European Convention on Human Rights: 75th Anniversary

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Lords Chamber

Question

14:58

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede) (Lab)]

My Lords, this year marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, known as the ECHR. This Government are proud that the UK was one of the original drafters of the ECHR and will use the anniversary to illustrate our renewed commitment to the international human rights framework and the rule of law.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for that excellent reply—eventually. Will he and the Government involve my noble friend Lord Touhig, the leader of our delegation, and other Members in the plans? Can he confirm yet again that our Government believe in the integrity of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and particularly that, unlike the previous Government, we will not renege on our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I am happy to give my noble friend the assurances he is looking for. We would be happy to consult him and my noble friend Lord Touhig on the events which we will organise during the coming year for the anniversary of the signing of the ECHR. My noble friend may be interested to know that I was chairman of the celebration of the ECHR’s 50th anniversary, and it is something that I am very pleased that I did.

[Viscount Hailsham (Con)]

Does the Minister accept my concern that the court is becoming increasingly interventionist and is making decisions in areas which should properly be left to national Parliaments, and that where this is happening national Parliaments have very limited ability to modify or reverse those decisions?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

The Government support the European convention, but we want to work constructively within the convention as laws develop within it. We want to have a constructive, long-term approach that we can properly celebrate in this anniversary year.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

Ending the ban on gay people in the military, ending teachers hitting children in schools in Scotland, ending the retention for life of DNA samples of innocent people, ending the persecution of gay people in Northern Ireland because of their sexuality, and ending the practice of imprisoning and hospitalising autistic people are all areas in which campaigners have had to fight, but they are rights provided by virtue of our membership of the convention. Does the Minister agree that perhaps some of the people who now believe most strongly that it has been interventionist take for granted the benefits that it has provided for citizens of the United Kingdom?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question and agree with everything he said. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have been clear that this Government are committed to the international human rights framework and that we will never withdraw from the ECHR. The noble Lord’s points are well made.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, last year, the European court ruled that Switzerland violated the ECHR by failing to adequately address climate change. This was just the latest example of judicial overreach by the court. I am pleased to say that there was an excoriating dissenting opinion from the UK-appointed judge. Does the Minister agree that this is a dangerous precedent to set? Will he commit to working with other democratic European countries that have also expressed concern to ensure that substantive reforms to the system are progressed?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

My Lords, the incoming Secretary-General of the Council of Europe is a Swiss national and former Swiss president. I am sure he will be very well versed on the issue which the noble Lord raises. It is right that we want to work with the European convention in trying to address environmental problems. That is a body of law that is currently being developed. The Government are committed to that, and we will work within the various European agencies to develop that body of law.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, Articles 10 and 8 of the convention protect our rights in respect of family life and private life and freedom of expression. The Minister will be aware that the former Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, Professor Fraser Sampson, and the European court itself expressed grave concern about mass surveillance in the United Kingdom by Hikvision cameras and about the increase in surveillance generally. Will the Minister take the opportunity of this anniversary to undertake to look again at whether we are sufficiently compliant with Articles 8 and 10?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question. I remember dealing with those types of questions while I was an Opposition Minister in the Home Office. Whether Articles 8 and 10 are indeed breached by these cameras is a very live question; they are everywhere and they are being used in ways that we do not always understand. The noble Lord makes a good point.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, in the interest of cross-party amity—an ambition that I know my noble friend Lord Foulkes of Cumnock shares—it is important when celebrating something as significant as the ECHR’s founding to assign credit where it is due. Given that Churchill called the ECHR into being, David Maxwell Fyfe and Harold Macmillan were instrumental in its drafting, and Margaret Thatcher described our membership as “common sense”, will my noble friend the Minister strain every nerve to ensure that the Conservative Party is given due prominence and credit as we celebrate this anniversary?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I am happy to agree with what my noble friend said. I want to mention one other name, that of my former honourable friend Terry Davis MP, who has died, and whose funeral is at the end of this month. He was Secretary-General of the Council of Europe between 2004 and 2009.

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the anniversary would be a good opportunity to dispel the myths just promoted by the noble Lord, Lord Browne, that this was a purely British or Conservative invention, and to recall that the Attlee Government reluctantly agreed to sign the ECHR only on the basis that the court would not have jurisdiction in the UK as British citizens would not be allowed to take cases to it? It was a policy continued a few months later by Winston Churchill, when he came into power. Both were presciently advised of the risk to which the noble Viscount, Lord Hailsham, recently pointed: that it was inconceivable that any Government would take the risk of entrusting to an international court legislative powers that Parliament would never entrust to the courts of this country.

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

The original Treaty of London was on display at Blenheim Palace on 18 July when European Ministers were meeting. We were proud that that treaty was on show. It is a symbol of the originating nature of the British Parliament in the founding of the treaty and something of which we should be very proud.

[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

Will my noble friend the Minister confirm that one of the really important virtues of the European court is that it protects the human rights of people in member states with poorer records than our own?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I am very happy to agree with what my noble friend has said.

[Lord Polak (Con)]

My Lords, Article 9 of the ECHR guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The impact of the Saturday pro-Palestinian marches on central London synagogues has been severe, leading to dropping attendance, intimidation, disruption of services and the forced cancellation of events. The next march is scheduled for 18 January, close to the Central Synagogue. Will the Minister work with police to move the start location of the march far enough away so that families can go to and leave synagogues in safety?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question. It is a matter for the Metropolitan Police. If appropriate, I will draw his comments to the Met’s attention.

[The Lord Bishop of Southwark]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the benefit of ongoing membership of the ECHR is, among other things, that it is vital for the continuation of the Belfast agreement?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question. He is right that the Good Friday agreement is underpinned by the convention, and it is important that that should continue.