe for those being returned to them. 7/
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

If we take Albania as an example, as Albanians are facing attacks from all sides right now. Albania is a lovely country, but for many Albanians it isn't safe. When there is official complicity in trafficking they have no protection from trafficking. 8/
state.gov/reports/2022-t…

Imagine saying that domestic abuse victims should be sent back to the partner abusing them because you personally always found them to be okay, and yes I know that happens a lot. Sending trafficking victims back to their countries of origin is that on a geopolitical scale. 9/

There's no evidence people are "gaming* human rights and modern slavery laws on some grand scale, as highlighted here by @sianushka. Rather we're getting better at identifying victims of trafficking, which is undermined by attacking them. 10/
bylinetimes.com/2022/12/09/lit…

This isn't a uniquely UK based issue. Only this week @maybulman and @LHreports demonstrated evidence of significant human rights abuses being carried out with the knowledge of EU authorities. 11/
lighthousereports.nl/investigation/…

Attacks on #HumanRights aren't based on evidence. They are instead based on a shift in ideology. This has serious consequences, with rhetoric already putting people at risk even before laws to remove rights have been enacted. 12/
theguardian.com/law/2022/dec/0…

It isn't "virtue signalling" to defend human rights. Once the Conservatives stood up to protect them, including with creating the very Modern Slavery Act this government wants to destroy. 13/
legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/….

Even the @ukhomeoffice's own analysis shows that by enacting harsher asylum policies you risk increasing exploitation. Nothing about doing so helps stop trafficking. Rather it enables it. 14/
freemovement.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

Defending #HumanRights shouldn't be party politics. It should be something we all do, if only out of self interest if nothing else. You have to be supremely confident that you will never need them to see human rights laws eroded, and no-one can be that confident. 15/

Countries which have removed rights under the guise of "the will of the people" and "retaining sovereignty" have a habit of ceasing to be democracies rather quickly. That's something which should concern all of us. 16/
#HumanRightsDay2022