The human rights debate

Sir Geoffrey Bindman calls on the government to defend the Human Rights Act

To defend the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) it is necessary to counter the falsehoods and distortions of those who misrepresent it. Regrettably the prime minister himself is among those who have done so, as well as more predictable elements of the media, particularly the Daily Mail.

A recent event that has unleashed misdirected criticism against HRA 1998 is the upholding by immigration judges of an appeal against deportation by an Iraqi asylum seeker who seven years previously had tragically killed a child while driving a car. After a long campaign by the child’s father, the home secretary belatedly sought the return to Iraq of the motorist, Mohammed Ibrahim.

The designated immigration judge found that his removal would violate Art 8 of the European Human Rights Convention, enforceable in domestic UK law